Brand, Identity & Style

If in doubt, use lowercase rather than capital letters.

• Lowercase the names of the classes: graduate, senior, junior, sophomore and freshman.
• Lowercase commonwealth when referring to Virginia. Example: VCU is located in the commonwealth of Virginia. State is similarly lowercase in all constructions. Example: She visited the state of Maine last fall.
• Capitalize central when paired with Virginia to describe the region. Example: The Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU NICU is the oldest and the newest in Central Virginia as well as the first.
• Capitalize city if part of a proper name, an integral part of an official name or a regularly used nickname. Example: Because of its location on the James, Richmond is often called the River City. Lowercase elsewhere. Example: The city of Richmond plays hosts to numerous festivals in the summer.
• Capitalize class when joined with a year. Example: The Class of 2019 announced its gift to the school.
• Capitalize commencement when referring to the university’s official ceremonies in May and December. Example: VCU will celebrate 3,000 graduates at its May Commencement.

When a generic term is capitalized as part of an official name, the plural used with another name is lowercase. Example: Broad and Belvidere streets, the schools of Nursing and Dentistry

Above all, photo captions should be clear and concise. When assigning a caption to an image, the direction of the image in relation to the description (i.e. left, right, above, below) should always be noted up-front in parentheses.

(Right) Harvy Blanks as Shealy in Jitney. Photo by Joan Marcus. Courtesy of Playbill.

The directions above, below, above left or right, top or bottom right or left can be used if the captions and images appears on the same page. “Below” should never be used.

If the caption is on the page opposite an image, opposite, and opposite top or bottom can be used. Avoid “opposite page” in print.

For images arranged in a grid, use clockwise, clockwise from top, clockwise from left or right and list image captions in the order designated. Never use “counter-clockwise.”

For images in a series, or for photos of people, use left to right.

(Left to right) George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon.

In print publications, captions that are overlaid or printed directly beneath a full-page image do not require directions unless referring to a specific person or object.

Omit the Oxford comma unless its inclusion would help clarify a sentence.

• Without serial comma: This comprehensive Cubist exhibition features the work of Picasso, Braque and Léger.
• With serial comma: Her primary tools were her father’s hand-me-downs, acrylic brushes, and painting knives. (The comma is necessary here to clarify that the subject’s brushes and knives are not hand-me-downs.)

Use an em dash (—) to set off an abrupt break or interruption, or to announce a long appositive or summary. Do not set off em dashes with spaces.

He explained the skills—research, writing and public speaking—he expected of his students; She took the test—having studied for three days—and left for winter break.

On a PC, em dashes are created by holding down the CTRL and shift keys and hitting the “-” key. On a Mac, they are created by holding down the option and shift keys and hitting the “-”.

Use an en dash (–) to show span, range or duration. Example: You will find this material in chapters 9–12; The 2019–20 season was our best yet.

If you introduce a span or range with words such as “from” or “between,” do not use the en dash.

Correct: She served as secretary of state from 1996 to 1999.

Incorrect: She served as secretary of state from 1996–1999.

On a PC, en dashes are created by holding down the CTRL key and hitting the “-” key. On a Mac, they are created by holding down the option key and hitting the “-” key.

Use ellipses (…) to indicate where words have been removed from direct quotations. Ellipses within a quotation are set off by spaces: “We took the short cut … and got lost.” Ellipses at the end of a sentence follow the period and are set off by a space on either side: “We figured it would be better to take the bus. … It didn’t save much time.” Do not use ellipses at the beginning or end of a quotation.

As a general rule, a speaker’s words should not be omitted or altered except in cases where their message would seem unclear to the reader or too lengthy for the space. Never omit or change words to alter or skew the speaker’s intended message.

Capitalize as part of a full official name; lowercase otherwise. The Windgate Foundation; foundation grants.

Spell out and hyphenate when necessary: Three-quarters of the class attended; A fifth of the class attended. The Anderson is located at 907 ½ Franklin Street.

VCUarts prefers the term first-year student or first year in reference to students that have just begun their education at the school.

If writing out the terms within a quote: freshman is the singular noun and also is used in adjective form. Freshmen is the plural form. Examples: “I was a freshman at VCU.” “My first year, the university welcomed incoming freshmen with a party in Monroe Park.”

When writing about anyone, take the time to ask which pronouns they use, and respect their identity. Don’t guess pronouns. If the person is not available to clarify, refer to their public profile (pronouns may be listed on their social media pages), recent written materials about them, or ask someone who knows them well. However, the most accurate source will always be the subject themselves.

Where possible, use sentence-structured, active headlines. Example: Brandcenter team innovates its way to the top. Capitalize only the first word and proper nouns. The one exception is that the first word after a colon is always uppercase in headlines. Always use single quotation marks.

Use to avoid ambiguity. She re-covered the hole. vs. He recovered from the fall. Use to avoid duplicated vowels or triple consonants: anti-inflammatory, shell-like. Use to create two-thought compounds: socio-economic.

–and a compound modifier:

Use to link all the words (except the adverb “very” and all adverbs ending in “-ly”) preceding a noun: a full-time job, a first-period goal, a very good grade, an easily remembered concept. When using a string of modifiers before a noun, put the modifier in quote marks instead of using hyphens, for clarity: He won the “Best Roommate in East Hall” award at reunion.

–in suspensive form:

Suspensive hyphenation takes this form: a 10- to 20-year study; but: a 3-percent to 5-percent chance, a $5 million to $6 million project.

–and spelling:

Unless the dictionary makes an exception, do not hyphenate: Decision making takes place on many levels; Fundraising is fun.

–and numbers:

Use to separate numerals in odds (he has a 5-1 chance), ratios (the student- teacher ratio is 11-1, she won 3-2), fractions that are spelled out (three-fourths). When large numbers are spelled out as in the beginning of a sentence, use to connect a word ending in “-y” to the next word: Fifty-five (but: three hundred).

–and compound proper nouns:

Avoid using hyphens for dual heritage: Italian American; French Canadian; African American.

Avoid this overused word unless describing a physical collision. Don’t use “impactfulness.”

VCUarts breaks from AP style in our use of italics, due to the wide range of creative work we cover.

Set in italics the titles of feature-length films, books, magazines, newspapers, albums, video games, stage productions, and individual paintings, sculptures or similar artworks.

For short films, magazine and newspaper articles, poems, chapters of a novel, songs, and acts of a play, set the title in quotation marks.

See the section “Writing About Art” for more instructions.

Several VCUarts alumni have received the MacArthur Fellowship, which is awarded by the MacArthur Foundation. The fellowship is granted to individuals who show exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future. Individuals cannot apply for this award; they must be nominated. This fellowship is sometimes called a “genius grant.” Do not refer to it as such in formal materials.

Over generally refers to spatial relationships. Example: She threw the ball over the fence. More than is preferred with numerals. Example: VCU enrolls more than 31,000 students.

Periods and commas always go within quotation marks. Dashes, colons, semicolons, question marks and exclamation points go within quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence: “Did you take the test yet?” she asked; He thus defined the “crux of the matter”: equal pay for equal work.

Use single quotation marks in headlines. Quotation marks are not required in formats that identify questions and answers by Q: and A:.

Try to avoid quotations that run over several paragraphs. If a full paragraph of quoted material is followed by a paragraph that continues the quotation, do not place close-quote marks at the end of the first paragraph.

“The professor challenged us,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d pass the final.

“But in the end, I did better than I expected,” she added.

In most cases, you can run the quoted material in a single paragraph.

“The professor challenged us,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d pass the class. But in the end, I did better than I expected.”

If a paragraph ends with a partial quotation or quoted phrase, and the next paragraph continues the quote, place close-quote marks at the end of the first paragraph.

He called the class “the most difficult ever.”

“But in the end,” he said, “it was also the most rewarding.”

If excerpting comments from a quotation, do not put ellipses at the beginning or end of the quotation. Ellipses are only necessary when taking words within a sentence out of a quotation.

E.g., if a quotation reads: “The professor challenged us,” Jane said. “I didn’t think I’d pass the class. It was the most difficult ever. But in the end, I have to say, it was the most rewarding,” it can be excerpted thus: “In the end … it was the most rewarding,” Jane said.

Never omit words if the change will alter the speaker’s intended message.

As a best practice, the cleanest, shortest working URL should be used in print pieces, websites and on stationery. Most sites, including vcu.edu addresses no longer require the www (even if they appear on the landing page). The prefixes www, http:// and https://  can be removed as long as the URL works without them. However, because some sites do still require these prefixes, the URL should be tested in multiple browsers (IE, Safari, Firefox and Chrome) before removing any part of the address.

• The same rule applies to suffixes such as /index.html, which appear in the browser bar but aren’t needed to access the site. Example: http://www.ugrad.vcu.edu/why/index.html can become vcu.edu/why.
• If the website if part of a list and some URLs in the list require www and others don’t, include www in all entries.
• For print publications when the URL does not fit entirely on one line, break it into two or more lines without adding a hyphen or other punctuation mark, and carry any punctuation in the URL to the second line.Example:
  pubapps.vcu.edu/Bulletins
  /undergraduate/?did=20671

The URL should always be the last item in a sentence. Example: To make a donation to the school, contact Troy Smith at (804) 555-5555, or make a gift online at support.vcu.edu.

• Do not use http:// or https:// in URLs that do not require it.

On websites, use a hyperlink versus spelling out the URL in text. However, be mindful of users who rely on screen reader programs to navigate the internet. Hyperlinks that appear simply as Read more or Click here are not helpful, as the user cannot easily determine where the link leads. Instead, distinguish the link text with a descriptive term, such as Read more about Theresa Pollak or Buy West Side Story tickets online.

Capitalize academic titles when used before the name: Professor of English Daniel Jones; President Michael Rao. They are not capitalized when used after the name, except for endowed chairs: Charles Darwin, professor of natural history; Charles Darwin, the Beagle Professor of Natural History. Do not mention doctorate degrees (PhD, EdD, JD, MD, etc.) unless pertinent to a story or list; the honorific Dr. should only appear before a licensed medical doctor’s name. Dr. Michael Crichton.

Emeritus and emeriti (male); emerita and emeritae (female). Always follows the noun: She is professor emerita of music. Capitalize before the name and as part of endowed title: Professor Emeritus Frank Smith, or Frank Smith, John Smith Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus.

On second reference refer to people by last name: John Smith (M.F.A. ’99) had an exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in May. Smith’s work is reflective of his Virginia roots.

Those who hold a Ph.D. do not get Dr. in front of their names. The honorific is reserved for licensed medical doctors.

Five VCUarts programs use plus signs in their names: Dance + Choreography, Fashion Design + Merchandising, Painting + Printmaking, Photography + Film, Sculpture + Extended Media.

Do not use in text unless part of branding; avoid and/or; if subject uses the phrasing in quote, write out the word slash offset with hyphens. “It’s a theatre-slash-restaurant,” she said.

Capitalize when referring to the southern region of the country; lowercase when referring to a direction: The wind blew from the south. The American Civil War was between the North and the South.