Editorial Guidelines

MCC follows the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook for most communications.

College Style

The ultimate goal of the Office of Marketing and Public Relations is to ensure that a positive image of MCC and its identity is represented clearly and consistently.

These guidelines will help make certain that both internal and external communications employ consistent grammar and usage.

Guidelines are consistent with those found in The Associated Press (AP) Stylebook, but the following points are among the most commonly used in MCC writing. A copy of the AP Stylebook can be found through the MCC Library.

All other questions regarding style and usage should be directed to the Office of Marketing and Public Relations.

  • A vs. An

    In general, "a" precedes a word starting with a consonant, and "an" precedes a word starting with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y).

    The rule also applies to the sound of the letter beginning the word, not just the word itself. "An" should also be used when preceding a word that starts with a vowel sound, and a should be used for consonant sounds.

    Examples:

    • An MCC student
    • A McHenry County College student
    • An hour
    • A history class
  • Academic Degrees

    Mention a degree only if it is necessary to establish someone’s credentials. The preferred form is to avoid abbreviations and spell it out. E.g., Barb Smith, who has a doctorate in biology…

    Use an apostrophe in bachelor’s and master’s. Doctoral degrees should be referred to as a doctoral degree or doctorate—never doctorate’s degree. There is no possessive in Bachelor of Arts or Master of Science.

    There is no apostrophe in associate degree.

    Generic references to degrees should be lowercase:

    • He has a bachelor’s degree.
    • He has a bachelor’s degree in horticulture.

    A specific degree should be capitalized: She earned an Associate in Applied Science.

    Use abbreviations such as AAS, AS, AA, BA, and Ph.D. when the need to identify many individuals by degree on first reference would make the preferred written-out form cumbersome.

    Do not use periods for degrees, certificates, or licenses: AS, AA, AAS, BA, MS. However, Ph.D. and Ed.D. should include periods.

    When used after a name, an academic abbreviation is set off by commas: Samantha Stevens, Ph.D., spoke about…

    In most cases, do not use the title “Dr.” unless the person is an MD. Rather, list their name and degree: Samantha Stevens, Ph.D.

    If this guide is overridden and Dr. is used as a courtesy title to precede a name, do not follow it with the academic abbreviation for a doctorate.

    • Incorrect: Dr. Samantha Stevens, Ph.D.
    • Correct: Dr. Samantha Stevens, a chemist…
  • Acronyms and Abbreviations

    The full meaning of an acronym or abbreviation should be spelled out on its first appearance with the acronym initials following, without periods, in parentheses. Thereafter, just the acronym may be used. Do not put an acronym or abbreviation in parentheses after the full meaning if it is not going to appear again in the document.

    E.g., Administrative Office Management (AOM) classes are offered in the evening to accommodate students’ work schedules.

    In general, two-letter abbreviations are set with periods; three or more letters without periods. E.g., a.m., p.m., U.S. vs. RAP, GPA, SAT, GPA, JTPA.

  • Active vs. Passive Voice

    Writing in an active voice is usually more direct and lively. “There is” or “could be heard” are examples of passive phrasing.

    The formula was solved by the winning team.

    v.s.

    The winning team solved the formula.

  • Ampersands (&)
    Use the ampersand only when it is part of a company’s formal name or composition title. Procter & Gamble, House & Garden, etc. The ampersand should not be used in place of and.
  • Apostrophes
    Apostrophes are used to indicate possession (e.g. “The students’ tests” or “Mike’s automotive degree”) or contractions. If indicating plural units, use an “s” without an apostrophe. For example, the terms “CEUs” and “GPAs” would use no apostrophe.
  • Alum/Alumni

    An alum (singular male or female) is anyone who has attended MCC and earned at least three credits.

    Other correct forms you may see: alumni (plural male or female), alumnus (singular male), alumna (singular female), and alumnae (plural female).

    When referring to an alumni’s class year, the apostrophe should curl away from the class year.

    John Doe (’82)

  • Bullet Lists

    Bullet lists are commonly used to direct the reader’s attention to key facts. Although grammar rules are relatively flexible in bullet lists, construction should be consistent. To ensure that your list is organized and effective, the list should:

    • Contain either all sentence fragments or all complete sentences
    • Use the same voice (active or passive) for each item
    • Use the same verb tense for each term
    • Use the same sentence type (statement, question, etc.)
    • Have the first word of each bullet capitalized
    • End only complete sentences with periods

    If bullets do contain a complete sentence or more than one sentence, you should end all the bullets with a period. If none of the bullets requires a period, you can leave the period off the last bullet as well.

  • Canceled
    While both canceled and cancelled are acceptable for the past tense of cancel, the version with one L is more common in American English, while the version with two L's is more common in British English. Therefore, MCC has adopted the version of cancel, canceled, etc. with one L.
  • Capitalization

    Buildings and Rooms: Use figures and capitalize “room” when used with a figure: Room A213. Do not abbreviate the word room in a sentence. Use Rm. in a table if necessary. Classrooms should be denoted with no space between the building letter and room number: A127 (not A 127).

    Refer to the MCC Gym as the “Gym” rather than the “Gymnasium.”

    Courses: There is a space between course abbreviations and numbers.

    DGM 100, not DGM100.

    Capitalize the name of a specific course.

    Departments, Programs, and Offices: Capitalize the official/formal names of MCC offices, classes, committees, programs, and course titles, but not general references to subjects, offices, programs, or departments.

    • Stop by the MCC Registration Office for the appropriate forms.
    • The lines at registration can get quite long during peak hours.
    • You’ll need to take Calculus II as a prerequisite.
    • Most of the calculus classes fill quickly.

    Capitalize the word “program” in formal names and certificate programs that lead to employment (such as Honors Program, Nursing Program, Automotive Technology Program). Don’t capitalize program when it is used in a more general sense (such as a financial aid program or a degree program).

    Don’t capitalize general references to areas of study, majors, minors, and subject areas such as a degree in philosophy, theatre education, and marketing degree. Languages should be capitalized: Japanese, English, and Spanish.

    • The English department is part of the Humanities Division.

    At many schools, humanities encompasses several departments, including English, art, music, and foreign languages.

    The MCC Store: “The” in front of MCC Store would be uncapitalized in most cases. For example, if you were saying “MCC Store sale today!” you wouldn’t use “the.” If you were saying “Sale at the MCC Store today,” then you would.

    Grades: Always capitalize a grade, but do not put single or double quotes around any grade.

    Semesters: Capitalize academic semesters or sessions: Spring 2023, Summer 2024. General references to seasons are not capitalized.

    Child care

    Child care should be two words, no hyphen, in all cases.

    Co/Labs

    Co/Labs are spaces on campus for students, employees, and the community to connect, collaborate, and convene. These spaces are located in A218, B166, and E108. These should be listed as Co/Labs, not Co. Labs, CoLabs, etc.

    ConEd

    When abbreviating Continuing Education, it should appear as ConEd.

  • Commas

    Though serial commas (the comma before “and” in a list of three or more) are considered optional, they usually do help with clarity, and we have chosen to deploy them in MCC publications for consistency. 

    The hors d’oeuvres were followed by salad, soup, and steak.

    Note: use a semicolon in lists of names with titles or addresses and in other lists that would not be clear if separated by commas.

  • Dashes

    Use a hyphen for terms such as “student-athlete”, “new-student orientation”, or “four-year-old”.

    Use an en dash (the width of a capital N) to separate numbers, dates, times, places, or anything that separates limits.

    February 12 – March 13

    Use an em dash (the width of a capital M) to set off an abrupt break or insert an appositive or summary. Type it as two hyphens with no spaces before or after. In general, an em dash is a mark of separation that’s stronger than a comma, less formal than a colon, and more relaxed than parentheses.

    Her suspicions were well founded—it was not Edward she cared for; it was San Francisco.

  • Dates/Months

    When referring to dates, do not use numeric suffixes (“st,” “th,” or “nd”).

    Correct: The class starts June 2.

    Incorrect: The class starts June 2nd.

    An event cannot be described as “annual” unless it has been held for at least two successive years. It is incorrect to say an event is “the first annual,” though you may note that sponsors plan to hold the event annually.

    It is not necessary to spell out a number and then follow it with that number in parentheses.

    Correct: We have two computers.
    Incorrect: We have two (2) computers.

    When a phrase lists only a month and a year, do not separate the year with a comma: June 1992 was one of the hotter months.

    When a phrase refers to a month, day, and year, set off the day with a comma: January 2, 1996 was the target date.

    Use an s without an apostrophe to indicate spans of decades or centuries: The 1990s, the 1800s, the ‘90s.

    MCC typically uses standard three-letter abbreviations (with periods) for days of the week when appropriate. In schedules, where space is limited, you can use double letters (Th for Thursday, Su for Sunday), no periods needed.

    Months that have more than two syllables plus August may be abbreviated. Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. Write out March, April, May, June, and July.

    Note: Web guidelines dictate that days and months be spelled out in online or digital content to accommodate accessibility requirements.

     

  • Events
    For all events on campus we need to include the following: If you need accommodations or a sign language interpreter, contact the Access and Disability Services department at (815) 455-8766 or disabilityservices@mchenry.edu
  • Healthcare
    While either is correct, MCC has decided to write “healthcare” as one word.
  • Hyphens
    A hyphen is not needed for adverbs ending in ly or when the compound adjective comes after the noun.

    “Non” is typically not hyphenated unless it’s an awkward combination. Non-nuclear vs. Drop for nonpayment.

    “Re” is hyphenated if the word that follows it begins with the same vowel: Re-elect, re-emerge, re-enter.
  • Internet Terms

    See the list below for some of the more frequently used terms.

    email

    homepage

    http or https (leave it off unless there is no www in the address)

    internet (no longer capitalized)

    online (one word)

    web-based

    web

    website

    webpage

    web address

    the web

     Please include the “www” in all URL references to MCC’s website, and keep URLs lowercase.

    When including a link, use the shortest version of the link possible (leave off https://, etc.). Double-check that your links work before sending.

    When referring to our web address, do not underline it. The correct reference should appear as www.mchenry.edu.

  • Name Usage
    Both first and last name (with any appropriate title) should be used when referring to someone for the first time; thereafter, just the last name should be used.
  • Numbers

    For monetary sums, delete .00 unless the figure is aligned in a table with other figures.

    For phone numbers, use parentheses around the area code and a hyphen between the first three and last four numbers: (815) 455-8699.

    As a general rule, AP style requires that the numbers one through nine be spelled out; all other numbers should be Arabic numerals (for example, 10 or 200,000). Credit hours are always expressed as numerals.

    Percentages should be expressed as numerals followed by the word percent, such as 10 percent.

  • Phi Theta Kappa
    The international offices of Phi Theta Kappa have adopted their own official policy in regard to the proper use of the honor society name. Do not use any abbreviation such as PTK, as these are not the equivalent letters for the Greek words meaning wisdom, aspiration, and purity. The full name of the organization is the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society. Members of the organization should be referred to as “Phi Theta Kappa members” or “Phi Theta Kappans.” “Kappans,” “Phi Thetas,” and any other abbreviated versions of the name are incorrect references.
  • Referring to the Institution

    When referring to McHenry County College, first use the full name.

    MCC

    It is then acceptable to subsequently use MCC or the College. MCC is always abbreviated without periods.

    Do not refer to MCC as a junior college.

    Capitalize the C in college when “the College” can be used interchangeably with MCC. Note the T in “the” is not capitalized. Do not capitalize the C when referring to attending college or other general references to college.

    When referring to the Shah Center, note that the t in “the” is not capitalized.

    Refer to a singular MCC student as an MCC student. While MCC starts with a consonant, it is pronounced as a letter that begins with a vowel sound (m). Therefore, it should be preceded with “an.”

    MCC Scots is plural. Therefore, when indicating possession, an apostrophe goes outside the s. The MCC Scots’ jerseys were purple and gold.

  • Spacing
    In all MCC-related text, use one space at the end of a sentence after a period instead of two spaces. This can save considerable space (and pages) in longer documents.
  • Time

    In keeping with the AP Stylebook, a.m. and p.m. are lowercase—not A.M. and P.M. and never AM/PM or am/pm. There should be a space between the time and a.m./p.m. E.g., 7 a.m.

    Use Noon (capital N) instead of 12 p.m. Never use 12 Noon.

    When writing the time of day, delete the :00 unless the time is aligned in a table with other times.

    Incorrect: 8:00 a.m.
    Correct: 8 a.m.

  • Titles

    In keeping with AP style guidelines, capitalize formal titles used directly before an individual’s name. A formal title generally is one that denotes a scope of authority, professional activity, or academic activity. President Francis A. Butterworth, Dean Longbottom, Vice President McDonald.

    Titles indicating an occupational description (astronaut Sally Ride, poet Maya Angelou) should not be capitalized.

    Titles following a name or standing alone should not be capitalized. Francis A. Butterworth, executive dean of Career and Technical Education.

    Capitalize and spell out formal titles when they go before a name, but don't capitalize modifiers: department Chair Bill Chamberlin.

    “Vice President” is not hyphenated. When used as a title immediately preceding a name, both words “Vice” and “President” are capitalized.

    Use of individuals’ names in brochures and webpages should be avoided unless a publication is for short-term use. Whenever possible, substitute a position or title.

    When listing an institution, don’t use location unless it is part of the title or is outside Illinois: University of Wisconsin-Madison; University of Arizona, Tucson; Waubonsee Community College.

  • Titles of Work

    Italicize titles of books, magazines, computer games (but not software titles), movies, plays, poems, songs, and television programs. Put quotation marks around titles of lectures, articles in magazines or anthologies, speeches, and works of art, except the Bible and books that are primarily catalogs of reference material.

    In addition to catalogs, this category includes almanacs, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and similar publications.

    E.g., The Star-Spangled Banner, Gone with the Wind, “Whistler’s Mother,” Encyclopedia Britannica.

  • Trademarks/Legal
    Trademark and copyright symbols such as TM, ©, and ®, should be included only in a title/header and only once for first appearance in the body copy.

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