Commencement style roundup
It’s March, which means commencement stories are filling up editorial calendars across campus. But is it Commencement or commencement? Where does the apostrophe go in class years? Did your student earn a B.A. or BA or bachelor’s? Below is a quick roundup of commencement style for reference in the next couple of months.
Let’s start with commencement itself. Following University style, in most cases this word is lowercase—except when it refers to a specific Notre Dame ceremony or event. So He will be this year’s commencement speaker vs. He will speak at Notre Dame’s 2023 Commencement. Commencement Weekend is also capitalized when referring to the set of events on that weekend.
In general, academic degree abbreviations include periods when there are two letters—B.A., M.A.—but no periods in three or more capitalized letters—BFA, MFA, MBA. However, Ph.D. and M.Div. retain the periods because they’re a mix of upper and lower case.
When degrees are spelled out, lowercase bachelor’s degree and master’s degree but use capitals in Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Master of Fine Arts, etc. Note that in most cases, doctorate or doctoral is preferred to Ph.D.
Honors, including cum laude, magna cum laude and summa cum laude, are not italicized.
Capitalize the word Class in reference to a graduating class. Class groups—freshmen, sophomores, junior, senior, and graduate—are invariably lowercase.
When years are abbreviated, an apostrophe is used before the year: Reggie is a member of the Class of ’23. This denotes to the reader that numbers are being omitted (similar to how an apostrophe is used in contractions such as don’t or I’m). The apostrophe should always curl outward.
In all cases, Mass is capitalized: Commencement Mass, Sunday Mass. Note that Mass is celebrated, not said.
University style for livestream and livestreaming is one word, with no hyphen or space.
While this is certainly not an exhaustive list, you can find more guidance in the University Style Guide, or please email me at bcollin8@nd.edu if you have a more specific question.
Pop quiz
Is everyday an adjective or an adverb?
February pop quiz winner
Congrats to Erin Blasko, assistant director of media relations, the winner of the February pop quiz!
What's the University's preferred format for listing a time? 8:00 a.m.
The University follows Chicago style for listing times. To read more, go to Chicago 9.37.
Digital signage style
Announcing a new style guide for digital signs! Do you want to know more about best practices for making the digital signs that are displayed around campus? For information about font size, copy, length, etc., check out the new guide created by MarComm, now posted to OnMessage.nd.edu.
Did you know?
You can find previous editions of Editor’s Note on the NDWorks website by clicking on this link or finding the button labeled Editor’s Note near the bottom of the home page.
Latest Style Guide updates
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Laudato si’
Note that the si is lowercase and has an apostrophe after it. It is not italicized. If it falls at the end of a sentence, add the period after the apostrophe: Laudato si’. For most audiences, it’s best to explain in the copy a bit about what this is: a 2015 encyclical from Pope Francis about the environment, subtitled “On Care for Our Common Home.”
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pull quotes
Pull quotes in stories should be put in quotation marks if they’re taken directly from a quote within the story. If the pull quote is a paraphrase or taken from something the author wrote, do not use quotation marks. Pull quotes do not get dialogue tags such as “said,” but direct quotes should be credited with the full name of the person being quoted.