Welcome to summer, wordsmiths!

Following, an A to Z list of common questions, stubborn stumpers, and periodic puzzlers . . .

advisor, not adviser (unless you’re writing in AP style, see bottom of this page)

book titles:

• italicize them, including the: Fielding, in his introduction to The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, announces himself as a professional author.
• One exception—if “the” would be awkward in running text: Fielding’s History of Tom Jones . . .

committee: Treat as a collective noun taking a singular verb when referring to an academic body: The committee meets every Thursday.

Dads’ Gates: the wrought-iron gates at the north entrance of campus between the Robinson Theatre and McKenzie Hall

emerit: The default gender-neutral honorary title denoting retirement should be used unless a faculty member prefers an alternate version; the plural is emerits. A group of one hundred university professors attended the conference, ten of whom were emerits. Alan Anderson, professor emerit of Romance languages, met with Professor Emerit Mary Smith.

fieldwork

Go Ducks! (no comma after Go.)

health care

internet, not Internet

jargon: Avoid technical, specialized terms. Think twice before using buzzwords such as “bandwidth,” “leverage,” “deliverables,” and “synergy.”

Karl Scholz: For formal written communications including diplomas, legal documents, commencement programs, and investiture materials, use John Karl Scholz. For all other communications use President Karl Scholz.

lectures:

• The titles of lecture series and individual lecture titles are capitalized in headline style.
• The titles of lecture series are not italicized.
• Individual lecture titles are enclosed in quotation marks: We went to the African American Workshop Lecture Series. The lecture was called “Teaching for Tomorrow.”

McArthur Court: Do not use “historic.” Mac Court can be acceptable, consider context.

numbers: In nontechnical contexts, our guide, the Chicago Manual of Style, advises spelling out whole numbers from zero through one hundred. For more: Numbers.

Oregon Bach Festival: On second reference, festival is preferable to the acronym OBF.

PathwayOregon: One word, no space, note capitalization

quarters, academic: lowercase them, as in spring quarter, winter quarter

residence hall, not “dormitory”

semester: use as the general reference to any academic semester at the School of Law

theater, not theatre, except for the names of theaters that use the variant spelling: Robinson Theatre

university-wide

vessels or ships: use italics. The Oregon Institute of Marine Biology christened a new boat, the research vessel Megalopa.

well-being, not wellbeing

X-ray and x-ray: The former is a noun, the latter a verb. The doctor uses an X-ray machine to x-ray patients.

years: Use an en dash (–) between the first and second number to denote inclusive dates in a range: 2016–17. Use to when you use from: I served on the committee from 1978 to 1988, but I was gone for the 1980–83 period.

In Word, en and em dashes can be found by selecting Insert, then the Omega symbol (Ω), then “more symbols,” and clicking the tab for special characters.

zebrafish

Send your questions to editor Matt Cooper, University Communications.

The Chicago Manual of Style is the reference book on editorial style for all communications on behalf of the University of Oregon except AroundtheO and press releases produced by University Communications, both of which follow the Associated Press Stylebook.