Welcome to the monthly Quick Style Tips email, a useful supplement to our updated Editorial Style Guide, which features a user-friendly A to Z index to help you quickly find answers to all your writing style questions. The guide and monthly email help you ensure that all written communications are consistent with university style.* We encourage you to share it widely.

Featured question:

Are you using the right titles for faculty members? Do they hold an endowed or “named” chair? Please use that title for first reference.

• Check out the named faculty positions Smartsheet. (Click “Sign in with Microsoft” and use your Duck ID and password, if necessary; you must have an @uoregon.edu email. See the bottom for directions). Use named titles for first reference to these faculty members.
  • If Jane Doe’s academic title is associate professor but Jane holds a named position such as James F. and Shirley K. Rippey Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences, use the named title first. It may precede or follow the faculty member’s name: Jane Doe, James F. and Shirley K. Rippey Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences, was nominated . . . or: Evergreen Professor David Davison presented research . . .
• On subsequent references, longer named titles can be shortened while retaining capitalization: Doe, Rippey Chair, attended . . .
• It’s also appropriate to use the academic title on subsequent references, lowercase when following the name: Johnson, an associate professor, spoke recently . . .

Thanks to the Office of the Provost and Stewardship for maintaining this up-to-date resource.

Also in the style guide:

• See the ampersand entry for correct use with schools and colleges (e.g., School of Art + Design)
• Hung up on hyphens? Check out the Chicago Manual of Style hyphenation guide.
• Use emerit, the default gender-neutral honorary title denoting retirement, unless a faculty member prefers an alternate version: Professor Emerit Mary Smith. The plural is emerits (A group of one hundred university professors attended the conference, ten of whom were emerits.). See emerit for more information. 

Questions? Email editor Sharleen Nelson, University Communications.

See you next month!

* The University of Oregon editorial style guide follows the Chicago Manual of Style for all digital and printed publications with one exception: when writing for AroundtheO, use the AP Stylebook. To request access to the online version, contact Jennifer Archer, University Communications.

                                                                                                     To access the named faculty positions smartsheet in Wrike: