Writing Style Guide

Our Campus Names

• UMass Lowell 
• The university (do not capitalize the standalone word “university” even when referring specifically to this campus)
• The Lowell campus (Do not capitalize “the” unless it’s the first word of the sentence. Do not capitalize “campus” in this usage.)
• The University of Massachusetts Lowell. (In instances where it seems necessary, such as formal partnerships.)
• UML (as a subsequent reference if there are many uses of “UMass Lowell” in a story, or in a direct quote)

Campuses

• Capitalize “North Campus,” “South Campus” and “East Campus.”

Colleges and Schools

• Francis College of Engineering
• College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
  • School of Criminology and Justice Studies
  • School of Education
• Kennedy College of Sciences
  • Miner School of Computer and Information Sciences
• Honors College
• Manning School of Business
• Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences
  • Solomont School of Nursing

Offices

• Office of Marketing and Communications 
• Office of Student Life & Well-being: Note the lower-case b in “Well-being” for this name

River Hawks

• Two words, each capitalized
• Rowdy the River Hawk (with no comma)

Faculty, Staff Titles

• For online-only copy, spell out titles preceding a name: Professor Jane Jones, Associate Professor Elan Rodriguez, etc. (to maintain compliance with web accessibility standards). For print materials, abbreviate titles preceding a name: Prof., Assoc. Prof., etc.
• Titles that precede a name are capitalized (Prof. Thomas Shea, Dean Mary Gallant). Titles that follow a name are written in lower case, as is any mentioned program name. (Thomas Shea, professor of biological sciences; John Smith, dean of students; Jane Brown, director of the study abroad program.) The title of the office or department is capitalized, however (John Smith, dean of the Office of Student Affairs).
• The faculty/staff title and first name are not used after the first reference in an article unless the reference is in a quote. (Prof. Thomas Shea becomes simply Shea.)
• Faculty abbreviations (in print):
  • Prof. Smith
  • Asst. Prof. Smith
  • Assoc. Prof. Smith
  • Assoc. Teaching Prof. Smith
• In most cases, do not use Dr. (just about all faculty members have doctorates). This is especially applicable in Health Sciences, where “Dr.” implies M.D.
• In headlines, spell out “Professor” if you don’t attach a name to it. (Not allowed: “Chemistry Prof. Awarded Grant”) 
• Spell out University Professor and Professor Emeritus as titles: Professor Emeritus Robert Forrant, University Professor Sandra Lim.
• Lecturer and Visiting Lecturer are capped when used as a title before a name, but whenever possible, try to treat these as a descriptor after the name, in lower case. 

Previous Names of the University (in chronological order)

• Lowell Normal School 
• Lowell Textile School 
• State Teachers College at Lowell (replaced Lowell Normal in 1932)
• Lowell Technological Institute (replaced Lowell Textile in 1953)
• Lowell State College (replaced State Teachers College at Lowell in 1968)
• University of Lowell (result of Lowell Tech and Lowell State merger in 1975)
• UMass Lowell (result of ULowell joining UMass system in 1991)

Other Campus-Based Style Guidelines 

Academic Degrees

• He earned a bachelor’s degree. She has a master’s degree in music. He earned a doctorate in philosophy at Yale. (Notice degrees are not capitalized; notice placement of apostrophe.)
  • Exception: associate degree (no apostrophe).
• Bachelor of Arts, Master of Science (note capitalization and lack of apostrophe).
• Use abbreviations such as B.A., M.A., M.F.A., Ph.D., only when identifying many individuals and only after the name. (John Smith, Ph.D. Note placement of comma.) MBA is an exception; do not use periods. 
• Honorary degrees are indicated with an (H) along with the year, separated by a space, with no comma: Steven Chu ’11 (H). See note under Alumni on graduates with more than one graduating year.

Alumni

• Alumnus for individual male graduate. Alumna for individual female graduate. Alumni for groups of graduates, whether male, female or mixed. 
• Year of graduation: John Smith ’86 (space after the name; no comma; forward apostrophe; no parentheses). 
  • For graduates with more than one graduating year, separate years with a comma and list them in chronological order: Jacqueline Moloney ’75, ’92. Do not use a comma following the final listed year: Jacqueline Moloney ’75, ’92 addressed a crowd of students at Homecoming. 
  • List an honorary degree even if a recipient has received an actual degree in the same year: Brian Rist ’77, ’22, ’22 (H). List in chronological order even if an honorary degree falls in the middle: Dan Johnson ’88, ’11 (H), ’17.
  • o If you generate a backward apostrophe before a grad year number, use Microsoft Word’s advanced symbol function to replace it with the forward apostrophe (highlight the backward apostrophe; under the Insert menu or toolbar, choose Advanced Symbol; select the forward apostrophe; click Insert and then Close.)
  • For feature stories in particular, you may sometimes opt not to include a graduating year on a subject’s first reference to retain a punchy or dramatic opening sentence.  In these instances, whenever possible, try to work in the graduation year within the story flow rather than appending it to the name on second reference.
  • Not preferred: John Smith wept. Smith ’86 was overcome with joy at seeing all of his triplet children cross the stage, one after the other, at Commencement.
  • Better: John Smith wept. Smith, a 1986 UMass Lowell graduate, was overcome with joy at seeing all of his triplet children cross the stage, one after the other, at Commencement.

Athletics

• Division I, not Division 1 with a numeral. Similarly, any reference to lower National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) divisions would be Division II (not 2), etc. On second reference or in quotes, you may use D-I, D-II, etc., with the hyphen and no space. There are currently 14 Division I teams at UML.

Chancellor

• Chancellor Julie Chen, in all uses.
• Lowercase chancellor when not used with a name.

Contact Information

• Contact Prof. Jones at ext. 1111. (Abbreviate “extension”.)
• Contact Prof. Jones at John_Jones@uml.edu. (No need to point out it is his email address.)

Current Students

• Use first-year, not freshman, unless “freshman” is used in a quote.

Departments/subjects/programs

• Capitalize departments (the Physics Department, the Mathematics Department). Do NOT capitalize the academic area when the word “Department” is not used. (Prof. Smith of physics)
• Always spell out “department.” Do not abbreviate it.
• Do NOT capitalize the academic subject (He majored in physics. Prof. Smith teaches mathematics. She earned a degree in music.), except for proper nouns such as English.
• “Chair” or “chairman” is acceptable usage. Do not use “chairperson.” 
• Bachelor’s-to-Master’s Program: Upper-case with hyphens.

Events

• Homecoming, Commencement, Convocation: These are always capitalized.

Police

• Use University Police Department or UMass Lowell Police Department (not Campus Police).

UMass President

• Use Marty Meehan in most instances such as news stories and press releases. In more formal uses, such as his signature to a letter, use Martin T. Meehan ’78.
• Use “former U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan,” not “former Congressman Marty Meehan.”
• Lowercase president when not used with a name.

Body Copy

Headlines 

• Headlines should be short, informative, specific and interesting. They should tell the reader what the story is about and be easy to understand. For online stories, headlines should generally be eight words or less. 
• Avoid using the same word or phrase in the headline and subhead.
• Do not use “UMass Lowell” in headlines meant for an internal audience (faculty, staff, students).
• In most cases, you do not need to identify someone as a UMass Lowell professor. 
• Don’t use “Prof” or “Prof.” in a headline; spell out the word “Professor”.
• Headline words that need to be quoted take single quotes (Project ‘Splash’, not Project “Splash.”)
• Lower-case all prepositions and conjunctions, including the “to” in infinitives (to Run, to Leap, to Cavort.)
• Try to avoid using the verb “to be” or its variants (is, are, etc.). Try to find livelier verbs, but if you must use “to be” or its variants, capitalize the “be” element.

Captions

• Captions should do more than identify those in the photo. As briefly as possible, they also should summarize the story in full sentences.
  • Several dozen Lowell teachers met on South Campus recently to describe how they have used “innovative mini-grants” to enhance their students’ learning experience. The participants included, from left, Mary Jones, Suzy Smith and Ann Brown.
• Always say “from left, Person 1…” not “from left to right.” Use commas, not parentheses, around “left” and “right.”
• Avoid using the words “looks on” or “looking on.” If they’re not doing something, simply identify them.
• For captions that are just identifiers without a full sentence, do not end with a period.

Text

• Use the present tense (says, explains, etc., instead of said, explained, etc.).
  • The past tense is appropriate when quoting someone speaking at a news conference or other event at some specific point in time. (Prof. Brown said at the meeting that he would …)
• Avoid saying that so-and-so “thinks” or “hopes” or “believes.” Better to say that so-and-so says he believes, or says she hopes, etc. When quoting someone, delete the “I think” portion of the quote whenever possible.
• Order doesn’t matter when attributing a quote: “Smith says” and “says Smith” are equally acceptable. Likewise, attribution can come anywhere around a quote, including the middle of the quote, but don’t break up a sentence/thought to insert it; the portion of a quote following the attribution should be a new sentence.
  • Wrong: “I painted the mural,” says Smith, “to bring attention to that period of history. Today’s students should know about the past.”
  • Right: “I painted the mural to bring attention to that period of history,” says Smith. “Today’s students should know about the past.”
• Always use a preposition when describing action in a time period.
  • Incorrect: “He got an internship at Teradyne his junior year.”
  • Correct: “He got an internship at Teradyne during his junior year.”
• Do not use ampersands unless they are specifically part of a title or program name; use “and” in all other cases.
• For question-and-answer interviews, the question is bolded; the answer is in normal unbolded text.
  Will there be other SPACE HAUC missions?
  Yes, SPACE HAUC 5 is currently being planned.

Abbreviations

• United Nations (as a noun); U.N. (no space between) as an adjective
• United States (as a noun) U.S. (no space between) only as an adjective
• For print, use Gov. Maura Healey, Sen. Warren, Rep. or U.S. Rep. Trahan (don’t spell out the titles). For online copy, to comply with accessibility standards, spell out the titles (Governor Maura Healey). Do not use “Congressman/woman” as a title.
• OK on first reference: STEM, GPA, app, CEO, IBM, AT&T
• We don’t need to put “U.S.” in front of Army, Navy, etc. We can assume that the Army is ours unless otherwise indicated. 

Composition Titles

Books

• Capitalize and put quotation marks around the names/titles of books (e.g., “The Great Gatsby”), professional journals, operas, plays, movies, albums, songs, television programs, lectures, speeches, scholarly papers, chapters or articles within books and works of art. 
• Exception: No quotes around the Bible or dictionaries, reference works, etc. (e.g., Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary) 

Magazines

• Capitalize the names of magazines, but don’t place them in quotes. 
• Lowercase the word “magazine” unless it is part of the publication’s title. (Time magazine, Harper’s Magazine). Check the magazine’s masthead or website to determine the correct usage.

Newspapers

• Capitalize newspaper titles, but do not place them in quotes. 
• Capitalize the word “The” if it is part of the paper’s name. (I read it in The Boston Globe and in the Chelmsford Independent.) Check the paper’s website for its masthead to determine the correct usage.

Course Names

• Capitalize course titles: Introduction to Calculus. No quotes. No italics.

Dates and Times

• Abbreviate months when referring to specific dates (Sept. 12) but spell out the month otherwise (the September meeting, in September 1998). 
• Do not abbreviate March, April, May, June and July.
• Write Jan. 10 or March 1 or June 2 (not Jan. 10th or March 1st or June 2nd). Never use “th,” “st” or “nd” with dates.
• Do not abbreviate days of the week except in the preparation of calendars and other such specialized assignments.
• Hyphenate “century” as an adjective: the greatest 21^st-century football players.
• a.m., p.m.: Always use periods and lower-case.
• Write 3 p.m., not 3:00 p.m. Use minutes only if the time is not on the hour (3:15 p.m.)
• Write noon or midnight. (Not 12 noon or 12 midnight.)
• When a.m. or p.m. has been used, do not add “in the morning/evening.”
• In stories, write out time ranges if you’ve used “from”: from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Otherwise, hyphenate time ranges, with only one use of a.m./p.m. unless the range includes both: 3-4 p.m., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (Make sure it’s a hyphen, not an en or em dash.)

Money

• Write $1, not $1.00.
• Write $300,000, not three hundred thousand dollars or $300K (the K reference is fine for headlines).
• Write $4 million, not four million dollars, $4,000,000 or $4M (the M reference is fine for headlines).
• For foreign currency, use the word as a descriptor, but do not use the symbol: 300 euros and 400 yen, not €300 or ¥400.

Names

• Use a person’s personal preference for their name. If they prefer a nickname or informal usage (e.g., Jim vs. James), use it. 

Numbers

• AP style is zero through nine spelled out, 10 and higher as numbers. Exceptions: Spell out numbers used in idiomatic or casual expressions – e.g., A picture is worth a thousand words. Also, note the AP usage of the numeral in expressions such as 5-year-old.
• Numbers that begin a sentence are always spelled out: Fourteen students attended the conference in person, while another 17 watched on Zoom.
• Fractions are spelled out and hyphenated when less than 1: one-half, two-thirds, etc. Above 1, use the numeral without a hyphen if the fraction is specific: 3½. In either instance, use a decimal if it’s not specific: 0.77, 4.232. (Fraction signs can be found in Word by choosing the Insert menu, clicking on Symbol at the far right, and choosing More Symbols. The most basic options – ¼, ½ and ¾ – can be found at the Latin-1 Supplement subset; other more specialized fractions can be found at the Number Forms subset.)
• Use the percent sign rather than spelling out “percent”: e.g., 10.5%. For a range, use a to or from/to construction, not a hyphenated range, and ensure that the percent sign is on both numbers.
  • Incorrect: Smith estimated that 10-15% of the students would be eligible for the Honors College.
  • Correct: Smith estimated that 10% to 15% of the students would be eligible for the Honors College.

Phone numbers

• Write 978-934-5000 (i.e., don’t use periods or parentheses).

Places

• In text, use full state names (Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, etc.) rather than abbreviations (R.I., N.H., Vt., Conn.).
• Washington, D.C.: “Washington” alone is OK on second reference.
• Use the postal abbreviations (RI, NH, VT, CT) only for mailing addresses.
• Do not use the state after names of Massachusetts cities and towns. However, if there is any possibility of confusion (e.g., if someone is from the town of Florida), include Massachusetts to clarify.
• Use commas around the state. He lived in Nashua, New Hampshire, most of the time.

Lowell

• In the vast majority of uses, “city” is lower-case: The interns worked with the city of Lowell on identifying places that needed street signs. Cap the “C” in “City of Lowell” only when the story refers specifically to the governmental body. (The state reached agreement with the City of Lowell … )

Massachusetts

• Similar to the treatment of “city of Lowell,” commonwealth is lower-case: Maura Healey is the governor of the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Commas

• We do not use the serial comma. For instance: Attendees included Smith, Jones and Brown (not: Smith, Jones, and Brown).
  • Exception: complicated sentences, most often needed when a series includes several “and” clauses. Consult the AP Stylebook entry for examples.

Dashes

• For the web, use an en dash with surrounding spaces. For instance: Only one of the dwarves – definitely not Grumpy – was happy. (The fastest way to get an en dash in Windows is to hold down the Alt key and, on the numeric keypad, type 0150; alternately, go to the Insert menu, choose Symbol, click Special Characters, highlight the en dash and click Insert. On a Mac, hold down the Option key and type the dash key.)
• In print publications, use an em dash without surrounding spaces. For instance: He used vegemite—a grotesque spread loved by Australians but hated by the rest of the planet—as the secret ingredient to bind the bricks in the model. (The fastest way to get an em dash in Windows is to hold down the Alt key and, on the numeric keypad, type 0151; alternately, go to the Insert menu, choose Symbol, click Special Characters, highlight the em dash and click Insert. On a Mac, hold down the Shift and Option keys and type the dash key.)

Ellipsis

• In general, treat an ellipsis as a three-letter word, constructed with three periods with a space before and after. (I ... tried to do what was best.) Do not end the first clause with a period unless it is a full sentence surrounded with quotation marks.

Hyphens

• It’s OK, however, to say: He set a record in the 2000-2001 season (spelling out both dates; not “2000-01”). Or, the theme of the Nov. 1-4 conference will be … etc. Make sure not to use an en or em dash in these cases; the correct form is a hyphen without any surrounding spaces.
• AP style generally favors no hyphenation for most prefixes/suffixes, with some exceptions. In general, when in doubt, leave it out (and look it up; in addition to specific entries, the AP Stylebook has a good explainer that includes the basic guide “the fewer hyphens the better; use them only when not using them causes confusion”).
  • Generally, do NOT hyphenate as prefixes: ante, cyber, hydro, hyper, infra, inter, intra, nano, non, post, pre, sub, super, ultra
    • Although pre is generally not hyphenated, pre-med and pre-law are exceptions.
  • Generally, DO hyphenate as prefixes: all, full, half, like, off, pan, part, pro, self, wide
  • Ones that go both ways include co- and re-; consult the AP Stylebook for guidance.
  • Hyphenate constructions using “super” or “well”: super-strong, well-adjusted. (Exception: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.)
• Specific phrases that are hyphenated as compound adjectives: service-learning, work-study 
• Specific phrases that are NOT hyphenated as compound adjectives: study abroad, high school, breast cancer (or any other cancer)
• Do not hyphenate adverbs ending in -ly: highly regarded professor, NOT highly-regarded professor.
• -wide: Hyphenate these usages: university-wide, campus-wide, etc.

Subscript/superscript

• Use this formatting. 21^st century, not 21st century; CO₂, not CO2. (Buttons for this, as well as strikethrough, can easily be added to Microsoft Word’s ribbon; just select the “st” or whatever and click the corresponding button. In the Content Management System, these buttons are in the formatting ribbon at the top of the page.)

• internet, website (one word; lowercase, per AP, unless first word of sentence)
• email (one word, no hyphen; lowercase, unless first word of sentence)
• AI: spell out “artificial intelligence” on first reference; there’s no need to append (AI) afterward, though. You can use AI on second/further references.
• Facebook, X, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Tumblr, TikTok, WhatsApp; note that none of these except TikTok and WhatsApp has an internal cap (i.e., not “SnapChat”). Use X or X.com instead of the former name of Twitter, unless it’s in a quote.
• Be careful when referring to social media companies to use the correct corporate names: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are products of Meta Platforms. Google is a subsidiary company of Alphabet.
• Use “visit” as in “Visit our website,” not “go to” or “log onto” or anything else.
• Do not use http:// or https:// unless it is required, as for a URL without www. 
• Do not hyphenate any of the many versions of cyberwhatever/nanowhatever: cyberspace, nanotechnology, etc.

• 2D, 3D, etc., with no hyphen (even when used as part of an adjective: 3D-printed device)
• a cappella (two p’s, two l’s)
• Advisor (not adviser; this is a change from previous style guidance) 
• Braille (with capital B)
• Coke: OK as second reference to the Coca-Cola product (in any iteration – The Real Thing, Diet, Zero, etc.), but not as a reference to the Coca-Cola company.
• Corporate names don’t take an extension unless it’s specifically part of the name. When this occurs, do not use a comma to offset Inc., LLC, etc.: Coca-Cola Inc.
  • Use styled names when a company does so: Freeport McMoRan, etc.
    • But: T.J. Maxx, not TJMaxx
• Day care, health care (two words in all instances unless used in something like book or conference titles). But: carework.
• Firsthand (per AP)
• Industrial Revolution
• Lineup, not line-up (this is an exception to AP)
• Lowell Historical National Park
• Myriad: Contrary to prior usage, it is OK now to say “a myriad of”
• Opioid: a frequently misspelled word (as “opiod”) 
• T-shirt (not t-shirt)
• Underway, in all uses.
• U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center

• Asian American, Portuguese American, etc.: No hyphen.
• Always use a story subject’s chosen pronouns, including the use of the plural “they/them/their.” Use the corresponding plural verb when using a plural pronoun, even if only writing about that person: They were happy with their performance in the class, receiving an A grade for the semester.