Infopeople Stylesheet
The following are stylistic conventions used by Infopeople, both on the website and in other publications. They're here to help provide consistency in spelling and grammar.
Library-specific conventions:
Unless specifically referring to librarians, use the more general term staff.
Use the name of the library as displayed on their website.
Use the term users instead of patrons.
Unless specifically referring to public libraries, use facilities or service points instead of branches.
Abbreviations and Acronyms:
In general, omit periods from initialisms: ALA, CLA, PDA, URL, but U.S., U.N. Use U.S. as an adjective and United States as a noun.
She's going to visit the U.S. territories of Guam and American Samoa before returning to the United States.
Addresses:
Some web addresses still require www, but many do not. The best practice is to check any web address to see if it works without the www. Since the http:// part of a URL does not have to be typed into a browser address box, it no longer needs to be included in the address. Both of the above mean the Infopeople Project website address is simply infopeople.org.
Dates:
Month and year: September 2006 (no comma).
Disabilities:
The term disabled is preferable to handicapped. The phrase people with disabilities is preferable to the disabled.
Ellipses:
The ellipsis (plural ellipses) is the mark that indicates the omission of quoted material, as in "Brevity is ... wit." Although most style manuals prefer the use of spaces between the periods, the preferred use in electronic communications is to NOT use spaces between the periods, since line-breaks can be unpredictable. DO place a space before the ellipsis and another after. The ellipsis itself is three periods (always); it can appear next to other punctuation, including an end-of-sentence period (resulting in four periods). Use four only when the words on either side of the ellipsis make full sentences.
Gender:
Do not use he, she, his, or her unless gender is essential to meaning. Do not use s/he or his/her; avoid the use of he or she, or his or her if possible.
A plural construction often solves problems: Donors may pay by credit card if they so choose.
Be careful not to mix singular and plural: Every student has their preference. (incorrect) All students have their preferences. (correct)
Use chair rather than chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson.
Hyphens:
A compound is hyphenated when it comes before the noun, but not after it.
She directs their computer-assisted reference services. (but Almost all our services are computer assisted.)
He lives in off-campus housing. (but His home is off campus.)
She is a well-respected professor. (but Professor Frye is well respected.)
Indefinite Articles:
Words starting with a pronounced h, long u or eu take the article a, not an: a hotel, a historic study, a euphonious word, a URL; but an honor, an heir.
Numbers:
Spell out zero through nine in ordinary text, and spell out any number that begins a sentence: seven, 17, 700, 7,000. Exceptions include unit and monetary values, scores, percentages, and decimal fractions -- all of which may be indicated with numerals.
Plurals:
The only nouns that take 's in the plural are abbreviations with more than one period and single letters: M.B.A.'s; R.N.'s; A's and B's; x's and y's. Berkeley awards more Ph.D.'s to women and minorities than Harvard.
Acronyms, hyphenated coinages, and numbers used as nouns (either spelled out or as numerals) add s (or es) to form the plural. An exception is an acronym ending in the letter s: W-2s; 747s; 1980s; wi-fis; follow-ups; sixes and sevens; but SOS's.
Possessives:
Plural nouns ending in s take only an apostrophe: the horses' food, the VIPs' entrance, states' rights. Singular nouns ending in s take 's to form the possessive: campus's, The Times's, James's, except when two or more sibilants precede the apostrophe: Kansas', Moses'.
Quotation marks:
Use quotation marks to indicate a citation or direct quotation. Place commas and periods inside the closing quotation mark; colons and semicolons go outside. Placement of a question mark depends on the meaning: Does it apply to the part quoted or to the whole sentence?
Series Comma:
Use a comma before 'and' in a series (A, B, and C).
PREFERRED USAGE AND/OR WORDS COMMONLY MISUSED
appraise, apprise: Appraise: set a value on; apprise: inform
affect, effect:
"To affect" means (1) to influence, change or produce an effect; (2) to like to do, wear or use; or (3) to pretend. "To effect" means to accomplish, complete, cause, make possible or carry out. If you're looking for a noun, you're probably looking for effect. If you're using a verb, you're safest with affect.
afterward: not afterwards
database: one word
email: one word, no hyphen
fundraising: not fund-raising nor fund raising
its, it's: This one is easy but, nevertheless, often misused.
Its is the possessive form of the pronoun it: The group decided that its rules were too strict.
It's is a contraction for it is or it has: It's a requirement that each department have its own chair.
TIP: A quick way to check if you've used the correct version is to read the sentence back to yourself, inserting 'it is' in place of it's or its to determine if it still makes sense.
lie, lay: The verb to lie (indicating a state of reclining) does not take a direct object: I lie down. Its past tense is lay: I lay down; its past perfect tense is have lain: I have lain down all day; and its present participle is lying: I am lying down; I was lying down.
The verb to lay is an action word and takes a direct object: I lay the book down; its past tense is laid: I laid the book down; past perfect is have laid: I have laid the book down; and its present participle is laying: I am laying the book down; I was laying the book down.
The verb to lie (as in to speak an untruth) takes the forms lied, have lied, and lying.
login, logon, logoff [noun]: but log in, log on, log off when used in verb form: Please log in to your account using your login name.
on-ground: two words, hyphen
online, offline: one word, no hyphen
that, which: That heads a restrictive clause; which heads a descriptive clause.
Note the difference in meaning between these two sentences: The Navy is mothballing all of its ships that are rusty (the only ships being mothballed are the rusty ones); The Navy is mothballing all of its ships, which are rusty (all of the Navy's ships are rusty, and all are being mothballed). If the clause can be removed without changing the meaning of the sentence, the word is which.
their, there, or they're: Their is the possessive form of the pronoun they. It always describes a noun. There is an adverb meaning "that location." It is sometimes used with the verb to be as an idiom. They're is a contraction of they are.
Examples:
Their cat has fleas. (possessive of they)
I put the cat's collar right there. (that location)
There are five prime numbers less than ten. (with to be)
They're 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7. (contraction of they are)
then vs. than: Then refers to a place in time, but than is used to signal a comparison or express an exception. There's a mnemonic for one word of this pair: Then is When.
First we'll go to the library, then we'll go to the shopping mall.
Visiting the library is more fun than going shopping.
No one other than you would rather read a book than buy a new scarf.
USAGE NOTE: The transition from World Wide Web site to Web site to website seems to have progressed as rapidly as the technology itself. The development of website as a single uncapitalized word mirrors the development of other technological expressions which have tended to evolve into unhyphenated forms as they become more familiar. Thus email has recently been gaining ground over the forms E-mail and e-mail, especially in texts that are more technologically oriented. Similarly, there has been an increasing preference for closed forms like homepage, online, and printout. -- The American Heritage Dictionary http://bartleby.com/61/57/W0075725.html
your, you're: Another one that is often misused.
Your is the possessive form of the personal pronoun you. You're is a contraction of you are.
Your books are overdue.
You're going to pay your fine when you return the books.
TIP: A quick way to check if you've used the correct version is to read the sentence back to yourself, inserting 'you are' in place of you're or your to determine if it still makes sense.
Sources consulted:
- Usage notes from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2000 --
- http://bartleby.com/61/
- The Berkeley Editorial Style Guide --
- http://identity.berkeley.edu/downloads/ucb_editorial_style.pdf
- UCLA Dictionary of Style --
- http://www.ucla.edu/cwc/graphics/UCLAStyle.pdf
- lii.org Style Manual, Third Edition, Draft Release, June 20, 2003 --
- http://lii.org/search/file/style
Please send questions or comments to Carole Leita (leita at infopeople dot org).