9/19/2015

Grammar and Punctuation | University of Chicago Law School

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Home:Faculty&Staff:StyleGuide:GrammarandPunctuation

STYLEGUIDE

SchoolandProgramNames
Logo,Typefaces,andColors

Grammar and Punctuation

WritingfortheWeb

Facultytitles

GrammarandPunctuation

Academicranks(professor,associateprofessor,assistantprofessor,lecturer)arecapitalizedwhenassociatedwitha

Dates,Time,andNumbers

person.Theymaybefollowedbytheunitsinwhichthefacultymemberhasappointments.

FrequentlyUsedTerms

DonotuseProfessorof...unlesstheofispartoftheofficialnameoftheprofessorship.
Usetheonlywhentheprofessorshipistheonlyoneofitskind,suchasanamedprofessorship.
FranoiseMeltzeristheEdwardCarsonWallerDistinguishedServiceProfessor.
GaryBeckerisUniversityProfessorintheDepartmentsofEconomicsandSociologyandtheUniversityofChicago
BoothSchoolofBusiness.
JaneDoeisAssociateProfessor,DepartmentsofHistoryandPoliticalScience,andtheCollege.
JaneDoeisAssociateProfessorinHistory.(HerprimaryappointmentisintheHistoryDepartment.)
JohnDoe,AssistantProfessorinPhysics,EnricoFermiInstitute,andtheCollege
ProfessorEpstein
aprofessorattheLawSchool
Professionaltitles

Capitalizeaprofessionaltitleifitisprecededbytheorwhenitimmediatelyprecedesthepersonsnameotherwise
uselowercase.(Thisisaruleyoucanbreakiftheprofessionalinquestionrequeststobereferredtoadifferentway.)
PresidentZimmer
theAssistantDirectorofCommunications
theManagingPartner
apartner
anassociate
Academicdegreesandclassyears

Omitperiodsindegrees:
YES:JD,LLM,JSD
NO:J.D.,LL.M.,J.S.D.
Ifonlythegraduationyearisgivenandunlesscontextimpliesotherwise,thedegreeisassumedtobeJD.AddLLMor
JSDwhennecessaryforcomprehension.
RandallZack,14
HuiZhang,LLM14
FredrickHuszagh,JSD62
Setthegraduationinformationapartwithcommasonbothsides.
OldKingCole,JSD42,wasamerryoldsoul
Thepunctuationmarkbeforethegraduationyearshouldbeanapostrophe,notanopeningquote.MicrosoftWordoften
getsthiswrongyoucanforceittouseanapostrophebytypingAlt+0146.
YES:RandallZack,14
NO:RandallZack,14
TheLawSchoolhasbeenaroundlongenoughthat05couldmeaneither1905or2005.Whenitisunclear,we

http://www.law.uchicago.edu/style-guide/grammar-punctuation

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9/19/2015

Grammar and Punctuation | University of Chicago Law School

standardizebyabbreviatingthemorerecentyear(2005becomes05)andwritingoutthelessrecentyear(1905always
stays1905).Inmostcases,agraduationyearbefore1930shouldbewrittenout.
Headlines,pagetitles,andbulletpoints

Capitalizeallimportantwordsinpagetitlesandmainheadlines,butcapitalizeonlythefirstletterinsubheadings.(An
exampleofasubheadingisHeadlines,pagetitles,andbulletpointsabove.)
Ifabulletpointisacompletesentence,capitalizethefirstletteranduseaperiodattheend.
Serialcomma

Whentherearethreeormoreitemsinaseries,putacommabeforetheandororthatprecedesthelastitem.
YES:Iinvitedmyparents,MotherTheresa,andthePope.
NO:Iinvitedmyparents,MotherTheresaandthePope.

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