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Westfield State Foundation, Inc. is the philanthropic arm of the University, with its own 501 (c) 3 status. It is a separate entity from Westfield State University.
Any reference to the Westfield State Foundation, Inc. should refer to it in full. The “Inc.” should not be omitted.
When using the full name of the University, capitalize the entire name. It is important to use the full name when referring to Westfield State University to distinguish what university is being referred to and also to promote the University.
Ex: She will be attending Westfield State University next semester.
Westfield State
Because there are many schools across the nation with the initials “WSU,” it is important to spell out “Westfield State” or “Westfield State University” in all external documents and publications to ensure recognition in any context.
Capitalize “University” after the first use of Westfield State University.
When using the word “university” in a general sense alone in running text, do not capitalize.
Ex: He will attend a university in the fall.
When using the word “university” to refer to Westfield, capitalize.
Fun Facts
The school was renamed in 1932 to the State Teachers College. The school moved to Westfield in 1944, and was renamed the Westfield Normal School. In 1960 it was renamed the State College at Westfield. The name was changed again in 1967 to Westfield State College. In 2010, the college was renamed Westfield State University.
Owls in Athletics
Remember to capitalize “Owls” when referring to Westfield State specifically.
Ex: Thursday night the Owls defeated Worcester State, 7–5.
When referring to female athletic teams, please use the following terms: the Owls, Westfield women or Westfield State.
Ex: Westfield women defeated Salem State, 9–4.
Westfield State finished third at the swim competition.
The Owls are playing Bridgewater State on Saturday.
Academic Degrees
Write out academic degrees in lowercase letters.
Ex: He received a master’s degree in business administration.
When abbreviating—appropriate in a list, citation, or a signature—be sure to use periods.
Ex: Degrees that are offered are: B.A., B.S., M.Ed., M.S., M.P.A., C.A.G.S., and Ph.D.
Acronyms
Always spell out the full name, title or phrase for the first reference immediately followed by the acronym in parentheses.
Ex: The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education (BHE) recently released its annual Performance Measurement Report.
Company Names
Be sure to write the name exactly as they present it to you. Use “Co.” or “Cos.” or “Inc.” or “Ltd.” if it appears that way in the formal title. When writing the name without the formal title, use “Company” and not “Co.”.
Spell out “Company” in theatrical organizations. Do not use a comma before “Ltd.” or “Inc.” or with “&” or “and”.
States
Spell out the name when it stands alone in text, is a title, or is part of a name.
Ex: Westfield State University is located in Massachusetts.
Use “Washington, D.C.” and not just “D.C.” or “DC”.
Abbreviate state names in text using the AP style—not the postal—when citing a city with a state.
United States
It is suggested to use “United States” instead of “U.S.,” “USA,” or “America.”
It is acceptable to abbreviate “U.S.” when it is used as an adjective.
Ex: The U.S. government has control over many education grants.
Abbreviations in Addresses
Write out and capitalize “street,” “avenue,” “boulevard,” etc. when they are part of a formal street name or address. This applies to addresses within a written text, not for envelopes.
Ex: Westfield State University is located on Western Avenue.
ADDRESSEES (SEE LETTER FORMAT)
Post Office Box
Use “P.O. Box” with periods and no space. Do not use “POB” or “P.O.B.”
Ex:
Westfield State University
P.O. Box 1630
Westfield, MA 01086-1630
States
See “Abbreviations” for state abbreviations used in text.
Use the two-letter U.S. Postal Service abbreviations for addresses, but not in text.
In General
Always capitalize the first word in a sentence and proper names.
Ex: The guest of honor will be Olivia Moore.
Academic Degrees
Use lowercase for associates, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees. Also, use lowercase for doctorate and doctoral programs.
Ex: I earned my bachelor’s degree at Westfield State.
Academic Departments
Capitalize the names of departments, divisions, classes, formal events and offices when the full name of the department is used.
Ex: The English Department will hold its annual Spring Gathering in May.
Use lowercase when the name is used in a general sense.
Ex: Her major is biology.
Academic Majors
Use lowercase with the exception of languages.
Ex: I majored in Spanish.
She majored in psychology.
Classes and Courses
Generally use lowercase, unless using a specific and complete title.
Ex: I took a music course last semester.
I took Basic Music Theory last semester.
Commencement
Always use lowercase in running text. Capitalize the specific event.
Ex: It takes many months to plan commencement.
You are invited to speak at the 175th Commencement at Westfield State University.
Dates
Capitalize days of the week, months of the year, and holidays, but not seasons.
Ex: This year, Easter will be on Sunday, April 8.
For commuter students, winter can be quite frustrating.
Geographic Locations
Cities, states, and regions are capitalized.
Ex: Westfield State University is located in the Northeast.
Grades
Capitalize letter grades. For GPAs, use two numerals after the decimal point.
Ex: He received a B in English class.
His GPA is 3.24.
Groups
Capitalize groups or organizations that are national, political, racial, social, civic and athletic.
Ex: Westfield State University has many clubs and organizations, including the Republican Club, the Boxing Club, and the Outing Club.
Honors
Use lowercase for cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude.
Ex: He graduated magna cum laude.
Publication and Other Titles
In titles use title caps, in other words, capitalize the first word, the last word, the first word after a colon, and all nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, and adjectives.
Ex: In British literature, we will be reading Paradise Lost.
Do not capitalize articles, coordinating conjunctions, or prepositions unless they apply to the previous example.
Ex: In film class, we watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Rooms
Capitalize when used with a number. When used with a specific building name, use the number only.
Ex: The meeting will be held in Room 214.
The committee will meet in Parenzo 136.
Seasons
Capitalize a season when it is used in a title or as part of a formal name. Use lowercase when the season is used alone.
Ex: The English Department is still deciding on a date for the Spring Gathering.
The commuter parking lot is crowded during the winter months.
Semesters
Do not capitalize semesters or terms, unless it begins a sentence.
Ex: Commencement will be held at the end of the spring semester.
Student Classifications
Do not capitalize unless it is used as a designation or a formal title.
Ex: She is a junior majoring in education.
Time Periods and Events
Capitalize time periods and major historical events.
Ex: Westfield State University was founded at the beginning of the Victorian Era.
Titles
A person‘s title is capitalized only when it precedes his or her name. When a title is placed after a name or is used alone, it is not capitalized.
Ex: We will be meeting with the President Jane Smith.
I have a meeting with Jane Smith, the president.
Trademarks
Capitalize anything that is trademarked.
In General
The United States preference is for styling dates as: month, date, year (without ordinals).
Ex: Oct. 14, 2014
Do not use suffixes with dates.
Ex: Oct. 14 not Oct. 14th
In advance publicity of events, include the weekday.
Ex: Commencement will be held Friday, May 13, 2022.
Decades and Centuries
For decades, use numbers or write them out.
Ex: the 1920s the twenties
Use an “s” without an apostrophe after the year to indicate spans of decades or centuries.
Ex: in the 1960s
An apostrophe after the year is needed for possessives.
Ex: The presidential search was one of 2008’s biggest events for Westfield State University.
For centuries, spell out the first nine as words and use numbers for 10 and above.
Ex: the sixth century
the 19th century
Graduation/Class Years
In a text use all four digits.
Ex: He is expecting to graduate in 2022.
When you need to abbreviate, use the last two digits preceded by an apostrophe. Make sure to type an apostrophe (’) rather than a single quotation mark (‘). Only use parentheses if adding the year for a higher degree.
Ex: Jennifer Riley ’09 (’11) majored in economics.
Inclusive
Use a hyphen for continuing numbers, but not to replace “to.”
Ex: The 2021–2022 academic year concluded with fair weather for commencement.
The program ran from 2021 to 2022.
Use an en-dash (–) to replace “to.”
Months
Months are abbreviated as follows: (note that not all months are abbreviated)
Ex: Jan. Feb. March April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
Write the months out if they are used alone or with a year alone.
Ex: The conference will be held in December.
That course was added to the curriculum in September 2022.
With Punctuation
No comma is needed between a month and a year, but is required before a year when the month, the date and the year are all used.
Ex: She completed her degree work in May 2019.
He began the program Jan. 16, 2019 and finished June 12, 2019.
When using a month, date, and year, set both the weekday and the year off with commas.
Ex: The conference was held Jan. 13, 2022.
The conference is set for Sunday, Jan. 13, 2022.
In General
The words “department,” “division,” “center,” and “program” are capitalized only when they are part of a specific name.
Proper names, titles of programs, and names of universities and departments may be capitalized in the first reference, but may be shortened and lowercased in subsequent references.
Faculty
Use “Dr.” only to refer to a faculty member with a doctoral degree (refer to the Course Catalog).
Use either “Dr.” or “Ph.D.,” but not both, with someone’s name.
Note that news media usually do not use “Dr.” in a title unless it refers to a medical professional.
Formerly, the title “Professor” was reserved for faculty of the rank of associate or full professor only. It is now commonly used for all full-time faculty ranks.
Adjunct faculty may be referred to as “adjunct” or “instructor.”
In the first reference to a faculty member, it is helpful to include all relevant title information.
Ex: Dr. Isabella Smart, assistant professor of history, provided background information.
In subsequent references, depending on context, you may use any of those elements. The important thing is to be consistent within your own document—try to avoid jumping back and forth between “Dr.” and “Professor.”
Ex: Dr. Isabella Smart, assistant professor of history, provided background information.
Dr. Smart is an expert on the Middle East.
Dr. Isabella Smart, assistant professor of history, provided background information.
Professor Smart received tenure last year.
With Degrees
Use a comma between a degree and his or her name.
Ex: We will be meeting with John Smith, M.S.W.
With Suffixes
Use a comma before “Jr.,” “Sr.” and I, II, III, etc. There is an exception with newspaper writing, where the comma between the name and “Jr.” is typically eliminated.
Ex: Joseph Jones, Jr. will be attending the conference with us.
In General
Use words for numbers one through nine, as well as “first” through “ninth.” Write numbers 10 and higher as numerical figures.
Ex: In a class of 21 students, only four received As.
When the digit is four numbers or more, separate with commas, not spaces.
Ex: 1,200
$435,000
For numbers larger than thousands, use words for the placement value only.
Ex: 1.4 million
For plurals, do not use an apostrophe, unless it is in the possessive sense.
Ex: the 1970s
Use numerical figures for percents, page numbers, decimals, credit hours, and GPAs.
Ex: George’s GPA for the fall semester was an impressive 3.94.
For homework, please read pages 17–34.
Try to avoid starting sentences with numbers, but if impossible, then spell out the number.
Ex: Thirty students registered for this course.
Adjacent Numbers
If there are two numbers in a row in the same sentence, spell out the shorter of the two numbers.
Use numerals in compound adjectives.
Ex: In the field, there are twelve 3-foot-high posts to mark the exact location of the lines.
He paid for two 3-year subscriptions.
Age
Always use numerical figures for ages.
Ex: She has a son, 3, and a daughter, 7.
Inclusive
When dealing with ranges of numbers (pages, years) carry over all digits that change and include at least two digits for the second number. Remember to separate the two numbers with an en dash and no spaces.
Ex: pages 1244–79
1976–84
1998–2003
In running text, do not substitute the word “to” with a hyphen, unless the numbers are separated by parentheses.
Ex: He taught English from 1976 to 1998.
He taught English at UCLA (1976–1989) and at Harvard (1989–1998).
Money
Use the dollar sign ($) and numerical figures. Remember not to use two zeros after the decimal point, unless you are talking about a range of numbers.
Ex: $140
$140.75
The sweatshirts range in cost from $22.99 to $55.
Insert a comma for numbers in the thousands, unless the number is above the thousands then spell it out.
Ex: $2,000
$2.7 million
1 million
Ordinal/Cardinal
Spell out ordinal numbers.
Ex: first, second, third, etc.
Cardinal numbers are shown as numerical figures.
Ex: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.
Rooms
Use the building name and the room number only. If the building name is already known, then just say the room and the number.
Ex: Bates 225
Room 225
Telephone
If the document is strictly for use on campus, you may omit the area code and first three digits.
Ex: ext. 2356
If the publication is meant for an off-campus audience, include the entire number and the area code, using hyphens and parentheses to separate. When providing more than just a phone number, (a fax number, an e-mail address, etc.) be sure to identify each one.
Ex: Phone: (413) 572-5763
Fax: (413) 572-5544
E-mail: tgrady@westfield.ma.edu
(ie. Tom Grady: first initial last name@...)
TIME
Hours are written numerically without zeros.
Ex: 10 a.m.
1:15 p.m.
Do not capitalize a.m. or p.m. and be sure to use periods without spaces.
Ex: 9 a.m.
9:15 a.m.
12:45 p.m.
A range of times is written using the word “to” in text, but with an en dash in tables.
Ex: The meeting will be held from 2 to 4 p.m.
Aerobics 9–11 a.m., 6–8 p.m.
Flag Football 10–11 a.m., 5–7 p.m.
Years (see Dates)
Academia
Building Names on Campus
The official names of campus buildings and locations are as follows:
Degrees
Do Not Capitalize
Do not capitalize “e-mail” unless the word begins a sentence. Make sure to use a hyphen.
GPA
Do not use spaces or periods.
cum laude 3.30–3.5
magna cum laude 3.60–3.79
summa cum laude 3.80 or higher
Local
TITLES
In General
Use quotation marks around song titles, short poems, essays, periodical articles, short stories, episodes of television shows, and radio programs.
Italicize titles of books, long poems, plays, periodicals, pamphlets, published speeches, long musical works, television and radio programs, movies, and works of visual art.
Academic Papers
Titles of academic papers, essays and journal articles go inside of quotation marks.
Ex: The essay was titled “Politics and the English Language.”
Books
Use italics for books and textbooks unless they are reference books, such as dictionaries or almanacs.
Ex: An excellent source for any writer is The Elements of Style by Strunk and White.
Use quotation marks for book chapters or individual selections.
Ex: The second chapter, “How to Form a Thesis,” lists what questions to ask yourself about your paper’s goal.
Conferences
Capitalize the main, important words only and do not enclose in quotation marks or italicize.
Courses
Capitalize the main words in the title of a course. Quotation marks or italics are not necessary.
Ex: I will be taking American Economics with Professor Jones next semester.
Magazines and Newspapers
Capitalize and italicize the title without using quotation marks.
Don’t capitalize the word ‘magazine’ unless it is part of the publication’s title.
Ex: I receive Teaching Across America magazine once every two months.
Only capitalize “the” if it is part of the title.
Ex: I subscribe to The Wall Street Journal.
I also like to read the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
When listing multiple publications or periodicals, use lowercase “the” or eliminate it completely.
Ex: We read the New York Times, the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Springfield Republican every morning.
Movies/Theater/Television
Italicize and capitalize titles of movies, plays, and television shows.
Ex: The Musical Theatre Guild recently performed a production of Grease.
Music
Use quotation marks and capitalize song titles.
Ex: We listened to “Jingle Bells” over and over again.
For long musical works, italicize and capitalize.
Ex: In class today, we will listen to Mozart‘s The Magic Flute.
Poetry
Use quotation marks for short poems.
Ex: My favorite Robert Frost poem is “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”
Italicize titles of long poems.
Ex: In British Literature, it is essential to read Beowulf.