Tiger Times Official

Style/Grammar Guide
I. Article Format
Times New Roman, size 12
Single spacing (but include spaces between paragraphs)
Do not indent
Header:
Picture Ideas:
Word Count:
Draft #/Issue #
[SECTION NAME]
Use the following format for file names AND for email titles when sending drafts to
the gmail:
[SECTION NAME] Full headline - Draft # - Issue # - Full Name
II. Acronyms
FIRST REFERENCE: spell out with acronym in (parentheses)
Ex. Primary English Teachers' Association (PETA)
SECOND REFERENCE AND ONWARD: only acronym
Ex. PETA
No periods between abbreviations
Ex. "the US," NOT "the U.S."
Do not spell out very familiar abbreviations
Ex. SIS, AP, SAT, mph, the US, UNICEF
But spell out AISA for non-SIS readers
No need to spell out acronyms in headlines and captions
III. Capitalization
i. Capitalize:
Official class names
Ex. Senior Class
Specific course title
Ex. AP Biology, Global Issues
Official positions
Ex. Fredric Schneider, Director of Pupil Personnel Services
Direction when it is part of an official name
Ex. South Korea, North Atlantic Treaty Organization
ii. DO NOT capitalize:
Class names when identifying individual students
Ex. "senior student," NOT "Senior student"
General academic subjects
Ex. biology, international affairs
General titles
Ex. social studies teacher
Sports teams
Ex. varsity boys basketball team, varsity girls, varsity swim team
Individual or informal group of players
Ex. "The boys won their first basketball game," NOT "The Boys won their
first basketball game"
Direction
Ex. "south," NOT "South"
IV. Dates
Only write month and date if it is clear that it refers to the current year
Ex. "School started on Aug. 8," NOT "School started on Aug. 8, 2011"
Write month, date AND year if it refers another year
Abbreviate months when they are accompanied by a day
Ex. Feb. 5, Aug. 11
Do not abbreviate when referring to only the month
Ex. February 2011
Abbreviate months in this fashion: Jan., Feb., March, April, May, June, July, Aug.,
Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.
Do not use apostrophes when referring to decades
Ex. "1970s," NOT "1970's"
V. Numbers
Numbers one to nine are spelled out; 10 and numbers above remain as numbers
Ex. one, two, 14
Use numbers for ages, money, days, years, percentages, temperature, proportions,
votes, scores, speeds, dimensions
Spell out number if it is the first word in a sentence (but avoid starting sentences
with numbers)
Spell out fractions less than one
Ex. one third, three fifths
Use figures for measurements
Ex. 3 mph, 35 mm
Use commas for figures 1,000 and above or refer to as "millions," etc. if necessary
Do not use minus signs for temperatures below zero
Ex. "minus 10" or "10 degrees below zero" NOT "-10"
VI. People
i. Students
FIRST REFERENCE: full name and grade level in parentheses
Ex. Stephanie Song (12)
SECOND REFERENCE AND ONWARD: first name only
Ex. Stephanie
If there is more than one student with the same first name in one article, refer to
by full name but exclude grade level
Use formal spelling of students' names, not nicknames
Ex. "Stephanie Song," NOT "Steph Song"
If necessary, include title or position
Ex. Stephanie Song (12), varsity soccer player
ii. Adults
Courtesy titles are Mr. and Ms.
If in the context of a sports team, refer to adult as coach
Ex. "Coach Hubley," NOT "Ms. Hubley"
FIRST REFERENCE: full name and title without courtesy title
Ex. Michael Castellani, math teacher
SECOND REFERENCE AND ONWARD: courtesy title and last name
Ex. Mr. Castellani
iii. Korean Names
Order should be first name, last name
Ex. "Jisu Kim," NOT "Kim Jisu"
When separation between two syllables is unclear, use hyphen
Ex. Min-ah Shin
If the person's official name does not fit the previous rule, just go by their official
name
VII. Photo Captions
Follow general ABC format
Action-packed beginning
Start off caption with a verb
Basic information
Who, what, when, where
Use present tense
Complementary information
Quotes, dates, results
Use past tense
VIII. Quotes
FIRST MENTION: QUOTE, Stephanie Song (12) said.
SECOND MENTION: QUOTE, Stephanie said.
Use the following structure when you need to attribute the person you quote.
QUOTE, said Fred Schneider, Dean of Students.
Do not overuse brackets ([ ]s) to clean up quotes; get precise wording while
interviewing and/or ask interviewee to rephrase
Quotes get their own paragraphs
NOTE on quotation marks: In a normal sentence, the closing quotation mark
always goes right after the comma or period.
Ex. "Punch," released in 2011, is a Korean film.
Ex. Last weekend she watched "The King's Speech."
IX. Titles
Put quotations around your own words when indicating irony or sarcasm (but
avoid doing this)
Italicize Korean or foreign words
Don't italicize other publications
Ex. New York Times, not New York Times
X. Miscellaneous
Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives or as substitutes for nouns
Ex. "A 17-year-old girl" and "They are all 17-year-olds"
Use "a.m." and "p.m.," NOT "AM" or "A.M."
Use "midnight" for "12 a.m." and "noon" for "12 p.m."
Use singular "freshman", not plural "freshmen," as the adjective
Ex. "Freshman Class," NOT "Freshmen Class"
Use single quotations for quote within quote
Ex. "'Be quiet,' my teacher said to me," said Rebecca Black (12).
Use long dash without spaces around it
Ex. Seoulthe capital city of South Koreais very polluted.
Use single quotes in headlines
Ex. Rebecca Black calls critics 'crazy'
Spell out "percent"
Spell out "degrees" and capitalize "Celsius"
Keep the "$" sign, do not spell out "dollar"
J&J Catering Co., Ltd.
FIRST REFERENCE: J&J Catering
SECOND REFERENCE AND ONWARD: J&J
"Adviser," NOT "advisor"
"All right," NEVER "alright"
Email," NOT "e-mail"
"Afterward" NOT "afterwards" and "backward," NOT "backwards"
"Fewer" for countable nouns and "less" for uncountable nouns
Ex. "Fewer students," NOT "less students"t
"Farther" when referring to actual distances and "further" when referring to
advancing in degree
Ex. "Farther down the road there is a school," and "SIS made further
improvements to its facilities"
Do not use the Oxford comma
Ex. "I bought bananas, apples and grapes," NOT "I bought bananas, apples,
and grapes"
Do not use contractions
Ex. "is not," NOT "isn't"