Datelines on news releases should contain a city name, entirely in capital letters, followed in most cases by the name of the state, county or territory where the city is located. Use AP style for state abbreviations, not ZIP code abbreviations. A dateline should tell the reader that the writer obtained the basic information for the news release in the datelined city. For more details, see the AP Stylebook.
Spell out days of week and months without days: September 2000. Abbreviate months with days: Sept. 1, 2000, except for March, April, May, June and July. Never use a comma between month and year when a specific day is not mentioned. Same is true for seasons: fall 1991. Comma should follow year when specific date is given: Feb. 8, 1990, was the date mentioned.
Do NOT abbreviate, except when needed in a tabular format: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat. Three letters, without periods, to facilitate tabular composition.
Do NOT use date for an upcoming or past event if it is within a week of the news release date: The concert will be held Thursday, NOT Thursday, Jan. 10 (if the release is dated Tuesday, Jan. 8). Likewise, do NOT use the year if it is within a year of the release date. Do NOT use “on” with dates when its absence would not lead to confusion: the program ends Dec. 15, NOT the program ends on Dec. 15. To describe sequences or inclusive dates or times use an en-dash (-)for “to”: Apply here May 7-9, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.. But NOT from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Spell out numerical designations first through ninth and use numerals with letter suffixes for 10th and above: the first semester, the 10th anniversary. Do NOT use “st” or “th” with dates: submit applications by Oct. 14, NOT Oct. 14th. Use ’s’ WITHOUT apostrophe to indicate spans of decades or centuries: UF became coed in the late 1940s. Use an apostrophe for class years: She belonged to the Class of ‘72.
Lowercase in all uses: He is on the dean’s list. She is a dean’s list student.
See academic degrees.
Formerly College of Architecture
Not dietician
Use figures and spell out inches, feet, yards, etc., to indicate depth, height, length, and width. Hyphenate adjectival forms before nouns: He is 5 feet 6 inches tall, the 5-foot-6-inch man, the 5-foot man, the basketball team signed a 7-footer. The car is 17 feet long, 6 feet wide and 5 feet high. The rug is 9 feet by 12 feet, the 9-by-12 rug. The storm left 5 inches of snow. Use an apostrophe to indicate feet and quote marks to indicate inches: 5′6″ only in very technical contexts.
In general, lowercase north, south, northeast, northern, etc., when they indicate compass direction; capitalize these words when they designate regions. Some examples:
Lowercase in most uses.
Do NOT capitalize arthritis, emphysema, leukemia, migraine, pneumonia, etc. When a disease is known by the name of a person identified with it, capitalize only the individual’s name: Bright’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, etc.
For news releases, use Dr. in first reference as a formal title before the name of an individual who holds a doctor of medicine, doctor of dental surgery, doctor of optometry, doctor of osteopathy, or doctor of podiatric medicine degree: Dr. Jonas Salk. The form Dr., or Drs., in a plural construction, applies to all first-reference uses before a name, including direct quotations. If appropriate in the context, Dr. also may be used on first reference before the names of individuals who hold other types of doctoral degrees. However, because the public frequently identifies Dr. only with physicians, care should be taken to assure that the individual’s specialty is stated in first or second reference. See academic titles.
Always lowercase. Use figures and the $ sign in all except casual references or amounts without a figure: The book cost $4. Dad, please give me a dollar. For specified amounts, the work takes a singular verb: He said $500,000 is what they want. For amounts of more than $1 million, use the $ and numerals up to two decimal places. Do NOT link the numerals and the word by a hyphen: He is worth $4.35 million. He is worth exactly $4,234,234. The form for amounts less than $1 million: $4, $25, $500, $1,000.
See residences.
Use solidus (/) with no spaces.
Education and General.
Electronic mail. Note lowercase ‘e’ and hyphen. Other examples: e-commerce, e-trading, e-retailing. When writing e-mail addresses, use all lowercase unless the address is case sensitive.
Exempli gratia or “for example.” Do NOT confuse with i.e.
Predecessor of UF, established in Ocala in January 1853. Merged with the Florida Agricultural College (Lake City) to become UF.
Use this word carefully and sparingly. It is appropriate in generic phrases that do not refer to specific individuals: concern for the elderly, a home for the elderly, etc. If the intent is to show that an individual’s faculties have deteriorated, cite a graphic example and give attribution for it. Apply the same principle to terms such as senior citizen.
Elicit (verb) means to bring out or draw forth: questions designed to elicit straightforward responses. Illicit (adjective) is applied to what is improper: an illicit love affair or illegal: illicit traffic in drugs.
Use an ellipsis (…) to indicate the deletion of one or more words in condensing quotes, texts and documents. Treat an ellipsis as a three-letter word. See detailed discussion in the AP Stylebook.
See allude.
This word often is added to formal titles to denote individuals who have retired but retain their rank or title. When used, place emeritus after the formal title, in keeping with the general practice of academic institutions: Professor Emeritus Samuel Eliot Morison or Samuel Eliot Morison, professor emeritus of history.
The state government matches private donations to establish Eminent Scholar Chairs at the state’s 11 public universities. Use fund or program on second reference.
Educates and informs students, faculty and staff about energy consumption at UF.
See insure.
Entitled means one has the right to do or to have something: she is entitled to the inheritance; use titled to introduce the name of a publication, musical composition, seminar, etc.
Use this full name on first reference when possible, but McKnight Brain Institute is increasingly the standard for first reference. The second reference is Brain Institute.
See telephone numbers.