Web Services

Common Errors in Word Usage

• Adviser: Use adviser not advisor. Alumnus, singular male; alumna, singular female; alumni, plural for all alumni or male alums; alumnae, plural female.
• Use a.m./p.m. Not AM or PM, nor am or pm.
• Annual: an event is not annual until it has been held at least two successive years. There is no first annual event.
• Catalog: Use catalog not catalogue.
• Chair: Use chair, not chairman, chairwoman, chairperson. Capitalize before a name.
• Colleges, schools and departments are capitalized: College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities; Alumni Association, etc.
• Course titles are capitalized and italicized, i.e., COMM101: Fundamentals of Speech Communication . Do not abbreviate course titles (exceptions: Intro. or Fund).
• Daylight-saving time: Not savings. Note the hyphen. Lowercase in all uses.
• Degrees: Readers are usually familiar with degrees. Avoid abbreviations depending on your material and target audience. Use a phrase such as “Jane Doe, who has a doctorate [or, PhD] in entomology…..” rather than “Jane Doe, PhD” Use an apostrophe in associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree. Use BA, BS, MA and PhD only if the preferred form is cumbersome.
• Email: not e mail, e-mail, E-mail
• Festivities: Great Lake State Weekend, Hall of Fame, Parent’s Weekend are all capitalized. Internet: Always capitalize Internet.
• Lake Superior State University: first reference always in its entirety, then LSSU or Lake Superior State. Do not use L.S.S.U. (with periods).
• Laker hockey: not Laker Hockey, Laker Basketball, etc.
• Laker Log: the alumni magazine. Capitalize and italicize, but do not put in quotation marks.
• Mackinaw vs. Mackinac: it is always Mackinaw Trail (the highway in the Eastern Upper Peninsula), Mackinaw City and the icebreaker U.S. Coast Guard Mackinaw . A specific style of winter coat is a Mackinaw. All other uses of the word are spelled Mackinac , including the island, the bridge, the county and The Mackinac Center.
• Numerals: spell out one through nine; beginning with 10, use numerals. Exception: when referring to someone’s age, always use numerals.
• Seasons: fall, winter, spring, summer (no caps). Semesters: fall semester, spring semester (no caps).
• State/federal: state not State government, and federal not Federal government (unless used in a proper noun, i.e., Federal Bureau of Investigation).
• Theater: Use theater not theatre (unless part of a proper name).
• Titles: lower case, and spell out titles when not used with an individual’s name: “The dean provided a list of students.” Capitalize and spell out titles when they precede a name: “Dr. Thomas Pleger, the president at LSSU.” Use the lower case when the title appears a ft er a name: “Thomas Pleger, president.”
• University: use an initial capital “U” when referring to Lake Superior State University, e.g., “The University issued a strategic plan.”
• Upper Peninsula: Always capitalize Eastern Upper Peninsula or EUP after the first reference.
• Web/Internet: When posting the LSSU home page, the address should appear as: www.lssu.edu