1. PERIODS AND ELLIPSES: When indicating deleted words within a sentence, use three periods (ellipsis); at the end of a sentence, use four. There should be a space before and after the ellipsis: “The time has come … for us to reason together. …”
2. COMMAS:
a. Do not use a comma between a name and “Jr.,” “Sr.,” “III,” “IV”: James Lamb Jr. and former Cornell president Hunter R. Rawlings III.
b. Do not use a comma with a class year: Alison Thomas ’02, Jordan Erenrich grad.
c. Use a comma to identify a professor’s academic department: Prof. Edgar Rosenberg, comparative literature.
d. Use a comma if the professor has a specific title: Kenneth A. McClane ’73, the W.E.B. DuBois Professor of Literature.
e. Do not use a comma before the last item in a series: “I like apples, oranges, pears and bananas,” Rawlings said. If the series is long and confusing, use semicolons: In attendance were Prof. Frederick Ahl, classics; Prof. Hunter R. Rawlings III, classics; President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes and Susan H. Murphy ’73, vice president for student and academic services.
f. Do not use a comma before “Inc.” or “Ltd.”
g. When separating two parts of a sentence connected with conjunctions like “and” or “but,” use a comma only when both parts are independent clauses (that is, both have a subject and predicate). Examples: I went to class, and we had lunch; I went to class and had lunch.
h. Use a comma after dates or places in certain situations: … the Montgomery, Ala., native said; The June 19, 2003, date is set in stone.
i. Use a comma when reporting a sports score: Cornell beat Clarkson, 5-1, in the first game of the series.
3. HYPHENS:
a. Use a hyphen with fractions: seven-eighths.
b. Do not use a hyphen in “nationwide,” “fundraiser,” “cooperate,” “coeducation,” “coordinate,” “antiwar.”
c. Use a hyphen with ages only as an adjective or noun: the nine-year-old building, the nine-year-old, he is nine years old.
d. Use a hyphen with compound adjectives: well-known person, five-year plan. But: recently formed committee (no hyphen because “recently” ends in “–ly”).
4. DASHES: To make a dash in QuarkXPress, type Option + Shift + – all at once. Dashes should be spaced on both sides. They are used to make a sentence more readable than commas or parentheses can: The President’s statement — far from a pithy piece of discourse — lasted for more than 90 minutes of primetime television last night.
5. BULLETS: Never use bullets unless it seems absolutely necessary.
6. ITALICS VS. QUOTES: Never italicize magazines or newspapers. Books, films, videos, TV shows, plays, music albums, musicals, etc. are italicized; poems, songs, TV episodes, etc. are enclosed in quotes. In general, full, singular works of art are italicized while individual works are in quotes. Never underline or bold a title. Never italicize or enclose in quotes computer software (except computer and video games, which are italicized), website names (except: The Onion’s website), band names, concerts or other events. Examples: The Wizard of Oz, The Catcher in the Rye, Cats, Hamlet, The Odyssey (epic poems are italicized), The X-Files, Bob Marley’s Legend; “The City on the Edge of Forever,” “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “Brown-Eyed Girl,” Windows XP, etc. These rules apply to every section, including DAZE.
7. QUOTATION MARKS:
a. Smart (curvy) quotes only! These are automatic when typing in QuarkXPress but not automatic when copying and pasting stories from e-mail, U-Wire or the AP. The story must be reformatted to include them.
b. Use single quotation marks in headlines.
c. For quotes within quotes, use single quotes within quotation marks: “I have recently adopted the ‘Peter Principle,’” he said. No space between the single and double quotation marks. For further quotes within quotes, alternate single and double quotation marks.
8. APOSTROPHES: Use apostrophes to denote missing figures: The woman said she remembered a similar incident in the early ’30s. Use also with lowercase letters as in mind your p’s and q’s but not in he learned the ABCs.
9. PARENTHESES: Use brackets, not parentheses, to enclose words added to a quotation: “When I went to pick up [my car], I saw it had exploded,” she said. IMPORTANT NOTE: AP stories, because of the way they are sent over the wires, use round parentheses within quotes instead. These must be changed to square brackets!