Stylin
Do you capitalize senior class president? Do you spell out December
or abbreviate it? Keep this reference handy. It will save you time.
Names/titles/classes
Use full names on first reference.
On second reference, use only the
last name: Zak Taylor, student
government president, resigned.
Later, Taylor detailed his reasons.
Capitalize and spell out formal titles
of three words or fewer when they
precede a name, including Athletics
Director, Assistant Principal, Principal,
Superintendent:
Superintendent Mason Hammett.
Descriptive or occupational titles of
three words or fewer should precede
names and are not capitalized: senior
class president Joe Smith, art
teacher Myra Oliver.
Titles of four or more words should
follow names: Mrs. Kris Kenney,
chairperson of the English
Department.
Freshman, sophomore, junior and
senior are lowercase unless beginning
a sentence: junior Joel Patton.
Capitalize official course titles but not
general references: Until this year
Art II was offered both semesters.
For inspiration, art classes study
the masters.
Months/dates/times
If theyre used with a specific date,
abbreviate months with over six letters:
Jan. 13, Feb. 28, June 6, May 31
Spell out the names of the months
if theyre used alone: In December,
the Choraleers began a series of
concerts.
For days of the month, use only
numerals, not ordinals such as 2nd,
4th, 3rd: July 2, Sept. 3, March 4.
Days of the week should be
capitalized and not abbreviated:
Wednesday,Monday
Spell out noon and midnight. Use a
colon when the time does not fall on
the hour: 9:30 a.m., 11:15 p.m., 1
a.m., 10 a.m. The meeting began
at noon.
quotations
When quotation is followed by
attribution, place a comma between
them, unless the quote is a question:
We were excited, Schmidt said.
Were we excited? Schmidt asked.
A partial quotation does not need to be
set off with a comma. Do not capitalize
the first letter of the partial quote:
Jon Schmidt described the
pregame ritual as a raucous
bonding tradition.
When embedding attribution in a longer
quote, add it after the first sentence
and punctuate as shown:
My dog ate my homework, Millie
Nelson said. He had a terrible
stomach ache afterwards.
 SPORTS/
ACTIVITIES
Do you capitalize senior class president? Do you spell out December
or abbreviate it? Keep this reference handy. It will save you time.
CLUBS
Capitalize Student Council,
Choraleers, Spartan Times but
not marching band or yearbook.
The name of the yearbook should be
in quotes or italics. Decide and be
consistent. Who refers to people:
Steve has a friend who can help.
That and which refer to groups or
things: The team that wins goes to
state.
EVENTS
Capitalize Homecoming if it is used
as a noun: I went to Homecoming.
Dont capitalize if its used as an
adjective: homecoming dance.
SPORTS TEAMS
Capitalize JV, and dont use period
when JV is used as a modifier:
JV baseball.
Otherwise, spell it out:
the junior varsity team.
The adjective is singular:
freshman team.
Use the terms mens and womens
when referring to high school teams,
not boys and girls. Use of the
apostrophe doesnt imply possession;
it is a rewording of an expression
using of: The middle school team
of girls is rewritten as the girls
middle school team.
The winning score should always be
listed first, even if our team lost.
Remember the winning score is the
lower number in sports such as cross
country and golf.
Use hyphens for direct score
comparisons:
BHS beat Fairview 32-7; The
womens golf team won 110-125.
Use a comma to separate team and
score:
The final score was BHS 32,
Fairview 7.
List scores with commas to separate
teams and scores and semicolons to
separate teams from one another:
BHS, 40; Westlake, 37; Avon, 23;
Eastlake North, 12; and North
Ridgeville, 11.
Use numerals and hyphens for
statistical information used as
adjectives:
three-point shot, nine-yard pass,
100-meter dash, 1,600-meter race,
200-individual medley