General+Style+Guide+Notes

=General Style Guide for Text Communication=

(last modified 09/9/10, MA)


 * The official name of our service is the **University of Cincinnati Second Life Project**.
 * The official name of our virtual campus is the **University of Cincinnati Virtual Campus in Second Life**. It is tempting to use the shorthand "UC" because we know what that means, but it is important to spell out University of Cincinnati in Second Life and the University of Cincinnati Virtual Campus in Second Life to distinguish the University of Cincinnati from other "UCs," such as the University of California. Even on notecards, let's spell out University of Cincinnati the first time it is used in text. For example: Here at the University of Cincinnati (UC), we do not permit objects of conveyance admittance to "non-livery" buildings. At UC, you will find signs indicating which buildings permit vehicles and riding animals.
 * The official name of our parent organization (as of September 2010) is University of Cincinnati Information Technologies (UCIT). The Office of the Vice President has instructed everyone to change UCit to UCIT as we come across it.

**As we represent an institution of higher learning, proper grammar is especially important.**
Let's keep it correct - but simple. Check subject-verb agreement. Strive to use the active voice whenever possible. For example, we might write "Fleep created and outfitted the pavillion in record time." We would avoid "The building was created in record time." We might write "The AV rezzed a bookcase" not "A bookcase was rezzed."

**Strive to be terse (concise) rather than verbose (wordy).**
Good communication requires careful choices in how we present information to our audience. Our goal is to provide the information they need to know in a format that is easy to read and understand. Particularly for instructional materials, it is best to keep explanations and instructions as short and simple as possible. When you've finished writing your document, reread it looking for words and phrases that could be eliminated without changing the meaning of the sentences - and delete them.

You may wish to review some Common Language Errors and Fixes.

General Style Preferences

 * Generally, left align text and titles.
 * Do not use periods after the letters of an acronym, e.g., UC, 1 am - 4 pm, USA.
 * When forming the plural of an acronym, use no apostrophe and use a small s, e.g., AVs, PCs.
 * Omit the period of a sentence contained in another sentence.
 * Spell out an acronym the first time you use it in a piece of writing.
 * Spell out a number whenever it appears at the beginning of a sentence. Unless circumstances contraindicate doing so, if a number is twenty (20) or less, spell it out. If it is greater than twenty, use numeric characters.

**Punctuation & Quotation Marks**
Usually, punctuation should be included inside quotation marks. For example: Merry said, "Hi Fleep. How are you?"

However, when we are providing step by step instructions, commands, or any text we advise users to type, the exact text string should be encased in quotation marks, with punctuation **outside** the quotes, unless it is part of the command or exact string to be typed.

For example: To say hello, press the enter key, type "hello", and press the enter key again.

Other examples: e.g., "Shall we be friends?" the avatar inquired. e.g., To eliminate the colon, enter the command, "/me". e.g., I really like the movie, "Avatar"!

**The University of Cincinnati Stylebook**
Generally speaking, we will follow the UC Stylebook at [].