Marketing and Public Relations Style Guide
Introduction
The Central Florida Community College style guide is designed to achieve as much consistency as possible in written material that comes from CFCC, especially material that bears the CFCC logo. This style guide conforms to Associated Press Style in most cases. Individual offices have unique needs, but if no particular local style prevails, the recommendations of this guide should hold. Professional papers, technical publications and other academic works should conform to the accepted style of the respective discipline. To keep this guide a valuable reference tool, we invite your feedback. Please direct corrections or suggestions for improvements to the Department of Marketing and Public Relations, ext. 1373.
CFCC Graphics Standards Policy
For desktop publishing and printing, we recommend that you use the .JPG and .TIFF versions of the CFCC logo available on the departments Web page. We do not recommend attempting to convert the images to a .GIF or .BMP format.
Just because an image looks good on your computer screen, it doesn't mean it will look good in a printed document. In order for a bitmapped image to look good in a printed document, it must be at a 300 dpi or higher. Bitmapped images look good on your computer screen at 72 dpi. Most images you copy from the Internet are less than 300 dpi.
The college logo
DO NOT ALTER THE PROPORTIONS OR ORIENTATION OF THE LOGO. If you must resize the logo, make sure you click and drag from a corner. DO NOT stretch the logo horizontally or vertically. If you do not know how to resize your logo without doing this, ask someone in the Department of Marketing and Public Relations to show you how.
–an equal opportunity college–
Any time you use the CFCC logo, you must also use the phrase –an equal opportunity college–. The phrase may appear anywhere on the document; however, most chose to place it directly under the logo. Do not use hyphens before and after the phrase – use an “en dash.” To insert an “en dash” in Microsoft programs, go to Insert > Symbol > Special Characters. All words should be lowercased in the phrase “an equal opportunity college.” Use Arial font and italics, no spaces before or after the en dashes.
The College Seal
The CFCC seal shown below is the official seal of the college and should be used only on certain special publications and materials, such as the college diploma, certificates, invitations, special events, programs, etc. It should not be used in a casual manner, e.g., on memo pads, newsletters, etc. DO NOT ALTER THE PROPORTIONS OR ORIENTATION OF THE SEAL. Please contact the Department of Marketing and Public Relations before using the CFCC seal.
The College Tagline
Our Promise...Your Future
(Times New Roman, Italic font)
Download a CFCC logo
Right click on the appropriate link (file extension) below and save the file to your computer. It is not recommended that you copy and paste the logo.
If your publication will be in color, download a color logo. If your publication will be in black and white, download a black and white logo. The Pantone colors to be used for the CFCC logo are: PMS 186 Red and PMS 280 Blue.
Writing Stylebook
- Write in present tense.
- Spell out numbers one through nine. Use figures for 10 and up.
- Spell out days of the week except when in tabular form. Example: Monday not Mon.
- Do not use smaller than 9 pt. font for body text. 12 pt. font is preferred for body text.
- Use a serif font for body text. Reserve san serif fonts for emphasis like headlines or captions.
A
A.A. degree, A.S. degree; Associate in Arts degree; Associate in Science degree; associate degree.
a, an Use the article a before consonant sounds: a historic event, a one-year term (sounds as if it begins with a w), a united stand (sounds like you). Use the article an before vowel sounds: an energy crisis, an honorable man (the h is silent).
academic titles Capitalize and spell out formal titles such as chancellor, chairman, etc., when they precede a name. Lowercase elsewhere. Lowercase modifiers such as department in department Chairman Jerome Wiesner.
accept, except Accept means to receive. Except means to exclude.
addresses Use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd. and St. only with a numbered address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Spell them out and capitalize when part of a formal street name without a number: Pennsylvania Avenue.
All similar words (terrace, road, lane, etc.) always are spelled out. Capitalize them when part of a formal name with a number; lowercase when used alone or with two or more names.
Spell out and capitalize First through Ninth when used as street names; use figures with two letters for 10th and above: 7 Fifth Ave., 100 21st St.
Use periods in the abbreviation P.O. for P.O. Box numbers.
adviser Not advisor
African-American Acceptable, but black is preferred. Not everyone that is black is an African-American. They may be Haitan, Jamaican, etc. Unless you know that the population or person you are referring to is distinctly African-American, use black.
afterward Not afterwards
all right Not alright
a lot Not a lot or allot
alma mater
alumnus A man who has attended a school.
alumni Men or coed group who have attended a school.
alumna A woman who has attended a school.
alumnae A group of women who have attended a school
among, between Among introduces more than two items, between introduces two items.
a.m., p.m. Lowercase, with periods. Avoid the redundant 10 a.m. this morning, 12 noon.
annual An event cannot be described as annual until it has been held in at least two successive years. Do not use first annual.
area codes Omit in publications strictly for on-campus use; if using area code, place a hyphen after the area code: 352-854-2322.
associate degree Not associate’s degree
B
Baccalaureate
bachelor’s degree or bachelor’s or Bachelor of Arts degree are all acceptable
biannual Means twice a year and is a synonym for semiannual
Bible, Biblical
biennial Means every two years
bimonthly Not bi-monthly. Means every other month; semimonthly means twice a month.
biweekly Not bi-weekly. Means every other week; semiweekly means twice a week
board Capitalize only as part of a proper name: CFCC District Board of Trustees, district board of trustees, board of trustees.
C
campuswide Not campus-wide
chair Preferable to chairman, chairwoman or chairperson
child care Not childcare
college Lowercase when not used with a formal name. The college is closed today.
College Square Apartments Not dormitory or dormitories
commencement
collegewide Not college-wide
county, counties Capitalize when writing Marion County. Do not capitalize when writing Marion, Citrus and Levy counties.
D
dean’s list
department Only capitalize when part of a proper name. The Department of Human Resources is closed today. The department will re-open tomorrow.
E
e-mail Always use a lowercase “e”
ext. Not Ext. or extension
F
fax Not FAX
federal Lowercase except in titles
Florida Legislature Legislature on second reference
foundation Lowercase except when used as part of formal title The Central Florida Community College Foundation hosted Taste of Ocala. The foundation raises scholarship funds for CFCC students.
full time, full-time Do not hyphenate when used as an adverb. He works full time. Hyphenate when used as an adjective. He is a full-time employee.
fund raising, fund-raising, fund-raiser Fund raising is difficult. They planned a fund-raising campaign. A fund-raiser was hired. The college is planning a fund-raiser.
I
Internet Always use a capital “I”
Intranet Always use a capital “I”
L
Letter grades: He learned the three R’s and brought home a report card with four A’s.
M
master’s degree or master’s or Master of Arts degree are all acceptable
midnight Avoid the redundant 12 midnight or 12 noon.
millions Use figures with: 1 million residents; He won $7 million.
months Spell out months without days November 2008. Abbreviate months with days Nov. 5, 2008. Spell out April, May, June, July.
N
Noon Avoid the redundant 12 noon or 12 midnight.
numbers Spell out numbers one through nine. Use figures for 10 and up. Never start a sentence with a figure, always spell it out. Fifteen students attended class today.
O
online One word, no hyphen.
over Use more than. “CFCC offers more than 60 courses.”
S
seasons, spring, summer, fall, winter Not capitalized
semester: Use Fall Semester, Winter Semester and Summer Semester. The Summer Semester is comprised of two terms, Summer Term A and Summer Term B.
T
titles Lowercase titles that come after a name Dr. Joe Wallace, director of marketing and public relations. Capitalize titles that come before a name Director of Marketing and Public Relations Joe Wallace. Titles of books, plays, movies, etc. should be in quotation marks “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
W
Web addresses No underlining or colored typeface.
Web site Two words, always use a capital W.
Design Principles
- There is a delicate balance between too much and too little white space. Don't feel like you have to use all of the space that is available to you.
- When creating the focal point, remember that our eyes move left to right and top to bottom (this is how we read).
 |
Focal point. This is where the reader looks first. Use this area to draw the reader in. Place the most prominent visual element or most important text here. |
- Use one space after a period, not two. The two-space rule was for typewriters, not word processors.
- Use tools for emphasis sparingly. You don't want to italicize, bold and underline. USING ALL CAPS REDUCES READABILITY 20 PERCENT.
- Overemphasizing text in a document can:
- Reduce reading speed
- Reduce comprehension
- Reduce legibility
- Turn-off the hyphenation in Microsoft Publisher.
- Avoid widows. Widows are single lines of text or single words that are left on the bottom of a page. For example, you don't want the first line of a new paragraph to be at the bottom of page 2 and the rest of the paragraph to be at the top of page 3. Instead, you should put the entire paragraph on page 3.
