Academic Degrees Acronyms Addresses Carnegie Mellon Company Names Contradictions

Ph.D.s    Postal Abbreviations    Rev.    States and Regions    U.S./United States

Academic Degrees
Spell out and use the lower case: bachelor's degree, master's degree, doctor's degree or doctorate.

You can receive a doctorate OR your doctor's degree, but NOT your doctoral degree.

If you prefer to abbreviate degrees, be sure to use periods after all the letters: B.A., M.S., Ph.D., M.S.I.A., B.F.A. (with the exception of MBA)

Right:	He received a master's degree in engineering.
Right:	She received her master of science degree in engineering.
Right:	We awarded 99 doctor's, 150 master's and 900 bachelor's degrees.
Right:	He earned a bachelor of architecture degree.
Wrong:	He earned a bachelor's of architecture degree.
Right:	She has an M.S. degree in technical writing.

Do not precede a name with a title of an academic degree and follow it with the abbreviation for that degree.

Right:	Jared L. Cohon, Ph.D., is president of Carnegie Mellon.
Right:	Dr. Jared L. Cohon is president of Carnegie Mellon.
Wrong:	Dr. Jared L. Cohon, Ph.D., is president of Carnegie Mellon.

Use Dr. in first reference as a formal title before the name of a person who holds a doctor's degree. Do not use Dr. in the second reference, unless the person holds a doctor of medicine degree.

Do not use Dr. before the names of those who hold honorary degrees only. References to honorary degrees must specify the degree was honorary.

The last name may be used with no titles at all, which is often preferable to maintain consistency.

Acronyms
Generally, it's fine to use acronyms if you feel they're commonly recognized or if it helps avoid repetition. But always spell out the full name, title or phrase the first time you refer to it in text, followed immediately by the acronym in parentheses.

Right:	The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded the grant to the research group. The NIH funded only five such centers in the nation.
Wrong:	The NSF funded the maglev proposal and the LEP project.
Right:	The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the magnetic levitation (maglev) proposal and the large electron positron (LEP) project. Through NSF-funded projects like maglev and LEP, the United States keeps its leading edge.

Carnegie Mellon Acronyms—see Carnegie Mellon Terminology.

Addresses
These rules apply to addresses within body copy, not to addresses on envelopes.

Use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd., Rd., Dr. and St. only when you can include a numbered address.

Right:	Send mail to 5017 Forbes Ave.
Right:	Our office is on Forbes Avenue.
Spell out all street names and use lower case when you're referring to more than one in a phrase.
Right:	The parking lot is on Forbes and Shady avenues.
Wrong:	The parking lot is on Forbes and Shady Aves.

Carnegie Mellon
Do not use the abbreviation "CMU." The correct reference is to use "Carnegie Mellon University" the first time you refer to the title of the university in text. In all subsequent references, use "Carnegie Mellon" only. Use lower case when using "the university" as a reference.

Do not use "CM." The idea is to proclaim the university's name, not obscure it.

Some of your readers may use the term "CMU" themselves, but why minimize the recognition impact of the name Carnegie Mellon?

Company Names
Follow their lead. Use Co. or Cos. or Inc. or Ltd. if it appears that way in the formal title of the organization.

When you refer to a company without its formal title, use the term "company," not "co."

Always spell out the word "company" in theatrical organizations.

For possessives: Ford Motor Co.'s profits.

Never use a comma before Inc. or Ltd. (Follow the company's lead about other punctuation and the use of "&" or "and.")

Contractions
In most non-academic writing, contractions make your text easier to read with a more conversational tone. Unless a more formalized construction helps emphasize the meaning of a sentence or phrase, use contractions and use them consistently.

You'll notice we've used contractions consistently in this publication, except for points of emphasis, as in "do not" instead of "don't."

Ph.D.
The preferred form for Ph.D. is to say a person holds a doctorate in (name their field of specialty). Second best is to say doctor's degree.

Postal Abbreviations
Do not use postal abbreviations in your text. See States and Regions for preferred abbreviations of states.

Right:	He's from New Castle, Pa.
Wrong:	He's from New Castle, PA.

Rev.
When used before an individual's name, precede it with "the."

Right:	The Rev. Miller will speak at the assembly.
Right:	The Reverend Miller will speak.
Wrong:	Rev. Miller will be there.
Wrong:	The Rev. will be there.

States and Regions
Spell out the names of the 50 United States when they stand alone in text.

Right:	Most students come from outside Pennsylvania.
Wrong:	We have 50 students from Fla.

Abbreviate, using AP, not postal rules, when citing a city and a state together. Some states must always be spelled out.

Ala.	Ga.	Maine	Neb.	Ohio	Texas
Alaska	Hawaii	Md.	Nev.	Okla.	Utah
Ariz.	Idaho	Mass.	N.H.	Ore.	Vt.
Ark.	Ill.	Mich.	N.J.	Pa.	Va.
Calif.	Ind.	Minn.	N.M.	R.I.	Wash.
Colo.	Iowa	Miss.	N.Y.	S.C.	W.Va.
Conn.	Kan.	Mo.	N.C.	S.D.	Wis.
Del.	Ky.	Mont.	N.D.	Tenn.	Wyo.
Fla.	La.

Use Washington, D.C. Don't abbreviate to D.C. or, worse, DC.

Right:	Carnegie Mellon is in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Wrong:	Carnegie Mellon is in Pittsburgh, PA.

Always spell out a state name if it's part of a title or name: The Pennsylvania Development Group.

U.S./United States
We suggest using "United States" consistently in copy, rather than "U.S.," "USA" or "America." However, the key is to choose one option and use it consistently. It can be confusing to jump from one to another.