abbreviations and acronyms
Avoid using abbreviations in running text. A few standard abbreviations may be used when it is customary, e.g., a.m./p.m, Dr.
Acronyms (pronounced as a word) or initialisms (whose letters are sounded out individually) may replace terms after being introduced in parentheses. E.g., Student Government Association (SGA) members spent the morning volunteering at the Big Blue Welcome event.
Acronyms and initialisms that appear in full caps do not take periods. Plural form of an acronym should contain the addition of an s. No apostrophe is needed.
academic buildings
See building names.
academic degrees
The term “associate degree” does not use an apostrophe, unlike bachelor’s degree or master’s degree.
There is no apostrophe in a spelled-out title: Associate in Science, Bachelor of Arts, Master of Science
The word “degree” is not needed after the full name of a degree: He earned an Associate in Arts or an Associate in Applied Science in Automotive Systems Technology.
Place periods after the letters in academic abbreviations: A.A., A.S., A.A.S., M.A., Ph.D.
academic disciplines and programs
Use lowercase for academic subjects, majors and minors, and courses of study, except in cases that include a proper noun. E.g., John is interested in welding, and became a Welding Technology student.
For a full list of Isothermal’s academic programs, see isothermal.edu/academics
academic titles
Use lowercase in running text when appearing after a name, e.g. Beth Smith, instructor of biology; capitalize if context requires the title to appear before the name, e.g. Instructor Smith.
addresses
In college addresses, note the recipient in the first line; the department, division, or office in the second; followed by the name of the institution in the third. Building name is unnecessary. Street address and city, state, and zip code go in the final two lines. U.S. postal regulations dictate that one should avoid punctuation.
John Doe
Isothermal Community College
286 ICC Loop
P.O. Box 804
Spindale, NC 28160
administrative titles
Use lowercase when a title appears after a name in running text, e.g. John Dow, president of Isothermal Community College. Use uppercase in headline text or when context requires the title to appear before the name, e.g. Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs.
advisor
Advisor is preferred to adviser.
Alumni
Alumni: refers to a group of men and women who have attended school.
Alumnus: refers to a man who attended school. Use alumni as the plural form.
Alumna: refers to a woman who has attended school.
Alumnae: plural form of alumna.
Alum: gender-neutral term for a graduate or former student.
a.m./p.m.
Capitalize named buildings and lowercase rooms in named buildings if a formal name is not available. E.g., Meeting will take place in the Library storage closet.
See the full list of building names.
Introduce a bulleted or numbered list with a complete sentence followed by a colon. Use a numbered list when items in the list must happen in a specific order; otherwise, a bulleted list if the steps can happen in any order.
Clubs reflect a variety of interests:
How to create a list:
class year
Lowercase class years, e.g., John Dough class of ’56.
college, the
See Isothermal Community College
course names
Formal course names are rarely used in copy. Lowercase and use informally, e.g., he taught a class on social Philosophy. When used, official names of courses of study are capitalized, as are course names with their associated course number, e.g., she registered for Philosophy 215.
dates
Spell out the names of days and months. Use a comma before and after the year when including the day, but not when using only the month and year.
Examples:
The commencement ceremony on May 20, 2019, was held in the Frank and Mabel West Auditorium.
He attended classes virtually in May 2020.
Avoid the unnecessary use of the words the and of. E.g. he retired in spring 2021, not in the spring of 2021.
Use the words from and to together, e.g. from April 1 to May 15. Otherwise, use an en dash, e.g. registration is January 1 – February 15. Use the word and between consecutive dates, an ampersand may be used in a title. E.g. Performances are at 7 p.m. on August 1 and 2.
Use cardinals, although they may be pronounced as ordinals, e.g. May 18, not May 18th.
Use lowercase for the seasons and words derived from them, e.g. the fall semester, springtime.
gender-neutral pronouns
geographic locations
Well-known regional terms are capitalized, e.g. the Foothills of North Carolina or Western North Carolina.
homepage
Homepage is the appropriate version of home page.
hyphen
See punctuation.
ID
Use without periods, because the letters do not stand for separate words.
Capitalize Isothermal Community College; lowercase for instances of the college.
letter spacing
Use only one space after a period.
logo usage
See Logos in the Branding Guide.
numbers
Spell out whole numbers from zero through nine, e.g. three people came in fifth, and any number beginning a sentence. Use numerals for other numbers larger than nine.
parking lots
Use lowercase in text, e.g. use the Administration parking lot.
percent
Use figures for percent or percentages: 1 percent, 2.5 percent, 4 percentage points. A range: 12 to 15 percent or between 12 and 15 percent.
policies
Use uppercase for campus policies, e.g., the Course Repeat policy.
Use the singular they, them, and theirs when a subject's gender is unspecified. This also makes it easier than his/her, just use the simpler form their. E.g. Students should log in with their Patriot Port ID.
telephone numbers
Use hyphens instead of parenthesis for the area code, e.g. 828-286-3636
The abbreviations a.m. and p.m. are used in text, headlines, and lists.
Usage:
uniform resource locators (URLs)
A URL—for example, isothermal.edu—is designed to lead a reader directly to an internet source.
When citing a web address in print, it is acceptable to start with the domain name: isothermal.edu/getstarted
When citing a web address online,