A-C

academic degrees
Capitalize formal names of degrees, e.g., Master of Science. Do not capitalize general categories of degrees, e.g., master’s degree or doctorate. Use an apostrophe in bachelor’s degree, master’s thesis, or the like. Abbreviations are offset with periods, e.g., M.B.A., M.S., B.S., etc.

academic titles

Capitalize and spell out formal titles such as professor or dean when they precede a name. Lowercase when the title follows the name, e.g., President John Anderson—John Anderson, president of Illinois Institute of Technology; Dean Ali Cinar—Ali Cinar, dean of the Graduate College. However, generic titles that do not include a proper noun are lowercase, e.g., Bob Smith, dean of libraries or dean of libraries Bob Smith. A lowercase title does not indicate disrespect; it simply follows The Chicago Manual of Style.

Capitalize academic titles when they follow names in a list (e.g., donor list) unless the list if is part of running text, in which case the above rule applies.

Preliminary titles, as in Dean Jones or Professor Smith, should be reserved for very formal documents. See Professor.

Do not use the abbreviation Dr. when referring to faculty, as it is often confused with the title used for medical doctors. Most IIT faculty hold doctorate degrees.

academic units

Capitalize when using the formal name of a unit, like Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering. Do not capitalize when approximating the name, as in the architectural engineering department. (See lists in back for names of academic units.) Capitalize the name of an academic unit but not the department when the latter follows the name, e.g., He is a member of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department.  

adviser, advisor

No preference, but be consistent throughout a document. The Office of Communications and Marketing, including IIT Magazine, has traditionally used adviser. However, Board of Advisors is the only correct spelling.

African American

Hyphenate only when using as an adjective, not as a noun, e.g. He is African American. The African-American art was on exhibit. Use the hyphen similarly for Asian-American, Hispanic-American, Polish-American, and the like when used as adjectives.

ages

Hyphenate when used as an adjective and spell out when nine or less younger, e.g., He is nine years old. He is a nine-year-old student. She is 11 years old. She is an 11-year-old actress.

alumnus, alumni, alumna, alumnae

Use alumnus (alumni in the plural) when referring to a male graduate of IIT or other institution. Use alumna (alumnae in the plural) for similar references to a woman. Use alumni when referring to a group of men and women. Note: Chicago-Kent College of Law uses alumnae/i to describe groups of its graduates.

Ampersand (&)

Use only when part of an official name, as in Financial Markets & Trading.

an

Use the article an, not a, to precede works that begin with vowel sounds, e.g., an historic building, an island. Use a for words that begin with a vowel but that have a consonant “u” sound, e.g., a eulogy.

apostrophe

End-quote apostrophes are used in alumni graduation years and other instances to indicate missing text, e.g., ’50s, grab ’n go, ’til. Take caution to make sure apostrophes face the correct direction (toward the missing characters). See smart/“curly” quotes for proper keying.

art exhibits

Capitalize; do not place in italics or quotations. Italicize individual works of art.

Asian American

[see African American]

beamlines

The beamlines run by IIT or its affiliated collaborative access teams at Argonne National Laboratory.

Board of Trustees

Capitalize in all references to IIT’s governing body. Capitalize trustee when it precedes a name, e.g., Trustee Bob Smith. Lowercase otherwise. Always lowercase board or trustee when used alone.

Bold text

In most cases, punctuation following boldface text should not be similarly bolded. The same rule applies when in italics.

books

Italicize titles of books, movies, magazines, plays, journals, works of art, and albums (but not songs, which are capitalized and placed in quotes).

Bronzeville

Capitalize in all uses. Bronzeville is a neighborhood community that is generally described as between 26th and 51st streets and between the Dan Ryan Expressway and Cottage Grove Avenue. 

bulleted lists

campus

Capitalize Main Campus, Downtown Campus, River North Campus, Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Campus (also known as Rice Campus), and Moffett Campus. Never use the expression Downtown Center. Lowercase general references to a campus, as in IIT’s campus in Wheaton.

Camras

This is the full, formal name of the scholarship. Less formally, it is known as the Camras Scholarship. Recipients are known as Camras scholars (note lowercase). Camras is capitalized because this scholarship is named after a man—Marvin Camras. Use Camras Pathways to Professional Excellence when referring to the certificate program; Camras Pathways less formally.

capitalization

In general, capitalize official names; use lowercase for unofficial, informal, shortened titles, or generic names. Therefore, phrases such as the center or the college are not capitalized.

captions

Conclude photo captions with a period when they are full sentences or partial sentences of more than two lines. Do not use periods when they consist of only a person’s name or are fragments of less than two lines.

Career Development Center

The abbreviation is CDC (no periods). Use lowercase center for subsequent references.

[see centers]

cell phone

centers

Capitalize the exact names of centers, as in The McCormick Tribune Campus Center. In subsequent references, use lowercase for the center.

century

Spell out both the number and century when used as a noun and an adjective, e.g., twentieth century, twentieth-century discovery.

chair

Preferred to chairman or chairperson, except in the case of Robert A. Pritzker, who chooses to be referred to as former Chairman of the Board of Trustees Robert A. Pritzker.

Chicago-Kent College of Law

Never IIT Chicago-Kent or Kent. Use Chicago-Kent or the law school in subsequent references. The use of the College of Law is prohibited.

cities

Always capitalize. A number of United States and foreign cities do not require state or country names in datelines or copy. [see city designations]

classes

Freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior all are acceptable, although it is preferred to use the gender-neutral and more flexible first-year, second-year, etc. Freshmen may be described as the incoming class of XX [year]. Because students in the College of Architecture follow a five-year course of study, they should be described as first-year, second-year, etc. Also, it is not unusual for students to take longer than four years to finish an undergraduate degree.

Student classes should be hyphenated and spelled out, e.g., All first-year students live on campus. The only exception is when classes appear as alumni affiliations, in which case the ordinal is used, e.g., Tom Smith (ME 4th year) attended chemistry class; note the absence of a superscript.

Collens, Lew

Not Lewis unless specifically requested. His title as of August 2007 is president emeritus. Capitalize if it precedes his name in copy.

colons

Keystroke one space after a colon. Capitalize the first word after a colon only when it is a proper noun or the start of a formal quote. Also, use colons only at the end of independent clauses, never after a linking verb, e.g., The winners are: Jonathan, faculty, and students Marisa, Mark, and Emily. (Note: There should be a noun following the linking verb; therefore, you may correctly write it this way: There were four winners: Jonathan, Marisa, Mark, and Emily.) Colons may also be used with introductory phrases, such as To Whom It May Concern: etc. Colons should be placed outside quotation marks; when quoting text that ends in a colon, replace the colon with an ellipses.

committees

Capitalize the formal names of committees, as in the Campaign Executive Committee. Lowercase when approximating the name of a committee, as in Johnson’s committee.

co-op

Hyphenate a co-op experience, but the term cooperative does not take a hyphen.

corporate references

Commas should precede corporate designations (Inc., PC, LLC), e.g., He is the president of Smith and Jones, LLC.

course names

Capitalize the names of courses. Do not italicize or place in quotes. Do not use the term class when referring to a course.

coursework

courtesy titles

Use of courtesy titles such as Mr. or Ms. is discouraged except in very formal documents.

S. R. Crown Hall

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