Term
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Definition
| Use more than when referring to numbers. |
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Term
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Definition
Ala. Neb.
Ariz. Nev.
Ark. N.H.
Calif. N.J.
Colo. N.M.
Conn. N.Y.
Del. N.C.
Fla. N.D.
Ga. Okla.
Ill. Ore.
Ind. Pa.
Kan. R.I.
Ky. S.C.
La. S.D.
Md. Tenn.
Mass. Vt.
Mich. Va.
Minn. Wash.
Miss. W.Va.
Mo. Wis.
Mont. Wyo. |
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Term
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Definition
| Job titles are generally capitalized when they appear before a person’s name, but lowercase after the name. |
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Term
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Definition
| Write out the numbers one through nine and use numerals for numbers 10 and higher |
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Term
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Definition
| Write out the word “percent” instead of using the “%” sign. |
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Term
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Definition
Only abbreviate Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. when using it with a specific date.
Spell out the months when they stand alone or are combined with a year. |
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Term
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Definition
Use “that” for essential clauses that are important to the meaning of the sentence.
Example: I remember the day that I met my future wife.
Use “which” for nonessential clauses where the pronoun is less necessary.
Example: The team, which won the championship last year, begins their 2012 season next month. |
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Term
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Definition
When referring to a physical distance, use “farther”.
When referring to an extension of time or degree, use “further”. |
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Term
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Definition
The words “street”, “avenue”, and “boulevard” are only abbreviated when they are a part of a numbered address.
The words “court”, “drive”, “lane”, and “way” are not abbreviated. |
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Term
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Definition
Magazines and newspapers are not italicized, just capitalized. Books, films, TV shows, works of art, etc., use quotation marks around them.
Example: She read The New York Times before she turned on the television to watch “Survivor”. |
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Term
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Definition
| Ages are always expressed as numerals. |
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Term
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Definition
| Use 21 million instead of 21,000,000. Also: $39 million, $22.5 billion. Don’t carry beyond two decimals. |
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Term
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Definition
| Avoid unnecessary ciphers. Use $1, not $1.00; 1 p.m., not 1:00 p.m |
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Term
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Definition
Fractions standing alone are spelled out.
One-fourth of the students |
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Term
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Definition
Avoid successive numerals in a single expression.
15 six-inch boards |
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Term
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Definition
| Never use an abbreviation that will not be easily understood |
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Term
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Definition
| Ala. Fla. Md. Neb. N.D. Tenn. |
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Term
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Definition
| Ariz. Ga. Mass. Nev. Okla. Vt. |
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Term
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Definition
| Ark. Ill. Mich. N.H. Ore. Va. |
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Term
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Definition
| Calif. Ind. Minn. N.J. Pa. Wash. |
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Term
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Definition
| Colo. Kan. Miss. N.M. R.I. W.Va. |
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Term
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Definition
| Conn. Ky. Mo. N.Y. S.C. Wis. |
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Term
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Definition
| Del. La. Mont. N.C. S.D. Wyo. |
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Term
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Definition
| DO NOT abbreviate Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Utah, Texas. |
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Term
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Definition
Abbreviate Saint before a city or institution, but see AP for Saint John and Sault Ste. Marie. Do not abbreviate Fort or Mount.
St. Paul
Mount Bachelor
Mount Vernon
Mount Sinai Hospital
St. Louis
Fort Bragg
Fort Lauderdale
Saint John |
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Term
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Definition
| Rev. should always be preceded by “the.” |
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Term
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Definition
DO NOT capitalize an occupation or descriptive adjectives and nouns used before a name
(defense attorney Arnold Becker) |
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Term
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Definition
| Place long titles after the name. |
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Term
| Cities Not Requiring State Names |
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Definition
Atlanta Phoenix
Baltimore Pittsburgh
Boston St. Louis
Chicago Salt Lake City
Cincinnati San Antonio
Cleveland San Diego
Dallas San Francisco
Denver Seattle
Detroit Washington
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Miami
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
New Orleans
New York
Oklahoma City
Philadelphia |
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Term
| Capitalize names of races and nationalities, but put descriptive adjectives in lower case |
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Definition
Negro Oriental Egyptian Caucasian white black colored.
BUT: Only identify race when it is ESSENTIAL to the story |
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Term
| Capitalize the formal names of congressional committees, specific courts, government agencies, etc. |
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Definition
Senate House Legislature Parliament
City Council Supreme Court Foreign Relations Committee |
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Term
| Capitalize chapter, room, highway, etc. when followed by a number or letter. |
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Definition
Administration 33
Lakeway Inn, Room 2
Interstate 5 |
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Term
| Capitalize the names of the planets, stars and groups of stars. Capitalize earth only when using it in association with the names of other astronomical bodies that are capitalized. |
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Definition
The planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus…
The sun warms the earth. |
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Term
| DO NOT capitalize a.m. and p.m. Always use figures with them. Do not use spaces in the abbreviations. |
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Definition
9:35 a.m. 9 a.m.
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
3 to 5 p.m.
noon
midnight |
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Term
| Bands are capitalized, but not contained in quotes. |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| Use Monday, Tuesday, etc. for days of the week within seven days before or after current date. Use today as appropriate for current work. DO NOT use yesterday or tomorrow. |
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Term
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Definition
Use that, this, and those only when followed by a noun or pronoun.
DO NOT use them alone.
NOT: This happened Tuesday.
BUT: This wreck happened Tuesday. |
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Term
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Definition
Their is a possessive pronoun: They went to their cabin.
There is an adverb indicating direction: We went there for a movie.
There is also used with the force of a pronoun for impersonal construction in which the real subject follows the verb: There is food in the kitchen.
There is a contraction for “they are”: They’re all doing so well. |
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Term
Put the period inside brackets or parentheses when a complete sentence is enclosed in the brackets or parentheses.
When the parenthetical expression forms only a part of the sentence, put the period outside the bracket or parenthesis. |
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Definition
(The day was too cold for football.)
The day was too cold for football (or skiing). |
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Term
Always put the period and comma inside quotation marks.
Put other punctuation marks inside when they are part of the quoted material. |
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Definition
“ I saw the play,” he said.
He said, “I saw the play.”
“ Did you see the play?” he asked.
Should I see “King Lear”? |
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Term
| DO NOT use periods with upper-case abbreviations. |
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Definition
WWU FBI CIA UNESCO OPEC ROTC
Exceptions: Use periods in abbreviations of United Nations and names of countries and cities and in special situations where an all-cap abbreviation replaces a common noun (as in D.A. for district attorney).
U.N. I.R.A. U.S. L.A. N.Y. |
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Term
| DO NOT use a comma between a person’s name and college class numeral. |
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Definition
Tim Pilgrim ’89
James Smith ex-’94 |
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Term
| Use quotation marks with titles of books, poems, plays, films, speeches, songs, works of art, subjects or lectures, magazine articles. DO NOT use them with newspapers or magazines. |
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Definition
| “ The Hanging Tree” Newsweek New York Times “Mona Lisa” |
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Term
| Use apostrophes to form the plural of single letters but not figures or multiple letters. |
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Definition
Four A’s
early 1920s
IQs
temperature in the low 20s |
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Term
Use dashes sparingly.
Use to show significant pause, abrupt break in thought or broken speech. |
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Definition
I asked for bread and they gave me -- a stone.
The modern world – the modern Christian world – has lapsed from faith into opinion.
“ I – I don’t know. I am not the man –“ |
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Term
Use parentheses or brackets around inserted material.
Use quotation marks with nicknames when the first name is included. |
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Definition
“ The people here (WWU faculty) know what I mean.”
Lincoln (Neb.) Star George “Lefty” Moore
letter (Western Front, Dec. 11). |
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Term
| Use the hyphen to separate a prefix from a proper noun. |
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Definition
un-American
anti-French
pro-Negro
Exception: transatlantic |
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Term
| Use the hyphen for clarity in compound modifiers. |
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Definition
6-foot shark
family-owned business
purple-faced tycoon |
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Term
| DO NOT use the hyphen with adverbs ending in –ly. |
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Definition
newly elected
badly damaged
recently named |
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Term
| Spell out degrees when referring to temperature. |
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Definition
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Term
| Use figures and spell out inches, feet, yards etc. However, use apostrophes (5’6”) to indicate inches and feet in technical contexts |
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Definition
He is 5 feet 6 inches tall.
The basketball team signed a 7-footer.
the 6-foot-5 forward |
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Term
| When a partial quote is used, DO NOT put quotation marks around words that the speaker could not have used. |
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Definition
Suppose the individual said, “I am horrified at your slovenly manners.”
Wrong: She said she “was horrified at their slovenly manners.”
Right: She said she was horrified at their “slovenly manners.” |
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Term
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Definition
He received a 10- to 20-year prison sentence.
The 5- and 6-year-olds attend morning classes. |
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Term
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Definition
Who is the pronoun used for references to human beings and to animals with a name. It is the subject of the sentence, clause or phrase.
(The woman who rented the room left the window open.
Who is there?) |
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Term
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Definition
Whom is used when someone is the object of a verb or preposition:
(The woman to whom the room was rented left the window open.
Whom do you wish to see?) |
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Term
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Definition
Principal is a noun and adjective meaning someone or something first in rank, authority, importance or degree.
(She is the school principal.
He was the principal player in the trade.
Money is the principal problem.) |
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Term
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Definition
Principle is a noun that means a fundamental truth, law, doctrine or motivating force.
(They fought for the principle of self-determination) |
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Term
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Definition
use the conjunction That to introduce a dependent clause.
-'That' usually may be omitted when a dependent clause immediately follows a form of the verb to say: (The president said he had signed the bill.)
-'That' should be used when a time element intervenes between the verb and the dependent clause. (The president said Monday that he had signed the bill.)
When in doubt include 'that'. Omission can hurt, inclusion never does. |
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Term
That (pronouns)
That vs. Which |
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Definition
Use 'that' for essential clauses, important to the meaning of a sentence, and without commas:
(I remember the day that we met) |
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Term
Which (pronouns)
That vs. Which |
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Definition
Use 'which' for nonessential clauses, where the pronoun is less necessary, and use commas:
(The team, which finished last a year ago, is in first place.)
TIP: if you can drop the clause and not lose meaning of the sentence, use WHICH. |
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Term
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Definition
| Were is used during a case in which what you’re saying is hypothetical. If you’ve used “if,” that’s a pretty good indicator that were is appropriate: (If you were here. I wouldn't do that if I were you.) |
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Term
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Definition
| if you were writing about an actual past event, you’d use “was” (e.g. “When I was at work”). |
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Term
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Definition
When the nouns form ‘a collective idea’ or ‘a oneness of idea,’ the singular verb is appropriate: IS
ARE: plural |
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Term
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Definition
| whoever is a replacement for a subject noun or pronoun (he/she/they) |
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Term
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Definition
| whomever is a replacement for an object such as direct/indirect/object of prep (him/her/them) |
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Term
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Definition
Affect as a verb means to influence. (The game will affect the standings)
Affect as a noun is best avoided.
Effect as a verb means to cause: (He will effect many changes in the company)
Effect as a noun means result: (The effect was overwhelming. He miscalculated the effect of his actions. It was a law of little effect.) |
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Term
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Definition
You may be CONVINCED THAT something or OF something.
You must be PERSUADED to DO something.
(John convinced Marsha of his good intentions. John persuaded Marsha to marry him.) |
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Term
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Definition
The action word is LAY.
It takes a direct object.
(I will lay the book on the table. The prosecutor tried to lay the blame on him.)
(He lay on the beach all day)
(I am laying the book on the table) |
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Term
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Definition
Lie indicates a state of reclining along a horizontal plane. It doesnt take a direct object. (lie:lay,lain,lying)
(He lies on the beach all day. I will lie down.)
(He had lain on the beach all day. I lay down. I have lain down.) |
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Term
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Definition
“farther” for physical distance and “further” for metaphorical, or figurative, distance.
It's easy to remember because “farther” has the word “far” in it, and“far” obviously relates to physical distance |
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Term
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Definition
"Better" is a comparative, i.e. it is a relationship between two things.
"Best" is a superlative, i.e. it states the position of this one thing compared to all the other things under discussion. |
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Term
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Definition
In general use fewer for individual items, less for bulk or quantity.
(Fewer than 10 applicants called.) - individuals
(I had less than $50 in my pocket.) - an amount
(But I had fewer than 50 $1 bills in my pocket) - Individual items |
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