Glossary of Terms

Use descriptions for most academic degrees: bachelor's degree in environmental science, Bachelor of Science in criminal justice, bachelor's in music production, doctorate in international relations, etc. Degree abbreviations are generally used after full names in lists and on first reference to alumni in publications principally for alumni.

A few widely known degree abbreviations are rarely spelled out: MBA, MD, PhD. Other abbreviations that are acceptable on all references include BA, BS, MA, MFA and MS.

Degree abbreviations are written without periods: DMA, EdD, PsyD (exception to AP style). When noting degrees of alumni on a first reference, include only the graduating year for bachelor's degrees, omitting BA and BS. Use a slash for joint degrees. See doctor, graduation years, and honorary alumni.

• Caroline Cottom '64
• Sara Wilson, MDiv '13
• Steve Nguyen, MA '08, EdD '12, serves as director. (Note the commas.)
• Sofia Alvaro, MA/MDiv '09

BA – Bachelor of Arts
BS – Bachelor of Science
MA – Master of Arts
MBA – Master of Business Administration (rarely spelled out)
MDiv – Master of Divinity
MFA – Master of Fine Arts (not usually spelled out)
MFT – master's in marriage and family therapy (Formally, the Cal Lutheran degree is a Master of Science in Counseling Psychology, but this is rarely used.)
MPPA – Master of Public Policy and Administration
MS – Master of Science
MSIT – Master of Science in Information Technology
DMA – Doctor of Musical Arts
EdD – Doctor of Education
JD – Juris Doctor
MD – Doctor of Medicine
PharmD – Doctor of Pharmacy
PhD – Doctor of Philosophy
PsyD – Doctor of Psychology

Houses the Center for Student Success, Disability Support Services, Registrar’s Office and Student Support Services. Formerly known as Kallas House in honor of founding faculty member James Kallas, a religion professor from 1961 to 1974 who once owned and lived in the house. (3259 Pioneer Ave.)

Not "advisor"

Part of the Old West residence complex, named in honor of estate gift of Frank and Elna Afton. Ten suites provide housing to upperclass students. Built in 1976 and renovated in 2003. (3259 Pioneer Ave.)

Dedicated in October 1988 and named for major donor The Ahmanson Foundation. Houses classrooms, faculty offices and laboratories for biology, chemistry and geology departments as well as Richter Lecture Hall, named in recognition of Roy Richter for gift from his wife, Colleen Richter, and their three children, Cal Lutheran alumni. (3260 Pioneer Ave.)

The plural word for any group of male and female, or only male, graduates is alumni. The singular forms are alumnus for a man and alumna for a woman. Two or more female graduates are alumnae. Do not place these frequently used Latin loan words in italics; see italics.

The nongendered, colloquial forms alum and alums are acceptable unless a formal tone is desired.

Generally lowercase when used to modify a proper noun; annual meeting is always lowercase.

• second annual Lustgarten Pancreatic Cancer Research Run/Walk

Report that sponsors plan to hold an event annually, but do not write “first annual.”

The name of a speaker usually precedes the verb, but may follow it, especially if additional identification is required.

• “That trip changed my life,” Garland said.
• “That trip changed my life,” said Garland, a fourth-year student in biology.

Capitalize proper nouns. Lowercase words that are not part of an award's name.

• Rhodes Scholar
• Nobel laureate
• Pulitzer Prize-winning author

Within direct quotations, use brackets to insert a word or phrase that aids the reader. Words in brackets may replace something omitted from the quotation. Elsewhere, use parentheses.

• “I don’t see [the Rams] winning the Super Bowl this year,” he said.
• At the time, she chose not to apply for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a federal program.

Lowercase common nouns such as university, board and department. 

Academic majors and subject areas are lowercase except for proper nouns. 

Titles of individuals are lowercase except for proper nouns, some abbreviations and some formal titles given immediately before a name. See titles.

• a third-year psychology major
• master's degree in economics
• the history faculty
• the English department
• the Department of Chemistry
• head coach Isabel Manukian
• center director Gwen Richards
• associate professor Mark Tanselle

Of special note:

• the Class of 2020
• the classes of 2019 and 2020
• Undergraduate Commencement
• Graduate Commencement 
• commencement
• Los Angeles and Ventura counties

Follow AP style by spelling out the numbers one to nine. Use hyphens in compoud modifiers. See dates and years.

• throughout the fourth century
• 12th century
• 16th- and 17th-century ballads

CEO is acceptable on all references to a chief executive officer. Spell out chief financial officer and chief operating officer on first reference. CFO, COO and similar titles are acceptable on second reference.

Follow AP style by spelling out names of states:

• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Cook County, Illinois

Names of U.S. and international cities that stand alone in AP news release datelines may also stand alone in stories. Consult the AP entry on datelines.

Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction preceding the final element unless required for clarity.

• a series of paintings in green, blue and red
• three abstract paintings in green, blue and green, and red and white

Use commas after state and country names that are preceded by commas, and after years preceded by commas, in the absence of stronger punctuation such as a period. When an organization’s name includes a comma, follow the name with a comma.

• The former roommates living in Ojai, California, and Siuna, Nicaragua, met by chance last year in Hong Kong.
• Sept. 11, 1973, is etched in the memories of older Chileans.
• He transferred from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, after one year of study.

A comma follows Washington, D.C., if it does not end a sentence. Use the added abbreviation only if the city might be confused with the state.

• the Alabama senator’s Washington office
• the West Coast politician’s Washington, D.C., staff

No comma before Jr.

• Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday

No comma before Inc., Co., Ltd., LLC, PC or PLLC in company names.

Lowercase unless the full names of events are given:

• Graduate Commencement
• Undergraduate Commencement

• The Convocators will meet on Founders Day.
• Monty Clef is a convocator.

Capitalize formal course titles. Use Arabic numerals and capitalize the subject when used with a numeral. Otherwise, lowercase academic subjects. See capitalization.

• Current Issues in Marine Biology
• Biology 101
• biology

• Dali was one of the original Surrealists.
• The fabric design contains few instances of surrealism.

Use em dashes or shorter en dashes to set off or separate phrases and clauses, with a space on either side of the dashes. For numerical ranges, use either en dashes or hyphens, without spaces. A rule of thumb followed in the Cultural Events semiannual calendar and elsewhere: In numerical ranges, hyphens connect “like” elements, while en dashes connect “unlike” elements. See hyphens.

• He drove to Westfield Mall — he disliked the mall closer to home — to shop for a phone.
• April 12-24
• April 12, 12:30–2 p.m.

Where the three elements appear together, month, day and year are written with a comma: Jan. 1, 2020.

• The months from August to February are abbreviated with a numerical date.
• If a comma precedes the year, another comma follows: He was born March 7, 1981, in Minneapolis.

Month and year are written without a comma, and the month is spelled out: January 2020. Decades do not have an apostrophe before the s: the 1980s, the '90s. 

See time of day and centuries.

Use an ellipsis to indicate the omission of one or more words from direct quotes and texts. Leave one regular space on either side of an ellipsis in the middle of a sentence.

• "This is a brand new day for the company my aunt founded," she said, "and we wouldn't be here ... without her wisdom and work ethic."
• She began the speech, "This is a brand new day for the company ...."

When noting graduation years of alumni, use an apostrophe, or closing single quote, before the year where this special character is supported. See academic degrees.

• Ahmed Haddad, EdD ’15

Honorary alumnus/alumna is a designation created by the Alumni Board of Directors to recognize individuals who have not received a degree, actual or honorary, from Cal Lutheran, but who deserve special recognition for contributions to the university or alumni community. Not to be confused with an honorary degree, the designation is noted by an H and the year of the recognition by the alumni board.

• Todd Martin, H’10, moderated the panel discussion.

Honorary degrees are approved by the faculty and awarded with the full endorsement of the university. All references to honorary degrees should specify that the degree was honorary. Never use “Dr.” before the name of an individual whose only doctorate is honorary. See doctor.
L.H.D. is the abbreviation for Doctor of Humane Letters, one of the honorary degrees historically awarded by Cal Lutheran.
LL.D. is the abbreviation for Doctor of Laws, another degree the university has awarded.
In an exception to the guidance in academic degrees, use the periods. For clarity, the abbreviation and year are followed by the Latin phrase honoris causa.

• Wendy Rodriguez, LL.D. ’07 honoris causa
• Wendy Rodriguez, who received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Cal Lutheran in 2007, moderated the panel discussion.

Use hyphens in compound modifiers when necessary to prevent confusion.

• stem cell research
• small-business conference

Use a hyphen where its omission would result in ambiguity.

• He recovered his health.
• He re-covered the leaky roof.

No hyphen in African American (all uses), Asian Americans (noun), etc.
Use hyphens or en dashes for numerical ranges, without spaces.

• 32-35 inches
• 32.5–35 inches

See co-, email and -wide. Consult AP style on hyphens with prefixes and suffixes.

In news releases and media alerts, follow AP style by using only plain text and no italics. Quotation marks serve where necessary to indicate foreign words and composition titles in releases.
Elsewhere, italicize titles of stand-alone works such as books, feature films, plays, albums, radio and television series, and art exhibitions. Short films, chapters, one-act plays, songs and works in a series take quotation marks instead. See quotation marks.
Italicize foreign words and, where appropriate, include the English translations in parentheses.

• l’Ordre national du Mérite (National Order of Merit)

Do not italicize commonly used foreign words that have been adopted into English usage.

• summa cum laude
• pro bono
• alma mater
• faux pas

Italics may also be used to emphasize a word or phrase. They may distinguish a supplementary block of copy from the main body of an article, as with a brief note on a writer or interview subject, a block quotation, or directions to a venue.
In a block of copy already in italics, use plain text for words that would appear in italics elsewhere.

• Gill is the author of Drinking From Love's Cup: Surrender and Sacrifice in the Vārs of Bhai Gurdas Bhalla (2016).

Set conference names and festival names in plain text with no quotation marks.
Musical compositions identified by sequence are not italicized.

• Mozart’s Symphony No. 32 in G major

For names of locations on the main campus, consult the campus map.

Use the full names of most organizations on first reference, as preferred by the organization. Exceptions to AP style adopted here include many of the colleges and universities in California’s public systems:

• CSU Northridge
• UCLA
• UC Riverside

Lowercase the article the before a proper name unless it is included in the formal name.

• The Grammy Museum
• Whitney Museum of American Art
• AARP
• The Wall Street Journal
• the Los Angeles Times

Do not use all caps in a name unless it’s an acronym.

• Best Buy
• PETA

Do not use TM or ® symbols in the name of a company or brand.

On first reference: Generally, an individual’s preference supersedes other sources. Avoid using middle initials unless the individual has a preference or the omission could cause confusion. The use of initials has been more common in the full names of board members and senior administrators. Use periods with no spaces between initials in names: E.F. Hutton. Do not use commas before Jr. and Sr. The abbreviations for junior and senior appear only with full names: Martin Luther King Jr.

On second reference: Omit titles before names: Chaudhury, not “professor Chaudhury.” On second reference to adults, use last names or family names, or follow a relevant cultural practice. On second reference to children, use first names or given names, or follow a relevant practice.

Generally, write out the numbers one to nine and use figures for 10 and up.
Use figures for ages.

• at age 5
• the 3-year-old

Use figures for dollar amounts and measurements.

• $3 million grant
• 3-inch plywood

See percentages.

Use numerals with the symbol % for percentages, except in casual usage. Do not use % for percentage points.

• 5% less than last year
• 22% less than last year
• a decline of seven percentage points
• a decline of 10 percentage points

Watch your terms and your math. The change from 60% to 45% is a drop of 15 percentage points. It also a drop of 25%. It is absolutely not a “15% decrease.”
For values above 100%, avoid expressions that employ percentages, which often lead to confusion. For example, an increase in the amount of 300% is better expressed as a four-fold increase. See numerals.

The possessive form of it is its; it’s is a contraction of “it is.”

Possessives generally take apostrophes. Forming them can be confusing, however, particularly when nouns end in s. For plural nouns ending in s, add only an apostrophe: visitors’ entrance. For proper names ending in s, whether singular or plural, add only an apostrophe: Weiss’ memoir. For singular common nouns ending in s, add ’s: the campus’s new sculpture garden, the witness’s story.

Built in 1989 as part of the New West complex and originally called East Hall. The coed hall with 17 suites was renamed in 1993 to honor Esther and Florence Potenberg. (3285 Campus Drive)

Place quotation marks around direct quotations; the titles of components of stand-alone works, such as book chapters; and titles of articles in academic journals or magazines, individual episodes of television series, songs, poems, lectures and speeches. In news releases and media alerts, where only plain text is used, quotation marks are also used for stand-alone works and unfamiliar foreign terms. See italics.

The period and the comma always go within quotation marks. The dash, the semicolon, the question mark and the exclamation point go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.

African American, black, white, Latino, Latina/o and Hispanic are acceptable designations, among many others. After carefully considering whether identification by a category such as race is helpful in context, respect an individual’s preferred term if a preference is expressed. Be specific when possible about heritage, especially when writing about individuals. Consult multiple sources on the precise meanings of labels, which in practice are frequently ignored. Do not include a hyphen in Asian American, Mexican American, etc.

• African American studies
• oral histories of Vietnamese Americans

See Hispanic-serving.

Visit CalLutheran.edu/professional-continuing-studies

Use hyphens in seven- and 10-digit phone numbers. It is also acceptable to enclose area codes in parentheses instead of using a hyphen (exception to AP style); this style is preferred by Cal Lutheran's marketing division. For internal Cal Lutheran audiences, four-digit extensions may be given alone preceded by x.

• 805-493-2411
• 805-493-2411
• x2411

Not "theatre" except in proper names so spelled.

• Black Box Studio Theatre
• Department of Theatre Arts and Dance
• bachelor's in theater arts and dance

Use figures: 1 p.m., 12:15 a.m.; noon and midnight are exceptions.

Do not repeat a.m. and p.m. in ranges unless needed for clarity: 9-11 a.m., from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Avoid such redundancies as "10 a.m. this morning."

For titles of individuals, capitalize proper nouns, honorifics and abbreviations such as the Rev., Sen., Lt. Gen. and CEO, and a few formal titles given immediately before a name. When in doubt about the formality of a title, lowercase it. After a name, most titles are spelled out and lowercase. For clarity, place long titles after names. The full name of an endowed chair is a proper noun, and so is the full name of a school, department or center.

• Gerhard Apfelthaler, dean of the School of Management
• Gerhard Apfelthaler, the dean of the school
• Dean Gerhard Apfelthaler
• associate professor Rachel Casas
• Casas, an associate professor of psychology
• Wanda Jackson, founder, president and CEO
• Sen. Kamala Harris
• Kamala Harris, the U.S. senator from California

Omit titles before names on second reference: Chaudhury, not “professor Chaudhury.” See capitalization and entitled, titled.