Technique Style Guide

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This is an attempt at correcting The Technique's style guide.

Contents 1 Capitalization 1.1 Capitalize: 1.2 Do Not Capitalize: 2 Abbreviations 3 Numerals 4 Punctuation 4.1 Period 4.2 Do Not Use Period 4.3 Comma 4.4 Do Not Use Comma 4.5 Semicolon 4.6 Colon 4.7 Apostrophe 4.8 Do Not Use Apostrophe 4.9 Dash 4.10 Hyphen 4.11 Do Not Hyphenate 4.12 Parentheses 4.13 Quotation Marks 4.14 Do Not Use Quotation Marks 4.15 Other Punctuation with Quotation Marks 5 Titles 6 Words 7 Sentences 8 Paragraphs 9 Other Notes 10 External links

[edit] Capitalization

[edit] Capitalize:

1. All proper nouns and proper nouns used as adjectives.
   Wayne Clough, British people, Atlanta
2. All titles that precede names, but not those that follow names.
   Governor Zell Miller Zell Miller, governor of Georgia
3. Figures of speech used in place of literal names.
   Peach State, Golden Tornado
4. The first word in a sentence and the first word in a direct quotation.
   Tomorrow we go to town.
“We are good,” said Chan Gailey.
5. Names of months and days of the week.
6. Entire names of streets, avenues, etc.
   Fifth Street, Brittain Drive
7. Entire names of buildings, theaters, parks, schools, etc.
   Administration Building, Fox Theater
8. The first word following a colon when the word begins a complete passage or sentence, but not when it begins a mere listing.
   He summarized as follows: Two new...
The following are eligible: seniors,
9. All college schools, departments, courses.
   School of Physics, Management 3000
10. Nouns referring to political parties and religious affiliations, but not to political philosophies.
    Communist, but not communism
11. Titles of bills, acts and government plans or programs, including student government.
    Marshall Plan, Student Capital Campaign
12. Sports conferences, major athletic events
    Atlantic Coast Conference, Peach Bowl
13. Holidays and special events
    Fourth of July, Engineer’s Week
14. Geographical names
15. Names of all nationalities and races.
16. Sections of the country, but not points of the compass.
    The South, the Middle West, east, north
17. Names of national bodies, buildings, etc.
    Capitol, Interstate Commerce Commission
18. Nicknames of athletic clubs and teams.
    Yellow Jackets, Hawks
19. Names of organizations, clubs, and societies.
    Glee Club, Delta Chi fraternity
20. Names of school and governmental committees, bodies and boards.

[edit] Do Not Capitalize:

1. Words such as former and ex- when used with a title.
   former Governor Jimmy Carter
2. Names of college studies except names of languages and specific courses.
   thermodynamics, Spanish, IE
3. College degrees when spelled out
   bachelor of science
4. Words denoting divisions of real estate, laws, documents, etc.
   lot 22, room 317, paragraph 1
5. Names of college classes
   senior, freshman, graduate
6. The word fraternity or sorority
   Phi Mu sorority, Delta Sigma Phi fraternity
7. Names of seasons
8. "The" before many publications
9. Prepositions, conjunctions and articles in titles unless:
   1. they are the first word in the line or the beginning of the title or
   2. they consist of five or more letters.

[edit] Abbreviations

1. Never use an abbreviation that would be unintelligible to the average reader. No periods are used.
   IFC, ODK, YMCA, KA
2. The first time a name is used it should be used completely spelled.
3. Abbreviate the following always:
   Dr., Mr., Mrs., the Rev.
4. Do not abbreviate other titles.
5. Never abbreviate names of states of foreign countries.
6. Never abbreviate days of week, months by themselves (not part of a date), street, avenue, boulevard, building article, paragraph, railroad, railway, district.
7. Abbreviate "number" before a figure
   No. 24
8. Abbreviate "Saint," "Mount" and "Fort" in proper names.
9. Abbreviate years only when referring to college classes.
10. Abbreviate college degrees when they appear after a person's name.
    Jody Shaw, PhD.
11. Do not abbreviate a firm's title unless it abbreviates the word in its title.

[edit] Numerals

1. Use figures of numbers of ten or larger, including ordinal numbers. Remember not to use superscripts with ordinals.
   23, 32ndTemplate:Exception
2. Use figures to indicate dollars until one million dollars is reached, then use numbers and a dollar sign.
   $200, $13 million
3. Use figures for house numbers, years, days, latitude and longitude, betting odds, votes, scores, highways, routes, times and room numbers.
4. Use figures for numbered streets (10th or over)
5. Write 7 p.m. and $4 not 7:00 p.m. and $4.00.
6. Spell out approximations.
   About a thousandth, hundred, million
7. Spell out numbers referring to historic periods.
   The early nineties, a forty-niner
8. Spell out common fractions, except when they follow figures.
   one-half, 15 1/4
9. Spell out numbers at the beginning of a sentence.
   Three hundred protestors attended the rally.
10. Use a comma for numbers of four digits and larger.

[edit] Punctuation

[edit] Period

1. At the end of every declaratory sentence.
2. After abbreviations that are not capitalized as a general rule.
3. As a decimal point.
4. Three periods to form an ellipse to show words have been omitted.
   This generation...is going to hell.

[edit] Do Not Use Period

1. After folio titles, chapter and paragraph headings, headlines and individual members in a table of contents or any other tabulation.
2. After chemical symbols.
3. After abbreviations no longer regarded as such.

[edit] Comma

1. After a participial or infinitive phrase placed at the beginning of a sentence.
2. After a long, involved adverbial clause at the beginning of sentence.
3. When the conjunction is omitted between words or phrases.
4. Before and after non-restrictive and explanatory phrases and clauses.
5. In addresses.
6. After “said” preceding a quotation. Or before “said” when following a quotation.
7. To separate elements that might otherwise become confused.
8. To set off appositives.
9. To set off parenthetical phrases.
10. To set off an absolute construction
    The weather being bad, we stayed at home.
11. To set off such introductory phrases as “that is” and “for example.”

[edit] Do Not Use Comma

1. To set off restrictive clauses
2. Before the preposition “of.”
   Jen Schur of Hallandale, Florida Not
   Jen Schur, of Hallandale, Florida.
3. Before Sr., Jr. in someone’s name.
4. Before words “and” and “or” in a list or series.
   Apples, oranges and plums.
5. Between the month and the year when the date is not given.
   September 1981 As opposed to
   September 16,1981
6. To seperate parts of dimensions, weights and measures, time in race, etc.
   50 feet 10 inches, 25 minutes 12 seconds

[edit] Semicolon

1. To separate coordinate clauses that are not joined by a coordinate conjunction
   He went out; I stayed at home.
2. To separate members of a series when the members themselves, or some of them, are broken up by commas.
3. To separate the successive main divisions of an enumeration.
   Jody Shaw, Editor-in-Chief; Tony Kluemper, News Editor; and Derek Haynes, Managing Editor formed the boys club.
4. To separate clauses connected by coordinating conjunctions such as “therefore,” “hence,” “however,” “accordingly” or with internal commas.

[edit] Colon

1. Giving time.
   4:30 p.m.
2. When giving lists preceded by “the following,” “as follows” or a similar expression when a number is used.
   The following were present: Trapold, Santelli, ...
The Pittsburgh writers present were Trapold, Santelli,...

[edit] Apostrophe

1. With “s” to form the possessive of nouns, except those that end in “s,” where an apostrophe is merely added.
   Matt’s bat, girls’ hats
2. In forming the plural of names where the apostrophe is necessary for pronunciation.
3. In forming the plural of figures, symbols and letters.
   4 A’s, 1950’s

[edit] Do Not Use Apostrophe

1. Where the possessive case is understood.
   Veterans Administration
2. In certain possessive pronouns.
   Hers, its, yours, theirs, ours
3. When an original elision is no longer recognized.
   Reck, Gators, phone
4. To spells the plurals of names of fraternities and sororities.
   DXs, AGDs

[edit] Dash

(Technique uses an em dash—made using <s>optionshift-hyphen on the Macintosh</s>)

1. To set off a parenthetical expression.
   President Clough uses satire—mocking, vulgar satire.
2. To denote a break in an incomplete sentence.
   He started, “Bring me—” but the man had left.
3. To denote an unexpected turn in sentiment.
   He was a good judge and very generous—with other people’s time.
4. Before a statement or summary of particulars.
   A solid has three dimensions—length, breadth and thickness.
5. Before an author’s name at the end of a quotation
   “Who steals my purse steals trash.”—Shakespeare

[edit] Hyphen

1. In compound numbers and fractions.
2. To differentiate between words of similar spelling.
   Re-creation and recreation.
3. Between a prefix and a proper noun.
   Anglo-Saxon, anti-Gallic, un-American
4. Between dates.
   July 15-17.
5. In suspended compounds.
   He had several five- and ten-dollar bills.
6. In lengthy compound modifiers preceding the noun.
   A never-to-be-forgotten law of calculus.

[edit] Do Not Hyphenate

1. Popularly accepted words such as coed.
2. The following words: vice president, vice chairman, etc.

[edit] Parentheses

1. To enclose irrelevant and incidental comment.
   These three statesmen (who, by the way, are all dead) possessed great ability.
2. To enclose figures that enumerate divisions of thought.
   The reasons were three: 1) age, 2) health, 3) desire
3. Notice the placement of the period in the following:
   She misuses words (for example, affect and effect).

[edit] Quotation Marks

1. To indicate that the words were said by another person.
   “Hazing is fun,” said Boyd.
2. At the beginning of each paragraph in a quotation of more than one paragraph and at the end of the last series.
3. Use the single quotation marks for quoted matter within a quotatoin, double marks for quoted matter within the single quotes.
4. For subjects of lectures, movies and articles in periodicals and names of plays.
5. To enclose a nickname used together with a real given name and surname.
   Jonathan “Freddie” Smith

[edit] Do Not Use Quotation Marks

1. For common nicknames.
2. For names of newspaper, periodicals, dogs, automobiles, etc.

[edit] Other Punctuation with Quotation Marks

1. The comma and the period are always placed inside the final quotation marks.
2. The semicolon and colon should be placed outside the final quotation marks unless they form a part of the quoted matter.
3. The explanation point and the interrogation point should be inside the final quotation marks when part of the quotation; otherwise, they go outside.

[edit] Titles

1. Always give first and last names or initials and last name of a person the first time they appear in a story.
2. Never use only one initial; use both or first name.
3. Never use Mr. or Mrs. with initials or first name.
4. Give the title “professor” only to members of the faculty of professional rank. If in doubt, consult the student-faculty directory.
   Professor Kirk Bowman, Dean Karen Boyd, Danielle McDonald

[edit] Words

1. Avoid words that are likely to be unfamiliar to the average reader unless you explain them in your story.
2. Use slang only when required.
3. Find the one noun to express the idea, the one adjective to qualify it, and the one verb to give it life.

[edit] Sentences

1. Make evident the construction of every sentence.
2. Avoid choppy, disconnected sentences.
3. Put an important idea at the beginning of every sentence.

[edit] Paragraphs

1. The length of a normal paragraph is 2-4 sentences.
2. Put an important idea at the beginning of the first sentence of each paragraph.
3. Avoid beginning successive paragraphs with the same word, phrase or construction.
4. Try not to begin a paragraph with the word “the.”

[edit] Other Notes

1. The body copy of the Technique is 10-point AGaramond.
2. All websites and email addresses should be written in AGaramond Semibold in regular copy or in AGaramond Semibold Italic in an italic field like end-of-story information.
3. Remember to avoid using super scripts with numbers. Write it like this: 27th.
4. The car is the Ramblin’ Wreck, but the club is the Ramblin Reck Club.

[edit] External links

• Old PDF Style Guide