Sitecore Editorial Guidelines (Client)

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Last updated: May 20, 2015
8 min read

For online usability reasons:

  • Keep content clear and concise.
  • Keep sentences short.
  • Use bullets when including lists.
  • Use lists whenever possible to help users find relevant information quickly.

For more detailed editorial guidelines, refer to the general Seattle Pacific’s Editorial Guidelines. If you have any questions, feel free to contact your communications specialist in University Communications. If you have specific Sitecore questions, email UCwebteam2@spu.edu

academic credits. For suggested course sequences and other course lists, include the number of credits for each course in parenthesis after the course title. Do not include the word “credits.”

  • Correct: EDU 6655 Human Development and Principles of Learning (3)

academic degrees in text. When noting someone's academic credentials in text, the preferred form is to avoid an abbreviation and instead use a phrase.

  • He earned a bachelor's degree in marketing. (NOT He earned a BA in marketing.)
  • She earned a master's degree in business administration. (NOT She earned an MBA.)
  • The professor earned his doctorate in clinical psychology. (NOT The professor earned his PhD in clinical psychology.)

Note: The word "doctorate," rather than the phrase "doctoral degree," is preferred. If you use the abbreviated form of a degree in a listing, or for some other special purpose, only use the abbreviation after a full name, not just a last name. Also, do NOT precede a name with a courtesy title for an academic degree and then follow it with the abbreviation in the same reference.

  • Correct: Dr. Amy Robertson, a physicist.

academic programs. Do not capitalize the word "program" unless it is part of the program's actual title.

apply. You apply "to" someone and "for" something.

  • Correct: The transfer student applied to SPU.
  • Correct: The student then applied for a scholarship and grant.

bolding. In bulleted lists for sites moving into Sitecore, especially for Admission Requirements, bold the first word or two, especially when they are action items. Bulleted lists in other locations do not need to include bolded items as a rule.

Correct: As a student in the MEd in Educational Leadership degree program at SPU, you will:

  • Learn from distinguished faculty with experience and expertise in school and district leadership.
  • Enjoy the flexibility of courses taught on campus or on sites around the Puget Sound.

Class, class. When used as a proper name, Class should be capitalized. In all other cases, it should remain lowercase.

  • Correct: This year the Class of ’65 celebrated its 50-year reunion.
  • Correct: This year’s graduating class will hold commencement at Key Arena.

Click here. Do not write this. Instead link useful words for skimming users.

  • Correct: Find information about Ames Scholars.

composition titles. Capitalize the principal words (including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters) in the names of books, movies, plays, poems, operas, songs, radio and television programs, works of art, etc. Capitalize an article (e.g., the, a, an) if it is the first or last word in a title. When using the infinitive form of a verb, the "to" is not capitalized.

Note: With the exception of the online Undergraduate Catalog, Graduate Catalog, Time Schedules, and SPU handbooks, names of books, plays, movies, television shows, and magazines should be in italic. Names of articles and poems are in quotation marks.

comprehensive university. Seattle Pacific University is a comprehensive university, because it has a liberal arts and sciences college and graduate and professional schools that confer degrees in various fields. It is NOT a liberal arts university. See liberal arts university.

course titles. Capitalize the principal words (as in a composition title) and enclose in quotation marks, but do not use quotation marks or a colon between course numbers and their names when put into bulleted lists.

  • Correct: Sophomores who major in Chemistry must take “Introduction to Research Methods.”
  • Correct: HIS 3406 Christianity in America

Note: Official course titles are in Banner. If a change is to be made to a course title, the change must be approved by SPU's registrar and entered into Banner.

course titles. Official course titles are in the Banner Information System. If a change is to be made to a course title, the change must be approved by SPU's registrar and entered into Banner.

dates. A comma follows the year when writing the complete date. Do NOT add th or st to the numeral.

  • Correct: Autumn Quarter classes begin September 27 and end the first week of December.

degrees. Seattle Pacific University offers the following degrees: BA, BS, MA, MBA, MEd, MTMS, MFA, MS, MSN, MDiv, EdD, and PhD.

Since 2012, SPU has no longer used periods to separate the capitalized letters and components of degrees. If mention of degrees is necessary to establish someone's credentials, avoid using abbreviations. Instead, spell out the degree. Use the abbreviations in a list format, or when it would be too cumbersome to list one person with several degrees.

Do NOT use the abbreviations within text and do not capitalize the degrees within text. Use an apostrophe in bachelor's degree, a master's, etc., but there is no possessive in bachelor of arts, master of science, or associate degree. See doctorate, PhD

  • Correct: John Glancy earned his doctorate in June.
  • Correct: The English majors were awarded bachelor of arts degrees in June.

Dissertation, dissertation. Uppercase when used as a program component. Lowercase when used in the generic sense.

doctorate, PhD. If mention of degrees is necessary to establish someone's credentials, avoid using abbreviations. Instead, spell out the degree. Use the abbreviations in a list of people, or when it would be too cumbersome to list one person with several degrees. Do NOT precede a name with a courtesy title for an academic degree and follow it with the abbreviation for the same degree.

  • Correct: Frank Spina, PhD

Dr. When referring to faculty members in text, after the first identification of them in copy, refer to them with a Dr. surtitle. See also Mr., Ms.

  • Correct: Jeffrey Keuss, professor of Christianity Ministry, Theology, and Culture, is the director of University Scholars. Dr. Keuss joined the SPU faculty in 2005.

e.g. Abbreviation of "for example." Follow the second period with a comma.

  • Several professors came to the picnic (e.g., Dr. Spina, Dr. Keuss, and Dr. Kato).

entitled, titled. Use "entitled" only to mean that someone has a right to do or have something. "Titled" is the correct word in reference to the names of books or other literary works.

  • The student is entitled to a grade report each quarter.
  • Robert Penn Warren won a Pulitzer Prize for a book titled All the King's Men.

faculty, staff profile pages. SPU receives more than a million and a half page views during an average month, many of whom are unconnected to the University. For security reasons, remove the following from faculty and/or staff profile pages. Also see SPU-safe CVs.

  • Home address
  • Home phone number
  • Personal mobile phone number, unless it is a necessity.
  • Family member’s names and birthdates — especially spouse and child(ren)
  • Personal photos – spouse and child(ren)

GPA, GPAs. All caps, no periods, and no apostrophe, but when pluralized, lowercase the s.

headlines. Capitalize proper nouns, nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs (including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters) in headlines. When using the infinitive form of a verb, the to is not capitalized. See composition titles.

  • Physics Professor Is Awarded Boeing Grant

i.e. Abbreviation of "that is to say." The second period should be followed by a comma.

  • The students used a computer for their presentation (i.e., they used PowerPoint).

initials. Use periods and no spaces between initials when an individual used initials instead of a first name. This format ensures that once typeset or on a website, the initials will be on the same line.

  • Correct: N.T. Wright spoke in the third President's Symposium of the academic year.

liberal arts university. Seattle Pacific University is NOT a liberal arts university, and should not be identified as such in print or on the web. SPU is a "comprehensive university." See comprehensive university.

links, in news-item headlines. In the redesigned sites, do not link a news’ items headline to a site that’s not found either on the department’s site or somewhere on spu.edu.

majors, minors. In the redesigned sites, capitalize the names of majors and minors, but do not capitalize the word “major” or “minor” as part of that.

  • Correct: There are two components to the Integrated Studies major.

majors, minors, in the redesigned websites. Capitalize the names of majors and minors, but do NOT capitalize the word “major” or “minor” as part of that

  • Correct: There are two components to the Integrated Studies major.

Mr., Ms. In the redesigned websites, when referring to an instructor or staff member who does not hold a doctoral degree, use “Mr.” or “Ms.” and their last names after the first reference. See Dr.

Correct: Francine Peterson is a bassoonist and enjoys a varied career as performer. Ms. Peterson is also an adjunct at Seattle Pacific University in the Music Department.

nonmajor. No hyphen.

numbers. In text, follow AP rules; in lists, and when paired with "credits," use Arabic numerals for usability reasons.

  • Correct: The 3-credit class has six sophomores and 10 freshmen.
  • Correct: Our 50-minute presentations can be tailored to meet the needs of your undergraduate students.
  • Correct: Presentations are 50 minutes in length and can be tailored to meet the needs of your undergraduate students.

one-year, two-year, 50-year, etc. Hyphenate and spell out numbers under 10.

  • Correct: A two-year guarantee of six consecutive academic quarters of housing is given to first-time freshmen.
  • Correct: Come celebrate at the Class of ’65 50-year reunion.

on-campus, off-campus. Hyphenate in descriptive cases.

  • Correct: She held an on-campus job.
  • Correct: She worked on campus.

percent. One word. Always use figures for percentages, including percentages under 10, unless referring to multiple references in a document listing numbers or financial information.

  • Correct: At SPU, 86 percent of full-time faculty have terminal degrees in their fields.
  • Incorrect: In 2004, 13% of students were ethnic minority and international students.

proper nouns. Capitalize common nouns such as university, school, office, center, street, ocean, and west when they are an integral part of the full formal name for a person, place or thing:

  • Office of Undergraduate Admissions, Office of Student Employment, Center for Applied Learning, Center for Career and Calling, Student Counseling Center, the Graduate Center, Queen Anne Hill.
  • Do  these common nouns when they stand alone in subsequent references: the office, the center.

Capitalize campus buildings and locations when the reference is to a specific SPU entity, but do not capitalize the item when the word references a type of building.

  • Correct: The SPU Library has thousands of books. This Library also has access to millions more.

Note: There are a very few exceptions to this rule, including the University, when used in specific reference to Seattle Pacific University. See proper names, shortened versions.

Do NOT capitalize the common noun elements of names in any plural uses: the departments of English and Mathematics, the Undergraduate Admissions and University Communications offices, Bertona and Cremona streets.

proper names, shortened versions. Some groups, places, and events are known by shortened versions of one-of-a-kind proper names. These have come to be the effective equivalent of proper names such as the University (for Seattle Pacific University). These are rare instances and this should not be interpreted as license to ignore the general practice of lowercasing the common noun elements of a name when they stand alone.

quarters. Capitalize when that word follows the specific quarter.

  • Autumn Quarter (NOT Fall Quarter), Winter Quarter, Spring Quarter.

Note: Seattle Pacific has no "Summer Quarter." It has two Summer Sessions.

SPU-safe faculty CVs. Verify the faculty member has removed the following:

  • Home address
  • Home phone number
  • Mobile phone number, unless it is a necessity.
  • Family member’s names and birthdates — especially spouse and child(ren)
  • Personal photos – spouse and child(ren)

telephone numbers. Use hyphens to separate numbers.

  • Correct: To RSVP, call 206-281-2000.

titles. Capitalize formal titles when used immediately before a name. Do not capitalize formal titles when used alone or in constructions that set them off from the name by commas.

  • President Dan Martin; Associate Professor of English, Kimberly Segall.
  • The president spoke at the meeting.
  • The class was taught by Jeffrey Keuss, professor of Christianity Ministry, Theology, and Culture.

Do NOT capitalize terms that are job descriptions rather than formal titles:

  • actress M'Lissa Hayes, writer Clint Kelly, conference participant Joe Smith, soccer coach Mark Collings.

URL. When specific writing web addresses (URLs) in text, *do NOT use http://_* before an address. Do not capitalize the letters, per the _AP Stylebook.

Why I Teach at SPU callouts. Redesigned school and department websites now include Why I Teach at SPU callouts for all full-time faculty members. Faculty members are requested to make their callouts personal and specific to why they teach at SPU, and not just why they teach. Quotes should be between 25 and 30 words for usability and best practices.

Why I Teach at SPU photos. Each Why I Teach at SPU callout will include a photo taken by a photographer from University Communications. The photo will be different than a profile picture, and should be taken in the teaching environment, interacting with students, if possible.

www. Do NOT include www. as part of web addresses in print or online.

20-May-15