Proofed | Editors | Emeritus | Emory Goizueta Business School (EMG) Style Guide | IGH / EDM / HCSL / CNE.SEPO / GHL.SEPO / CSL

Key Style Guide Information and Links

This card covers style guidance for EMG e-learning and marketing documents.

• For any style points not covered in this guide, refer to:
• Editors | Emeritus | Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS) Guidelines for Emeritus Content
• Spelling: Merriam–Webster
• Dialect: US English
• For video editing specifics, refer to:
• Editors | Emeritus | Emory Goizueta Business School (EMG) | Video Style Guide
• In marketing mailer subject lines: no italics, and use numerals for all numbers.

School and Course Terminology

course, teacher and learners

Bold green indicates the preference for this school/the specified courses.

IGH / EDM / HCSL

CSL

CNE.SEPO / GHL.SEPO

school name and faculty

• School name:
• Emory University’s Goizueta Business School
• Goizueta Business School
  • Do not insert “the” when referencing Goizueta Business School
• Do NOT use the acronym GBS
• Second reference is always Goizueta
• Retain ampersands in designations, e.g., Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management

Important Notes

• All learning outcomes (at both course/program and module level) should end with a period.

Capitalization

• Capitalize the first word after a colon only if it is a proper noun or the start of a complete sentence.

Headers/subheaders

• Headers: CMoS Title Case
• Subheaders: Sentence case
• Exception: EMG-IGH: subheaders in CMoS Title Case
• See the Title Case Converter to confirm correct capitalization for title/sentence casing.
• Program titles, module titles, and module topics should be written in title case.

Punctuation

• Use the serial comma.
• For marketing content, parenthetical dashes: Use spaced em dashes. Exceptions: No spaces should be used around the em dash in brochures or month in the life (MITL) documents.
• For marketing content, for singular nouns ending in s, to make them possessive, just add an apostrophe (e.g. Emeritus')
• No punctuation in academic degrees: BA, MA, PhD.
• United States (noun in running text) / US (adjective)
• Use periods after learning outcomes.

Numbers

• Spell out numbers one to nine; use numerals for 10 and above.
• Where there's a mix in one sentence, use numerals for all numbers (except for a number that starts the sentence).
• Hyphenate ages used as nouns:
• two-year-old
• Percentages: numeral followed by word "percent".
• Always use numerals when numbers are modifiers/measurements:
• 8-watt bulb, 10 square feet
• kilobytes/megabytes: capital K/M, no space between number and unit (512K, 1.3M)

Times and Dates

• Time format: 12-hour clock; periods and lowercase letters for a.m. and p.m.
• 10:00 a.m.
• Always write out noon/midnight.
• Use all four numerals for years, en dash for range:
• 2017
• 2005–2007
• Use numerals for centuries:
• the 20th century
• No suffix for days of the month:
• April 18 (not April 18th)

currency

• If the number is spelled out, so is the currency. If numerals are used, use $ or appropriate currency symbol.
• Spell out million and billion
• $1 million

Bullet Lists

• Use periods for complete sentences only.
• Do not use "and" before the final item.

Citations/Referencing

• Use CMoS Notes and Bibliography style for referencing.
• Use Bibliography style for reading lists.
• Use Notes style for references in videos.
• Title-only is fine for hyperlinked third-party content (e.g., web articles), but follow CMoS guidelines for capitalization/italics as per the Notes and Bibliography link above.

Subject-Specific Terminology/Spelling Preferences

• Where Merriam–Webster gives alternative spellings, use the first listed option.
• Use AMA style guidelines for abbreviations of clinical technical terms.
• e.g., ECG (not EKG)
• acknowledgment
• adviser
• coursework (one word)
• database
• decision maker (no hyphen)
• decision making (noun) / decision-making (adjective)
• DM (direct message)
• double-click (with a hyphen)
• dual-degree (adjective); dual degree (noun)
• email (no hyphen)
• Ethernet (captial "E")
• Facebook (FB)
• firsthand (no hyphen)
• fund-raising (hyphenate both noun and adjective)
• health care (two words)
• Exception: CNE.SEPO/GHL.SEPO: healthcare systems (health care still two words in all other contexts)
• Exception: CSL: Health care is the specific things people do: see a patient and prescribe medication. Healthcare is an industry, the system by which people get the health care they need.
• homepage
• Instagram (IG)
• internet (no capital)
• ISP: internet service provider
• judgment
• laptop
• listserv
• login, logon, logoff: one word for noun, two words for verb
• nonprofit (one word)
• offline, online (no hyphen)
• PC (personal computer)
• policyholder; policy maker
• RSS: really simple syndication OR rich site summary
• SEO: search engine optimization
• startup
• URL: uniform resource locator
• videoconference, video conferencing

sepo MARKETING notes

• Do not use an en dash for complex range hyphenation in running text
• Correct: 9- to 12-month
• Incorrect: 9–12-month
• Hyphenation:
• noun – "decision making"
• verb – "decision-making"
• Bullet lists: no periods
• Subheaders: sentence case
• Don't capitalize "success coach" unless preceding a person's name
• Don't make changes to module titles
• Standard usage for introducing criteria: inclusions/exclusions, not included/excluded
• No colon to introduce "call to action" (i.e., clickable) buttons