Reintroducing myself; style updates
Welcome to a new academic year! With this new start, and because of the number of new Editor’s Note subscribers over the past few months, I wanted to use the August edition to reintroduce both myself and this newsletter. (Please forgive this August edition’s arrival on September 1.)
I’m Brittany Kaufman, the editor/proofer in the Office of Public Affairs and Communications. I’ve been at Notre Dame for more than 10 years now—I started in Media Relations and moved to my current role in 2018, although I’ve been wielding a red pen since 2006. I spent time in journalism, PR, and magazines after graduating with a degree in linguistics from Purdue University. I live in South Bend with my husband, our toddler, and our two dogs.
Each month, I send this newsletter to share University Style Guide updates alongside relevant stories, news, fun quizzes, and other topics. Even if your job title doesn’t have writer in it, if you produce any sort of written content on behalf of Notre Dame, this newsletter is for you!
You can catch up on previous editions on the NDWorks website. If you know anyone on campus who would be interested in these updates, please feel free to forward this email to them and fill out the form at this link to subscribe. As always, I welcome any feedback at my email, bcollin8@nd.edu. I have a lot of useful topics planned for coming months, and I’m always interested to know what ideas you have.
Go Irish!
Style guide updates
There are two style guide updates to share this month—one football-related and one thanks to a question from a reader.
The first is how to style game day—one word or two? Capitalized or not? In my years here, I’ve seen it styled every way you can think of. The University Style Guide had said “Game Day,” but it seems units on campus have moved away from that perhaps overly formal styling. After some looking into, we’ve landed on a new style: gameday (one word, no capitalization unless it’s part of an official event title).
The other stems from a question about whether to list a time and then a date in stories about events, or a date and then a time (e.g., 10:00 a.m. Monday or Monday at 10:00 a.m.). This is another area where there generally isn’t any consistency around campus. For a few reasons, including the fact that it’s AP style and will be consistent with University news releases, we’ve settled on listing a time followed by the date in stories. You can find this in the University Style Guide under time and date.
Pop quiz
Should fall break be capitalized? What about Spring Break?
Click on your answer to submit your response. If you have the correct response, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free treat!
July pop quiz winner
Congrats to Elicia Dennis, prospect management consultant in Development, the winner of the July pop quiz!
Which is University style for formatting numbers in general? Numbers below 10 are spelled out, but above 10 use digits.
Although there are many exceptions, in general, numbers below 10 are spelled out in running text, and numbers above 10 use digits. This follows the Chicago Manual of Style’s alternative rule for numbers, spelled out in chapter 9.3.
For the full guidelines and the list of exceptions, see numbers, numerals in the University Style Guide.
Latest style guide updates
-
gameday
One word. Do not capitalize unless it’s part of an official event title.
- My family is coming to campus for gameday.
- Football gameday events kick off at 7:00 a.m.
-
time and date
When giving a time and date for events and other topics, list the time followed by the date.
- The lecture starts at 10:00 a.m. Monday, September 18.
- The open house is from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 7.