City Colleges Editorial Style Guide
The following City Colleges of Chicago Style Guide contains our standards and rules for writing, and will help you as you create emails, letters, presentations, and more. Using this in conjunction with the City Colleges Branding Guidelines will allow you to write about successes, report outcomes, and more as we further the mission of City Colleges clearly and consistently.
Style Guide By Subject Area:
Official name: City Colleges of Chicago
CCC’s official URL: www.ccc.edu
Use the official name on first reference and “City Colleges” on subsequent reference. For example: “City Colleges of Chicago is closed for the holidays, but City Colleges students will return in January.”
Every CCC-produced publication must include the official logo of either City Colleges of Chicago or the individual college. Refer to the Branding Guide for guidance on logo usage.
There is no “The” before “City Colleges of Chicago.”
City Colleges of Chicago is a system, and therefore we use the singular: City Colleges of Chicago is proud of our associate degree completers.
The official names of the seven City Colleges and five satellite locations are listed below.
- Arturo Velasquez Institute
- Dawson Technical Institute
- Harold Washington College
- Harry S Truman College
- Kennedy-King College
- Malcolm X College
- Olive-Harvey College
- Richard J. Daley College
- The South Chicago Learning Center
- Washburne Culinary & Hospitality Institute
- The West Side Learning Center
- Wilbur Wright College
- Wright College Humboldt Park
On first reference and in most cases, these names should be linked to the City Colleges of Chicago name. For instance, “Malcolm X College, one the City Colleges of Chicago, begins classes soon.” This rule can be relaxed in college-specific publications, such as internal publications or social media, in which the connection to CCC is clearly established.
On subsequent references, use “college” by itself, in lowercase. For instance, “The college is pleased to announce its new dean.” Campus is only used when speaking about a college’s specific location. City Colleges has seven colleges, not seven campuses.
Correct: City Colleges has seven unique colleges, with Wilbur Wright College even having a pyramid on its campus that was designed by Bertrand Goldberg.
Incorrect: There is a diverse student body at each of CCC’s seven campuses.
When listing the colleges, the correct order is:
- Harold Washington College
- Harry S Truman College
- Kennedy-King College
- Malcolm X College
- Olive-Harvey College
- Richard J. Daley College
- Wilbur Wright College
These acronyms and abbreviated names may be used on subsequent references in internal documents, though they should be used sparingly. Acronyms generally aren’t recommended for external publications such as brochures, flyers or other recruitment materials that people outside of the college population would receive.
- Arturo Velasquez Institute: Arturo Velasquez, AVI
- Dawson Technical Institute: Dawson, Dawson Technical, Dawson Tech, DTI
- Harold Washington College: Harold Washington, HWC
- Harry S Truman College: Truman College, Truman, HTC
- Kennedy-King College: Kennedy-King, KKC
- Malcolm X College: Malcolm X, MXC
- Olive-Harvey College: Olive-Harvey, OHC
- Richard J. Daley College: Daley College, Daley, RDC
- South Chicago Learning Center: SCLC
- Washburne Culinary & Hospitality Institute: Washburne Culinary, Washburne, WCHI
- West Side Learning Center: WSLC
- Wilbur Wright College: Wright College, Wright, WRC
- Wright College Humboldt Park: WCHP
The official names of departments and offices, including the word “department” or “office” are capitalized. It is the responsibility of individual schools and colleges to ensure that academic departments and offices are listed consistently on websites.
Examples
- The Biology Department
- Office of Institutional Advancement
City Colleges of Chicago’s philanthropic arm is the City Colleges of Chicago Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. On first reference, the full name, the City Colleges of Chicago Foundation, should be used. Subsequent references may refer to it as the Foundation or CCCF.
Capitalize titles of programs and workshops. Do not capitalize “the” or the words “program” or “workshop.”
Examples
- He participated in the Transfer Scholars program.
- The Star Scholarship program has helped to increase the number of CPS graduates who go to college.
The correct way to write out the Star Scholarship program is “Star”, not “STAR”.
Please use Arial font, size 10 or larger.
Awards, prizes, professorships: Capitalized. Words or phrases not part of the award’s name is lowercased (e.g. Nobel Prize-winning scientist).
- Course titles: Capitalized
- Majors/minors/concentrations: Generally, lowercase unless in official lists
- Colon: Capitalize the first word after a colon if it is a proper noun or the beginning of a complete sentence (with a subject, noun and verb)
Capitalize when used as a noun referring to CCC’s graduation event, lowercase as an adjective.
Example
- Five hundred students attended Commencement in 2018.
- Two students spoke at the commencement ceremony.
When writing about a CCC alumnus or alumna, include the individual’s degree and year of graduation. The preferred style is to include this information on the first reference, and to use the full program name with an abbreviated year.
Example
- John Smith, AAS culinary arts ’13.
Where space is tight, it may be necessary to include only the graduation year information or only a degree designation plus the graduation year.
Example
- John Smith ’13 OR John Smith, AAS ’13.
For mixed gender groups, default to the masculine plural (alumni).
- alumna (f., singular)
- alumnae (f., plural)
- alumnus (m., singular)
- alumni (m., plural)
Academic degrees and credentials are capitalized only when the full name of the degree is used, such as Associate of Arts or Bachelor of Science. General references, such as associate degree, bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree, are not capitalized.
Correct
- They earned an Associate of Applied Arts in 2018.
- They earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 2018.
- They obtained a Basic Certificate in Accounting from the college.
- They earned an associate degree in 2016.
- They earned a bachelor’s degree in 2017.
- They hold a doctoral degree (or doctorate) from Stanford University.
- They received a basic certificate from the school.
Abbreviations, such as AAS, BA, MS and PhD, should be used in text only when there is a need to identify many people by academic degree and use of the full names would be cumbersome.
In most writing, use of the general terms associate or associate degree, bachelor’s or bachelor’s degree, master’s or master’s degree and doctorate or doctoral degree are sufficient to establish credentials and preferred to use of the full name of the degree (or the initials).
Use an apostrophe (possessive) with bachelor’s degree and master’s degree, but not in Bachelor of Arts or Master of Science. Do not use an apostrophe (possessive) with associate degree or doctoral degree.
When referring to credentials in higher education, the preferred style is to spell out degree names.
Example
Write “associate degree” rather than AAS or AA or AS, “bachelor’s degree” rather than BA or BS, or “master’s degree” instead of MA or MS, and “doctoral degree” or “doctorate” instead of PhD. An exception can be made when using the abbreviated terms to identify a CCC alumnus (see section “Alumni and students, designating degree”).
City Colleges of Chicago departs from AP style by not using periods with a degree abbreviation (correct: AAS, BA, PhD, etc.).
When referring to the credential a student earns when they pass the state’s GED© Test or HiSET exam, the preferred language is “Illinois High School Diploma” or “high school diploma” instead of high school equivalency certificate, GED, or HiSET. Within our Adult Education Department, City Colleges offers free classes to help students prepare to earn their high school diploma. We do not offer the GED© Test or HiSET exam at our colleges.
Example
- Correct: Tamara Smith enrolled in free prep classes at City Colleges before earning her Illinois High School Diploma last spring.
- Incorrect: Jose Juarez earned his GED at City Colleges in the fall.
Capitalize titles when they precede a name.
Example
- City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Juan Salgado
- Vice Chancellor of Legislative and Community Affairs Jennifer Mason…
Lowercase titles when they follow a name.
Example
- Juan Salgado, chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago, was present to…
- Michelle Adams, dean of the Student Services, led a tour of Olive-Harvey College…
Capitalize the actual department unless it is being used casually (i.e. on second reference).
Example
- Formal: John Smith, assistant professor in the Biology Department, recently joined…
- Informal: John Smith has worked in the biology department for two years.
City Colleges uses “advisor” instead of “adviser.” When talking about a specific advisor, “college advisor” is to be used in place of “academic advisor.”
All bulleted items should be styled consistently. If it is a complete sentence, the bullet should have a period. If one bullet ends with a period, all bullets in the series should end with a period.
Lowercase and spell out the term “fiscal year” in most cases. It’s acceptable to use an abbreviation, without a space, in graphics, tight-spaced headlines and financial documents (for example: FY19).
When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. but not March, April, May, June and July. Spell out the month when using alone or with a year alone.
When a phrase lists only a month and a year, do not separate the year with commas. When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with commas.
To list the time of an event, please use the following: 10:00 am; 4:00 pm; etc.
Example
- January 1972 was a cold month.
- Jan. 2 was the coldest day of the month.
- His birthday is May 8. Feb. 14, 1987, was the target date.
- She testified that it was Friday, Dec. 3, when the accident occurred.
- The storm arrived on Saturday, March 5, 1972.
Although the day of the month is actually an ordinal number (and pronounced that way in speaking), the correct way is to write it as a cardinal number.
Example
- Correct: On May 11, we visited City Colleges.
- Incorrect: On May 11th, we visited City Colleges.
Whole numbers one through nine are spelled out. For any other numbers, use numerals.
Examples
- The six new classrooms create space for more than 1,000 new students.
- More than 30 faculty members have signed up for the workshop.
Ages
Use numerals for ages, except when starting a sentence.
Examples
- The ages of the volunteers are 12, 22, 25 and 65.
- Three-year-old Sam Smith had his photo taken at the statue.
Hyphenate the age when it precedes the name as an adjective or when it serves as a substitute for a noun.
Examples
- The 10-year-old girl said that she loved bulldogs.
The City Colleges style is to write phone numbers as below with the exception of 773-COLLEGE.
Example
- Correct: (312) 553-2500
- Incorrect: 312.553.2500, 312/553-2500, 312-553-2500
Questions?
For style questions not addressed here, refer to the AP Stylebook.
This is an evolving resource. If you have questions not addressed here or see something that is missing, please contact communications@ccc.edu.
