bachelor of arts, bachelor of science
A bachelor’s degree or bachelor’s is acceptable in any reference. See academic degrees for guidelines on when the abbreviations B.A. or B.S. are acceptable.
List of Terms: B-C
Baughman Center, (George and Hazel)
Note “Meditation” is NOT part of the name.
because, since
Use because to denote a specific cause-effect relationship: He went because he was told. Since is acceptable in a causal sense when the first event in a sequence led logically to the second but was not its direct cause: They went to the game, since they had been given the tickets.
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
at Florida Field.
between you and me
Never between you and I.
between, among
Use between to show relationship between two objects; use among when more than two objects are involved.
biweekly
Means every other week. Semiweekly means twice a week.
black
Acceptable for a person of the black race. African-American is acceptable for an American black person of African descent. Use Negro only in names of organizations or in quotations. Do not use colored as a synonym. The first black graduate student was enrolled at UF in 1958.
board
Capitalize only when an integral part of a proper name. See capitalization.
board of directors, board of trustees
Lowercase unless the proper name is part of the sentence such as the University of Florida Board of Trustees. See organizations and institutions entry.
Board of Governors
The 17-member board governs Florida’s public university system of 12 universities with an enrollment of 294,000 students, about 50,000 staff and faculty and annual operating budget of $8 billion. See State University System.
Board of Regents
Replaced by the Board of Governors in 2003. See State University System.
Boost Alcohol Consciousness Concerning the Health of University Students
BACCHUS acceptable on all references for internal publications. Alcohol awareness program founded at UF in 1976.
Brain Institute
buildings
Use official name of campus facilities with uppercase in formal communication. On second reference, lowercase when proper name is not used: Career Resource Center; the center helps students find jobs. See Building Abbreviations.
Bureau of Economic and Business Research
BEBR or bureau on second reference.
C.A.R.E.
Center of Sexual Assault/Abuse Recovery & Education (CARE). Formerly Sexual Assault Recovery Services (SARS). Offers confidential individual and group counseling by specially trained therapists.
cabinet
Capitalized when referring to group of advisers. Distinguish on first reference: Florida Cabinet, U.S. Cabinet.
call letters
Use all caps. Use hyphens to separate the type of station from the basic call letters: WUFT-TV, WUFT-FM.
campuswide
One word. Also citywide, countywide, statewide, nationwide, universitywide and worldwide. But: World Wide Web.
can, may
Although the distinction is not often observed in everyday speech, these auxiliary verbs have different functions, especially in formal writing. Can is used to indicate ability to do something; may to ask, grant or deny permission to do it.
Capital Campaign
The University of Florida’s comprehensive capital campaign began in 2005 and is scheduled to be completed in 2012 with a goal of raising $1.5 billion in private gifts and pledges. The theme of the capital campaign is “Florida Tomorrow.”
capital, capitol
A capital is the city where a seat of government is located: Tallahassee is the capital of Florida. A capitol is the building in which state and federal legislative bodies meet. Capitalize U.S. Capitol when referring to the building in Washington.
capitalization
In general, avoid unnecessary capitals. Use a capital letter only if you can justify it by one of the principles listed here. Many words and phrases, including special cases, are listed separately. If there is no relevant listing for a particular word or phrase, consult a dictionary.
- proper nouns: Capitalize nouns that identify a specific person, place or thing: Heather, Atlanta and Africa.
- proper names: Capitalize common nouns such as party, river, street, west, college and university when they are an integral part of the full name for a person, place or thing: Democratic Party, Potomac River, Fleet Street, West Virginia, College of Fine Arts, University of Florida. Lowercase when they stand alone in subsequent references: the party, the river, the street, the college, the university. Lowercase names in all plural uses: the Democratic and Republican parties, Main and State streets.
- titles: Capitalize formal titles when used immediately before a name. Lowercase formal titles when used alone or in constructions that set them off from a name by commas. See academic titles.
Career Resource Center
Career planning for students and alumni. Located in the Reitz Student Union. Use center on second reference.
carillon
Installed in Century Tower in 1979, it has 49 bells. The bells chime on the quarter hour, and special concerts are played on football weekends, Homecoming and other special events.
Center for the Performing Arts
centers
For a complete listing see Center Names.
Century Tower
Built in 1953 to honor UF alumni killed in the world wars, the tower takes its name from the fact that it was constructed during UF’s centennial year. The tower stands 156 feet tall.
chairman, chairwoman
Chair is preferred: department chair, but chairman or chairwoman for news releases. Never chairperson unless it is an organization’s formal title for an office.
chancellor
Lowercase second reference. Administrator to Florida Board of Governors. Uppercase preceding name.
Cicerones
Students who serve as official ambassadors for UF.
cities and towns
Capitalize them in all uses. See datelines for guidelines on when they should be followed by a state or a country name. Capitalize official titles, including separate political entities such as East St. Louis, Ill., or West Palm Beach, Fla. The preferred form for the section of a city is lowercase: the west end, northern Los Angeles. But capitalize widely recognized names for the sections for a city: South Side (Chicago), Lower East Side (New York). See directions, regions. Spell out the names of cities unless in direct quotes: A trip to Los Angeles, but: “We’re going to L.A.”
CLAS
classes, courses
Lowercase when referring to courses and classes: I took a fine arts class and a business class. Uppercase if referring to specific name of a class or the class uses a proper noun or numeral: I took Psychology 2000 and Spanish 1000.
classroom
One word.
clean up, cleanup
One word as noun or adjective, but clean up as a verb.
close, near
Close is preferred when immediate proximity is meant.
co-
Retain the hyphen when forming nouns, adjectives and verbs that indicate occupation or status:
- co-author
- co-pilot
- co-chairman
- co-respondent (in a divorce suit)
- co-defendant
- co-signer
- co-host
- co-star
- co-owner
- co-worker
- co-partner
(Several are exceptions to Webster’s New World in the interests of consistency.) Use no hyphen in other combinations:
- coed
- cooperate
- coeducation
- cooperative
- coequal
- coordinate
- coexist
- coordination
- coexistence
Cooperate, coordinate and related words are exceptions to the rule that a hyphen is used if a prefix ends in a vowel and the word that follows begins with the same vowel.
coach
Capitalize only when used without a qualifying term before the name of the person who directs an athletic team: Coach Steve Spurrier, head coach Steve Spurrier, the coach said.
coed
Coed dorms house students of both sexes, but never use to refer to a female college student.
collective nouns
The collective nouns faculty and staff can be used in singular and plural senses: the French faculty meets regularly with the other language faculties; the staff sometimes disagree among themselves.
College Level Academic Skills Test
CLAST on second reference.
College of Architecture
College of Business Administration
Now Warrington College of Business. Business college on second reference.
College of Law
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
College or CLAS on second reference.
Collegiate Living Organization
A student-run housing cooperative, CLO or the organization on second reference.
committees, task forces
Capitalize names of specific committees and task forces: The People Awareness Week Committee met yesterday, and lowercase second references: the task force selected the guest speakers.
company, companies
Consult the company or Standard & Poor’s Register of Corporations if in doubt about a formal name. Do NOT, however, use a comma before Inc. or Ltd. Do NOT use all capital letter names unless the letters are individually pronounced: CRX, USX. Others should be uppercase and lowercase. See organizations and institutions entry.
compose, comprise, constitute
Compose means to create or put together. It commonly is used in both the active and passive voices: She composed a song. The United States is composed of 50 states. The zoo is composed of many animals. Comprise means to contain, to include all or embrace. It is best used only in the active voice, followed by direct object: The United States comprises 50 states. The jury comprises five men and seven women. The zoo comprises many animals. Constitute, in the sense of form or make up, may be the best word if neither compose nor comprise seems to fit: Fifty states constitute the United States. Fifty men and seven women constitute the jury. A collection of animals can constitute a zoo. Use include when what follows is only part of the total: The price includes breakfast. The zoo includes lions and tigers.
composition titles
Apply the guidelines listed here to book titles, movie titles, opera titles, play titles, poem titles, song titles, television program titles, and the titles of lectures, speeches and works of art.
- Capitalize the principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters: The Star Spangled Banner.
- Capitalize an article (the, a, an) or a word of fewer than four letters if it is the first or last word in a title: “Of Mice and Men”.
- Put quotation marks around the names of all such works except the Bible and books that are primarily catalogs or reference material, including almanacs, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gazetteers, handbooks and similar publications: Encyclopedia Britannica.
- Translate a foreign title into English unless a work is known to the American public by its foreign name: Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”.
Computer & Information Sciences
An interdisciplinary department housed in the College of Engineering that offers degrees in the colleges of Business Administration, Engineering and Liberal Arts and Sciences. CIS on second reference.
Computer Sciences & Engineering Building
Note ’s’ at the end of “sciences.”
Constans Theatre
See also theatre, theater.
corporation
An entity that is treated as a person in the eyes of the law. It is able to own property, incur debts, sue and be sued. Abbreviate corporation as Corp. when a company or government agency uses the word at the end of its name: Gulf Oil Corp., the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Spell out corporation when it occurs elsewhere in a name: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Spell out and lowercase corporation whenever it stands alone. The form for possessives: Gulf Oil Corp.’s profits.
courtesy titles
In general, (outside of standard correspondence) do NOT use the courtesy titles Miss, Mr., Mrs., Ms. on first and last names of the person: Betty Ford, Jimmy Carter in regular copy. Do NOT use Mr. in any reference unless it is combined with Mrs.: Mr. and Mrs. John Smith or Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
currently, presently
Currently means now, presently is in the very near future.
curriculum
In plural form use curricula except for news media releases, where curriculums is preferred.
cutlines
Photo captions. Use parentheses to denote position of persons in cutlines: Harold Riker (center), director of University Housing, shows Charlotte Evans (right), of Cocoa, and her mother, Ellen Evans, the new residence room.