ASU word list

3D has no hyphen. 

• 🚫 Don’t: 3-D 

Note that a numeral-and-letter combination, such as “3D,” may start a sentence:

• ✅ Do: 3D metal printing seminars are scheduled in July.

See Numerals, Abbreviations and acronyms.

Singular in all references to academic admission.

• 🚫 Don’t: admissions. 

The names of the ASU offices are Admission Services, Graduate Admission Services and International Admission Services.

• ✅ Do: John completed the steps for admission to ASU.
• ✅ Do: The admission office assists prospective students with the admission process.

• ✅ Do: advisor.
• 🚫 Don't: adviser.

• Alumni — plural, gender neutral. Use alumni for mixed-gender groups.
• Alum — It is acceptable to use alum instead of alumnus or alumna when the gender of the subject is unknown, to be more inclusive, or both.
• Alumna — female who has earned a degree.
• Alumnae — feminine plural. 
• Alumnus — male who has earned a degree.

• ✅ Do: amid
• 🚫 Don't: amidst

• ✅ Do: among
• 🚫 Don't: amongst

• Not acceptable to indicate alternatives.
• Rewrite the statement using more precise phrasing.

See Punctuation and symbols, Academic programs, degrees, courses and tests, Abbreviations and acronyms.

Do not use an apostrophe-s. This is a variance with bachelor’s degree, master’s degree.

• 🚫 Don't: associate’s degree. 

See Academic programs, degrees, courses and tests, Abbreviations and acronyms.

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Refer to full name. 

• ✅ Do: ASU Thrive magazine
• 🚫 Don't: Thrive magazine

Superfluous in most instances.

• ✅ Do: Department expenditures reached $1 million last year.
• 🚫 Don't: Department expenditures reached a total of $1 million last year.

• ✅ Do: backward
• 🚫 Don’t: backwards

Capitalize, per AP Stylebook.

Black as an adjective in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense: Black people, Black culture, Black literature, Black studies, Black colleges. African American is acceptable for an American Black person of African descent.

See Inclusion guidelines.

Superfluous in most instances.
 

• ✅ Do: This trait is common to cats and dogs.
• 🚫 Don't: This trait is common to both cats and dogs.

Capitalize class when referring to a group of students or alumni who share the same graduation year.

• ✅ Do: Class of 2023.

Not global warming, which is just one aspect of climate change.

Climate change encompasses global warming. The terms are not interchangeable.

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns and is the correct term to use in the broader sense.

Only capitalize when used as an event title:

• ✅ Do: 2022 Spring Commencement is an exciting event for the whole family.
• ✅ Do: He attended commencement ceremonies.
• ✅ Do: This year, the fall commencement featured more speakers.

Capitalize official course titles, but not generic references:

• ✅ Do: The department will offer applied computer science next semester.
• ✅ Do: Calculus 101.

Do not capitalize the first letter, even at the beginning of a sentence. Include the superscript trademark symbol on first reference. Subsequent references do not require it. (Exception: The trademark symbol is not allowed on the eAdvisor platform, so it is not used on any reference in copy for the ASU academic catalog.)

• ✅ Do: Academic progress reports are sent through eAdvisor™.
• ✅ Do: eAdvisor™ is a new tool to help ASU students succeed.

Note: Microsoft Word creates the superscript™ automatically when those letters are entered without a space between.

Do not capitalize the first letter even at the beginning of a sentence: 

• ✅ Do: eChecks are ASU's preferred payment method. 

See Capitalization.

Spell out on first reference; use the initialism thereafter. 

• 🚫 Don't: English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).

See Academic programs, degrees, courses and tests.

• People are entitled to their opinions. 
• Books and nobility are titled.

(n., pl.) Collective noun. For singular reference, use faculty member, member of the faculty.
 

• ✅ Do: The professor recently joined the ASU faculty.
• ✅ Do: ASU has three Nobel laureate faculty members.
• ✅ Do: The school’s faculty are expected to hold office hours each week.

• A flyer is an aviator or a handbill. 
• Use flier in the phrase take a flier, meaning to take a big risk.

Introduction to a book. 
 

• 🚫 Don't: forword 
• 🚫 Don't: forward

• ✅ Do: forward
• 🚫 Don't: forwards

There are two types of Fulbright programs at ASU. 

• Fulbright Scholars are faculty members, scholars and professionals. 
• Fulbright student awards allow students to study abroad. It is not correct to refer to these students as Fulbright Scholars. Fulbright Student Award winners is a more accurate collective term.

(adj.), full-time Hyphenate only when used as a compound modifier.

• ✅ Do: Doctoral students are required to commit full time to the program.
• ✅ Do: He has a full-time job.

See Punctuation and symbols.

• Refers to a Game Day celebration.
• Use two words and capitalize both words. 

• Uppercase, without periods in all references including first reference.
• Include two decimal places: 2.00 GPA.

 See Punctuation and symbols, Numerals.

Place the letter between quotation marks, with its grade point value in parentheses: “A” (4.00). 

• This is an exception to not using quotation marks to call attention to words or letters. 

See Punctuation and symbols.

• ✅ Do: homeless people, people without housing, people without homes. 
• 🚫 Don't: the homeless
• 🚫 Don't: unhoused (People without homes may have some sort of housing.)

It means that is. It is followed by a comma.

See Punctuation and symbols.

(v.), lockdown (n., adj.)

• ✅ Do: When the mayor declared it was necessary to lock down the city, the citizens protested.
• ✅ Do: The lockdown was lifted by the government.

(n.), one word. log in, log on, log off (v.), two words.

• ✅ Do: I forgot my login sequence.
• ✅ Do: Please log off when you are finished.
• ✅ Do: Your login ID and password are required.

Do not use a hyphen. Health Care is two words:

• 🚫 Don't: Mayo-ASU Alliance
• 🚫 Don't: HealthCare

A mobile app for eAdvisor. Do not capitalize, even to begin a sentence.

• ✅ Do: Students use me3 to explore college degree programs that align with their interests, which helps them plan the courses to take that will best prepare them for success at the university.
• ✅ Do: me3 is an online tool that can help middle and high school students prepare for college.

• Use more than or greater than in numeric references. 
• Use over in spatial relationships. (AP Stylebook variance)

Examples:

• ✅ Do: There are more than 500 students attending the event.
• ✅ Do: The plane flew over the city.

Formerly known as Sun Devil Stadium, the venue has been renamed Mountain America Stadium, Home of the Sun Devils. 

• ✅ Do: On all references, use Mountain America Stadium

This term may be preceded by a, the or this. The article is capitalized only to begin a sentence or when the phrase stands alone:

• ✅ Do: A New American University.
• ✅ Do: ASU is a New American University.

See Language and tone.

• A person who has been awarded a Nobel Prize. 
• Also a Nobel Prize winner.

• ✅ Do: nondegree-seeking student
• 🚫 Don't: non-degree seeking, non-degree-seeking

• Midday, specifically 12 o’clock at midday. 
• Use instead of 12 p.m. in text. 
• In tables, event announcements and invitations, 12 p.m. is acceptable. 
• Avoid redundancy.
  • 🚫 Don't: 12 noon.

Students who do not meet critical requirements are notified they are off track.

• Off-track status is displayed on My ASU student pages.

See Punctuation and symbols.

• ✅ Do: older adult, older adults, older person, older people is preferred for general phrases that do not refer to specific individuals.
• 🚫 Don't: senior citizens, seniors or elderly.

• The title of the new-student event for first-year students is ASU New Student Orientation. 
• Other orientation programs at the university are capitalized only in their full titles. 
• Use lowercase for orientation in subsequent references.

• Refers to spatial relationships. 
• Use more than or greater than in numeric references. (AP Stylebook variance)

Examples:

• ✅ Do: The plane flew over the city.
• ✅ Do: Their salaries went up more than $20 a week.

The athletic conference should be referred to as:

• ✅ Do: Pac-12 or Pac-12 Conference. 
• 🚫 Don't: Pacific-12 Conference, PAC-12 Conference.

Lowercase a and c unless the entire name is uppercase: PAC-12 CONFERENCE.

(n.), part-time 

(adj.) Hyphenate only when used as a compound modifier.

• ✅ Do: Students working part time may prefer evening programs.
• ✅ Do: That is a part-time position.

See Punctuation and symbols.

One word. Lowercase except when used to describe Sun Devil Rewards Pitchforks used to redeem merchandise and event tickets.

• ✅ Do: The crowd cheered when Sparky raised his pitchfork.
• ✅ Do: Using her Sun Devil Rewards account, she redeemed Pitchforks for tickets to the show.

Lowercase with periods and a space following the number: 

• ✅ Do: 10:15 a.m.
• Avoid redundancy.
  • 🚫 Don't: 10 p.m. tonight. 

See Times, days, months, seasons, years.

• Renown means fame. 
• Renowned means famous.

• ✅ Do: requester, per AP style.
• 🚫 Don't: requestor.

• Use the complete name in the first instance.
• Subsequent mentions: Phoenix Sky Harbor, Sky Harbor.

See Trademarks and licensing and Sun Devil Athletics spellings and abbreviations. 

Only use Sun Devils when referring to Athletics or in social media  for community support messages. Avoid using Sun Devils when referencing high-profile academic events such as graduation.

• ✅ Do: ASU stands with all Sun Devils.
• ✅ Do: This year, ASU released more graduates into the workforce than ever before.
• 🚫 Don’t: Sun Devils cheered as the commencement ceremony began.

The venue has been renamed Mountain America Stadium, Home of the Sun Devils. 

• ✅ Do: On all references, use Mountain America Stadium

Transfer Admission Guarantee. Spell out on first reference; abbreviate in subsequent references. Do not show the acronym in parentheses after the first reference.

See Abbreviations and acronyms.

• People are entitled to their opinions.
• Books and nobility are titled.

• No hyphen. 
• Capitalize this in a formal name; lowercase in casual reference. 
• Follow the spelling rules for numerals.

Examples:

• ✅ Do: The Top 100 Graduate Degree Producers.
• ✅ Do: Finished in the top 10. 

See Numerals, Punctuation and symbols.

• ✅ Do: toward
• 🚫 Don't: towards

• Means “the only one of its kind,” and is commonly used incorrectly. 
• Use with caution, or use the more broad — and usually more accurate — distinct.
• Cannot be modified with an adjective. 

(n.) Hyphenate when used as a compound adjective before a noun; no hyphen elsewhere in the sentence, with the individual words in normal order:

• ✅ Do: upper-division coursework.
• ✅ Do: course work in the upper division.

See Punctuation and symbols.

See Addresses and U.S. states, Abbreviations and acronyms.

See also, USA.

The singular possessive form of virus. 

• ✅ Do: virus’s
• 🚫 Don't: virus’

• The nation’s capital is not abbreviated. 
• Use state of Washington or Washington state and Washington, D.C., or District of Columbia when context requires distinction between the state and the federal district. 

See Addresses and U.S. states.