Fall is a busy time of year for web and content updates. As part of our overall website health, we monitor posted content to ensure that it adheres to our university’s editorial style guide for unity of voice and brand consistency.

The style guide, similar to what you use for publications, is based on AP style and can be easily be referenced using the link in the top-right of our CMS. Implementing this as you go helps us keep the sites clean and maintained well.

Here are common offenders to beware of as you write 😉

• Page titles: In general, page and article titles always use sentence case (unless they’re a proper noun)
• Professional titles: Use lowercasing after a name or when by itself, otherwise, do not capitalize
  • Ex. Peter Hoffmann, Professor vs. Peter Hoffmann, professor
  • Ex. Peter is a Professor in the department vs. Peter is a professor in the department
• Department names and subjects: Capitalized only when addressing the proper name, otherwise lowercase
  • Ex. the Economics Department vs. the economics department
  • Ex. department of economics vs. Department of Economics
  • Ex. She studied in Economics vs. She studied in economics
• Links: Write links out in context (so that the link makes sense when read aloud)
  • Ex. To view the WSU Editorial Style Guide, click here vs. for more information, view the WSU Editorial Style Guide
  • Learn more about links
• Semester designations: Always lowercase, i.e. fall, winter, spring, summer
  • Ex. Fall 2020 vs. fall 2020
• Degree names: Always lowercase. Ex. Bachelor of Arts vs. bachelor of arts
  • Abbreviations should use periods: Ex. BA vs. B.A., MUP vs. M.U.P.
• Credits: Use “credits” instead of “credit hours”
  • Ex. Introductory Economics is four credits

Pro tip: Whenever in doubt, check the style guide.

Outside of websites, we also apply the style guide to documents, flyers, graphics, and social media as appropriate.

Have a question about style or formatting? Drop us an email or a chat in our Microsoft Teams group.