College Style Guide

The preferred style follows that of the Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

This is intended for use with conventionally printed and electronically published materials. Style and format in non-printed personal correspondence may vary. When in doubt, please contact the Office of Communications and Marketing for clarification.

Abbreviations

• Do not use in running text (Professor Smith, not Prof. Smith).
• US is acceptable as an adjective, but use United States for the noun.
• Always use US without periods between the letters (US not U.S.)
• Acceptable abbreviation in first use if common (CIA, CEO, SAT, NCAA, AIDS, HMO, NASA, FBI). Otherwise, introduce by placing the acronym in parentheses after the first use of the spelled-out term.
• The College’s URL, domain name, and email are lakeforest, not lfc.
• Do not use LFC to abbreviate the College’s name.

Ampersand

• Do not use an ampersand in place of the word and unless it is part of a formal title (AT&T).

Capitalization

• Official names are capitalized (Office of Admissions, Department of Chemistry) but use lowercase for informal form (chemistry department, registrar’s office)
• Set lower case departments or offices that are not official names (the alumni office); nouns used with numbers to designate chapter, rooms, pages, etc. (chapter 1, room 234, page 555); simple direction (the west coast of Michigan).
• Capitalize Commencement, Orientation, Homecoming, and Campaign when it refers to the College.
• See also course titles, degrees, headlines, times, titles of people, and the Web.

College

• Always capitalize College when referring to Lake Forest College. Never use LFC, always spell out Lake Forest College.

Comma (Serial)

• Always use a comma in a series before the end of a sentence (She liked dogs, cats, and birds.)

Class Years

• Indicate class years of alumni and students by listing the year after the name set off by an apostrophe. Note that the apostrophe is curved away from the class year (Jamie Williams ’16). Mac computer command is option + shift + ]. PC computer command is alt + 0146 (number lock on).

Course Titles

• Capitalize course titles but do not use quotation marks.

Dashes

• Use en dash (–) for a range (pages 40–48, 1991–92) and to join adjectives when one of the adjectives is already a compound (New York–Boston route).  Mac computer command is option + hyphen. PC computer command is alt + 0150 (number lock on).
• Use em dashes (—) for material that amplifies, explains, or disagrees. Commas may also be used for the same purpose. The Mac computer command for this is option + shift + hyphen. PC computer command is alt + 0151 (number lock on).
• Do not use a space before or after em/en dashes.
• Use en dash (–) between times (10–11 a.m).

Dates

• Use an en (–) dash to show a range of dates and do not repeat 19 or 20 (1998–99 and  1997–2002 and 2001–02). Do not use a space before or after an en dash.
• If the day of the month appears, use a comma before and after the year (by the January 15, 2014, deadline). Do not use a comma between the month and the year alone (by the January 2014 deadline).
• Do not use st, nd, rd, th, even if the dates are adjectives (March 1 event, not March 1st event).
• Times come before days and dates in running text (at 9 p.m. Friday; at 9 a.m. Monday, June 7).
• Months are not abbreviated.
• Use numerals for decades (1960s or the ’60s).

Degrees

• Do not use periods in PhD, BS, MA, etc.
• Do not capitalize bachelor of science, master of arts, etc.
• Do not capitalize academic degree or major except for languages and proper nouns.  (Her majors are English and communication and her minor is Asian studies. He received a bachelor of arts in biology.)
• Use an apostrophe in master’s degree and bachelor’s degree.

Freshmen/First-Year

• Use first-year instead of freshmen, as appropriate.
• Use lower case first-year for student and upper case First-Year Studies for program.

Headlines

• Sentence case capitalization is preferred over title case in headlines. (Sentence case: Lake Forest student wins national award) (Title case: Lake Forest Student Wins National Award)

Lecture Titles

• Use quotation marks around the formal title. (“Your future and ours”)

Numbers

• One through nine are spelled out; 10 and above are generally used as numerals.
• First through ninth spelled out; thereafter, 10th, 11th, etc.
• Use numerals with dollar sign ($3), temperature (8 degrees), page (page 2), room (room 7), chapter (chapter 6) and percent (7 percent). Spell out percent in running text.

Offices

• Capitalize when formal name (Office of the Registrar), but lowercase informal form (registrar’s office).

Spacing

• Use only one space between sentences and after colons.

Times

• Lowercase a.m. and p.m. and set off with periods.
• Use noon, not 12 p.m. or 12 noon, and midnight, not 12 a.m. or 12 midnight.
• Do not use a dash in place of to in a range of times introduced by from. (from 5 to 7 p.m.,  not from 5–7 p.m.)

Telephone Numbers

• In running text, use a dash between area code and number (847-735-0000).
• Always include full phone number, never just an extension.

Titles of People

• Capitalize formal titles preceding a name (Professor Robert Lemke), but lowercase after a name (Robert Lemke, professor of economics and business) or if a functional title (program director Jane Smith).
• Always capitalize the name of an endowed chair, whether before or after a name. (Gorter Professor of Islamic World Studies and Professor of Sociology Ahmad Sadri; Ahmad Sadri, Gorter Professor of Islamic World Studies and Professor of Sociology)
• Titles should be uppercase in lists and on business cards.

Titles of Publications

• Titles of books, periodicals, (including online magazines), movies, television series, plays, works of art, musical compositions, collections of poetry, and long poems published separately are set in italics.
• Titles of lectures, speeches, episodes of television and radio series, songs, poems, articles from newspapers and periodicals, chapters, short stories, essays, and individual parts of books are set in Roman type and within quotation marks.
• Underlining is not appropriate in printed material.

The Web and Email

• Do not hyphenate email; lowercase it except at the start of a sentence or as a title.  (Note: This is one of a very few places where we do not follow the Chicago Manual of Style.)
• http://www is not needed at the start of an address unless there
  is confusion about whether it is an address.
• Capitalize Internet.
• The College’s domain name is lakeforest.edu, not lfc.edu.

Alumni Memorial Field House Indoor Ice Hockey Rink

J. Howard Wood Lounge

Blackstone Hall

• Blackstone T.V. Lounge, Blackstone, 
• 3rd Floor Study Room

Buchanan Hall

• Career Advancement Center
• Health and Wellness Center

Campus Circle

Carnegie Hall

• Judith Harmon Lounge

Center for Chicago Programs

Cleveland–Young International Center

• Kitchen
• Library/Study Room
• T.V. Lounge

Deerpath Hall

• Abbott Common Room
• Deerpath Café
• Deerpath Student Art Gallery

Donnelley and Lee Library

• The Brown Technology Resource Center (Room 208)
• Mr. & Mrs. James R. Getz Archives and Special Collections Reading Room (Room 004)

Durand Art Institute

• Albright Gallery
• Sonnenschein Gallery

Facilities Management Building

Farwell Field

Glen Rowan House

Gregory Hall

• Gregory T.V. Lounge

Halas Hall

• Dau ’58 Room

Harlan Hall

• Harlan 3rd Floor Study Room
• Harlan T.V. Lounge

Hixon Hall

• Allan Carr Theater

Hotchkiss Hall

• Meyer Auditorium

Lillard Science Center

• Dixon Science Research Center
• McCormick Auditorium

Lily Reid Holt Memorial Chapel

Arthur Summerville Reid Hall

Lois Durand Hall

• Lois Lounge
• Lois T.V. Lounge

McClure Hall

• McClure Study Room
• McClure T.V. Lounge

Mohr Student Center

• Boomer’s Cafe
• John and Christine Gates Center for Leadership and Personal Growth
• Jim Kinney ’59 Skybox
• Simpson Balconies and Corridor

Moore Hall

• Moore Conference Room
• Moore Kitchen
• Moore Multipurpose Room

Nollen Hall

• Nollen Café
• Nollen 3rd Floor Community Room
• Nollen 3rd Floor T.V. Lounge

North Hall

Patterson Lodge

President’s House

• Brown House

Ravine Lodge

Roberts Hall

• Mojekwu Lounge
• Roberts T.V. Lounge

Southside Lounge

Sports and Recreation Center

• Tiernan Trophy Room

Stuart Commons

• Calvin Durand Hall
• Hailand Court

Young Hall

Administrative Offices
Career Advancement Center (CAC)
Cashier
Counseling Services
Facilities Management
Gates Center for Leadership and Personal Growth
Glen Rowan House
Health and Wellness Center
Interfaith Center
Lake Forest College Bookstore
Learning and Teaching Center (LTC)
Information Technology
Mail Services
Office of Admissions
Office of Alumni and Parent Relations
Office of Annual Giving
Office of Athletics
Office of Business Affairs
Office of Communications and Marketing
Office of Community Education
Office of the Dean of the Faculty
Office of Development and Alumni Relations
Office of Financial Aid
Office of Intercultural Relations
Office of Human Resources
Office of Major Gifts
Office of Planned Giving
Office of the President
Office of the Registrar
Office of Residence Life
Office of Student Affairs
Public Safety
Office of Student Government
Office of Visual Communications
Writing Center

Academic Departments
Department of African American Studies
Department of Art and Art History
Department of Biology
Department of Chemistry
Department of Communication
Department of Economics, Business, and Finance
Department of Education
Department of English and Creative Writing
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Department of History
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Department of Music
Department of Philosophy
Department of Physics
Department of Politics
Department of Psychology
Department of Religion
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Department of Theater

Academic Programs
African American and Latinx Studies Program
American Studies Program
Area Studies Program
Asian Studies Program
Cinema Studies Program
Classical Studies Program
Digital Media Design Program
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program
Environmental Studies Program
First-Year Studies Program
Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program
Graduate Program in Liberal Studies
International Relations Program
Islamic World Studies Program
Latin American Studies Program
Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program
Neuroscience Studies Program
Pre-Health Program
Pre-Law Program
Print and Digital Publishing Program
Self-Designed Major
Social Justice Studies Program
Urban Studies Program