SWWC Style Guide

  • AP Style is recommended to ensure consistency across all SWWC publications and documents. AP style is easy to read and concise, and is the standard for most newspapers and magazines. Below is a compilation of common style issues, some of which are specific to SWWC.
     
    SWWC
    Southwest West Central Service Cooperative, SWWC, and SWWC staff are all collective nouns. Use singular verbs.
    Examples: SWWC is closed today. SWWC staff is committed to meeting customer needs.
     
    Educational Learning Centers
    Full Names and Names with Initials
    • SWWC Educational Learning Center - Cosmos; ELC - Cosmos
    • SWWC Educational Learning Center - Marshall; ELC - Marshall
    • SWWC Educational Learning Center - Montevideo; ELC - Montevideo
    • SWWC Educational Learning Center - New London; ELC - New London
    • SWWC Educational Learning Center - Pipestone; ELC - Pipestone
    • SWWC Educational Learning Center - Windom; ELC - Windom
    (Please note there is a space on both sides of the dash.) 
     
    When writing an article, email, etc., please spell out the full name on first reference, and use initials on any following references.
    • Example: The SWWC Educational Learning Center - Cosmos invites you to attend a holiday open house on December 5, 2018, from 5pm - 7pm. Feel free to drop by ELC - Cosmos during that time frame and enjoy some goodies.”

Typesetting Tips

    1. WHITE SPACE is your friend - use plenty to ensure easy reading and a “clean” document appearance.
    2. Use FEWER FONTS. Mixing too many fonts is amateurish. Use SWWC's fonts on your documents: Gill Sans MT, Lucida Fax, Century Gothic and Arial.
    3. DON’T JUSTIFY YOUR TEXT. It creates awkward rivers of white space throughout the block of text. 
    4. DON’T OVERDO IT!!!! Use italics, ALL CAPS and bold sparingly. The emphasizing effect you are aiming for is lost when overdone.
    5. AVOID “ORPHANS” AND “WIDOWS.” An orphan is the last line of a paragraph that sits alone at the top of a page. Widows are lonely characters (7 or less) on the last line of a paragraph - they could be short words or a piece of a word. Don’t let your content be lonely and visually sloppy - edit, reorganize line breaks or adjust column widths.
    6. Use only ONE SPACE after punctuation.

Punctuation

  • Colon
    The most frequent use of a colon is at the end of a complete sentence to introduce a list.
    • Example
      • Jeff has three favorite meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
    Capitalize the first word after a colon only if it is a proper noun or the start of a complete sentence.
    • Examples
      • He promised this: The company will make good all the losses.
      • There were three considerations: expense, time and feasibility.
    Colons go outside quotation marks unless they are part of the quotation itself.
    Comma
    • Use commas to separate clauses.
    • When listing a series of items, separate all but the last two with a comma.
      • Example
        • “The flag is red, white and blue."
    • The only exception is when the last element of the series is a compound requiring its own conjunction. Example: “I had orange juice, toast, and ham and eggs for breakfast.”
    Dash
    • Put a space on both sides of a dash in all uses except the start of a paragraph.
    • Use dashes to denote an abrupt change in thought in a sentence or an emphatic pause.
      • Example
        • The students took the test – albeit reluctantly – on Saturday morning.
    • Avoid overuse of dashes to set off phrases when commas would suffice.
    • When a phrase that otherwise would be set off by commas contains a series of words that must be separated by commas, use dashes to set off the full phrase.
      • Example
        • He listed the qualities – intelligence, humor, conservatism, independence – that he liked in an executive.
    Ellipsis ( ... )
    • Use three dots (no spaces between them but a space on each side) to signify that something has been left out of a direct quote or that the writer is jumping from one topic to another.
    • If used after a whole sentence, put the period first, followed by a space, then the three dots, space and then the next sentence.
    Exclamation Mark
    Use sparingly.
    Hyphen ( - )
    • Use a hyphen to link words with prefixes (pre-Renaissance literature) and to link the elements of compound modifiers (entry-level job).
    • There are no spaces before or after a hyphen.
    • Use a hyphen to avoid ambiguity that would result if hyphen was not used.
      • Example
        • He recovered from his illness. She re-covered the upholstered chair.
    • When large numbers must be spelled out, use a hyphen to connect a word ending in -y to another word.
      • Examples
        • twenty-one
        • fifty-five
    Parentheses
    • Avoid parentheticals where possible by rewriting the sentence, or using commas or dashes to isolate incidental material.
    • When a phrase placed in parentheses (this one is an example) might normally qualify as a complete sentence but is dependent on the surrounding material, do not capitalize the first word or end with a period.
    • Punctuation and Parentheses
      • Place a period outside a closing parenthesis if the material inside is not a sentence (such as this fragment).
      • (An independent parenthetical sentence such as this one takes a period before the closing parenthesis.)
    Period
    In a bulleted list, each bit of bulleted text must be a full sentence to warrant a period at the end.
    Examples:
    You’ll learn how to:
    • Create video using your smartphone
    • Loosen up execs before interviews
    • Choose the ideal background
     
    Our workshop offers the keys to great videos:
    • You’ll develop techniques for using your smartphone.
    • You’ll master tactics for loosening up execs before interviews.
    • You’ll learn how to choose the ideal background.
    Quotation Marks
    • The period and the comma always go within the quotation marks.
    • The dash, the semicolon, the question mark and the exclamation point go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.
      • Examples:
        • He remarked, “Whose life is it anyway?”
        • Why did he say, “Your budget is sufficient”?
    Semicolon
    • Use semicolons to separate elements of a series when the items in the series are long or when individual segments contain material that also must be set off by commas.
      • Example
        • Companies are scored in these areas of performance and management: product and service quality; innovation value as a long-term investment; soundness of financial position; ability to attract, develop, and retain talent; community responsibility; wise use of corporate assets; and effectiveness in conducting a business.
    • Use semicolon when a coordinating conjunction such as and, but or for is not present.
      • Example
        • The package was due last week; it arrived today.
    • If a coordinating conjunction is present, use a semicolon before it only if extensive punctuation also is required in one or more of the individual clauses.
      • Example
        • They pulled their boats from the water, sandbagged the retaining walls, and boarded up the windows; but even with these precautions, the island was hard-hit by the hurricane.
    • Punctuation with quotes: Place semicolons outside quotation marks

Referencing Books, Magazines and Titles

  • Apply these guidelines to book titles, computer and video game titles, movie titles, album and song titles, and radio and television program titles. AP style does not use italics or underlines for titles.
    • Capitalize the principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters.
    • Capitalize an article — the, a, an — or words of fewer than four letters if it is the first or last word in a title.
    • Put quotation marks around the names of all such work. 
    • Capitalize the initial letters of the magazine name but do not place it in quotes.
    • Use a lowercase magazine unless it is part of the publication's formal title.
      • Examples
        • Harper's Magazine
        • Newsweek magazine
        • Time magazine
        • "The Star-Spangled Banner"
        • The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"
        • "Gone With the Wind"
        • "Of Mice and Men"
        • "For Whom the Bell Tolls"
        • "Time After Time"
        • the NBC-TV "Today" program
        • the "CBS Evening News"

Technology-Related Terms

  • Email and Other E-Terms
    • Email is one word with no hyphen.
    • Use lowercase when used in a sentence. 
    • Capitalize if starting a sentence or heading.
    • Use a hyphen with other e-terms such as e-book, e-business, e-commerce, e-newsletter, e-catalog, e-reader.
    Homepage, Online, Offline, Webpage, Webmaster, Website
    • One word
    • Use lowercase when used in a sentence
    • Uppercase only when beginning a sentence or heading.
    Internet
    • Internet is lowercase.
    • Do not capitalize unless it begins a sentence or heading.

Abbreviations and Numbers

  • Days of the Week
    • Spell out. 
    • Do not abbreviate unless used in tables.
    Months and Dates
    • Spell out when using alone, or with a year alone.
    • When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec.
      • Examples
        • Monday, Jan. 2 was the coldest day of the month.
        • His birthday is May 8.
    • When a phrase lists only a month and a year, do not separate the year with commas.
      • Example
        •  January 1972 was a cold month.
    • When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with commas. Do not include the year unless you are referring to a previous or future year.
      • Examples
        • Feb. 14, 1987, was the target date.
        • This year, the conference will be held on May 10.
    • In tabular material, use the three-letter forms without a period.
      • Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
    • You do not need the year unless you are referring to a previous or future year.
      • Examples
        • On Feb. 2, fifth graders at Claremont visited the Smithsonian.
        • NOT: “On February 2, 2016, fifth graders at Claremont visited the Smithsonian.”
    • When referring to dates, do not include ordinals (st, rd, nd, th).
      • Examples
        • The group met on May 4 to talk about the new program.
        • On Sept. 11, students observed a moment of silence at 9:37 a.m.
        • NOT: “On Sept. 11th, students observed a moment of silence at 9:37 a.m.”
    Time
    Use one of these two options for time formats:
    • Use 2 a.m. - 3 p.m. and 4 - 5 p.m. for more formal communications (this is AP Style).
    • Using 2am - 3pm is acceptable for more informal communications and for space reasons (in brochures, emails, etc.)
    Avoid redundancies such as 10 a.m. this morning, 10 p.m. tonight or 10 p.m. Monday night.
    • Use 10 a.m. Monday, 10 p.m. Monday, etc.
    Numbers
    • In general, spell out one through nine.
      • Examples
        • The Twins finished second.
        • He had nine months to go.
    • Use figures for 10 or above and whenever preceding a unit of measure or referring to ages of people, animals, events or things.
      • Example
        • The boy, 5, has a sister, 10.
    Money
    • Use a dollar sign and numbers only - do not include a decimal and two zeros.
      • Examples
        • $50
        • NOT: $50.00
    Ages
    • Always use figures.
      • Examples
        • The child is 5 years old.
        • The woman is in her 30s.
    • For ages expressed as adjectives before a noun, use hyphens.
      • Examples
        • The 18-year-old students voted for the first time this year.
        • The race is for 3-year-olds.
        • A 6-year-old girl won the bike.
    • Anytime the first word in a sentence is a number, it should be written out.
      • Example
        • Twenty SWWC teachers earned service awards this year.
    School Grades
    • Use figures for grades 10 and above.
      • Example
        • 10th grade
    • Spell out for first through ninth grades.
      • Examples
        • fourth grade
        • fifth-grader
    • Hyphenate in combining forms.
      • Examples
        • a fourth-grade pupil
        • a 12th-grade student
        • first-grader
        • 10th-grader
    Percentages
    • Always use figures and spell out “percent” instead of using the % symbol.
      • Example
        • 5 percent
        • 25 percent
      • Exception
        • With social media and in charts/graphics, the % symbol is OK.
    • If used at the beginning of a sentence, write out number.
      • Example
        • Twenty-seven percent of Minnesota residents do not have school-aged children.
    States
    • Always spell out state names when they stand alone.
    • Eight states are never abbreviated:
      • Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah

Academic Degrees and Job Titles

  • Academic Degrees
    • Academic degrees are abbreviated M.A., M.S., Ph.D., and MBA.
    • Use an apostrophe in bachelor's degree, a master's, etc.
    • However, there is no possessive in Bachelor of Arts, Master of Science, and an associate degree.
    Job Titles
    • Use lowercase and spell out titles when they are not used with an individual's name.
      • Examples
        • The coordinator issued a statement.
        • The executive director gave his blessing.
    • Use lowercase and spell out titles when they are set off from a name by commas.
      • Example
        • The speech-language pathologist, Deb Moorse, provided services using technology.
    • Capitalize formal titles when they are used immediately before one or more names.
      • Examples
        • Executive Director Cliff Carmody
        • Director of Technology Josh Sumption