Style Guide
About the Style Guide
To read about how to apply the style guide, read About the Style Guide.
To print a copy,
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| People | Examples |
| chair – the head of a committee, council, or program |
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| facilitator or contact person – the person in charge of a small group |
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| president – the highest office of the Board of Trustees |
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| minister – When referring to the minister in general terms, use the term minister rather than pastor or reverend. |
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| title of the minister – Abbreviate Doctor and use Reverend unless the clergy person has a different preference. After the first occurrence of the full title spelled out, and any time that space is limited, reverend may be abbreviated and doctor may be omitted. Capitalize the title for a specific minister and do not use capitals for the titles of non-specific ministers. |
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| titles – Omit Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. (except as mentioned for ministers), PhD, and other professional or educational titles, unless it is contextually pertinent. |
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| Groups | |
| committee – Use initial capitalization for the name and the word committee. |
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| Peace & Justice Committee – use ampersand rather than and |
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| small groups – Use initial capitalization |
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| Board – Use either Board of Trustees or Board. |
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| Bookstore – It’s one word. |
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| Places | |
| classrooms – These rooms are all numbered except for the Loft. Refer to a numbered classroom as shown in the examples. Meetings and events are often scheduled in adjoining rooms; these are referred to by both room numbers and an ampersand. |
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| Infant Room – the room in the back of Chapman Hall where perents can be with their babies while listening to and watching the service. |
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| Toddler Room – RE-3 where a paid caregiver watches the small children who are old enough to be without their parents but not yet ready for a classroom. |
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| RE Foyer – The open space between RE-7, the Toddler Playground, the Courtyard, and the RE restroom |
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| The Friarplace – Capitalize The and do not include the word room. |
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| named social spaces – For most named rooms, use initial capitals, and do not capitalize the. |
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| service rooms – Do not capitalize these room names. |
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| Publications | |
| short documents and sermons – Enclose the title in quotes. |
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| long document, pamphlet, or brochure – Use italics for the title. |
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| forms – Use initial caps for the title of the form. Every form has a title at the top. |
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| page on the website – Refer to a specific page with initial capitals for the title. |
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| hymns – Enclose the title of the hymn in quotes. |
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| book and movie titles – Use italics for the titles. |
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| Date and Time | |
| orning and afternoon – Include periods in a.m. and p.m. In cases of extremely limited space, the periods may be omitted.
When an event spans from the morning to after noon, both the beginning and ending times need to have the appropriate a.m. or p.m. When both the beginning and ending times are either before or after noon, omit the a.m. or p.m. from the first time. |
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| minutes – When the time is on the hour, do not express the minutes unless the time is provided in tandem with another time that is not on the hour. That is, when more than one time appears in a statement, if one time has minutes expressed all the times should have minutes expressed. However, when space is limited, the minutes may be omitted if the time is on the hour. |
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| year – Omit the year in an event description if it is the current year or if the year is unlikely to be mistaken. |
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| ordinals – Use numbers rather than ordinals (24th) for dates. |
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Acronyms |
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| EUUC audience – Do not spell out DLRE, RE, UUA, UU, or EUUC. Other acronyms need to be spelled out the first time they are used in a document. |
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| external audience – spell out all acronyms the first time they appear in a document. |
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| GLBITQ – gay, lesbian, bisexual, intersex, transgender, and queer |
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Other |
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| Phone number – Include the area code and use dots to separate the parts. |
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| website – Make the person’s name or role a link to their email address. |
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| This Week at EUUC and other electronic communication – make the name serve as the link to the email address. |
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| printed matter – Provide the name or title of the person followed by the word at, the email address, the word or, and the phone number. The email precedes the phone number. |
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| US Mail – Enter the address with all capitals and no punctuation. For street type ST and for avenue type AVE. Show apartment or suite numbers as shown. |
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| not for US Mail – Enter the address with street address followed by the city, state, and zip code. |
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| email – Use lowercase letters. |
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| online – Type online as a single word. |
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| website – Use all lowercase letters and type website as one word. |
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| the Web – Try to avoid this phrase, and rephrase the sentence to use website or online instead. When it is necessary to use this phrase, capitalize Web. |
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| third person – If an article is not authored, use third person. |
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| byline for a newsletter article – Below the article put the author’s name, title, or both. On the next line type the name of the committee or group being represented. |
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| language – Use clear, concise language, and watch for repetitiveness. |