Editors | Emeritus | Columbia Business School (CBS) | Video Style Guide
Key Style Guide Information and Links
This card covers guidance for editing CBS videos.
- Dialect: US English
- Use these video specifics alongside the school's writing style guidance:
- For any style points not covered in the school style guide materials, refer to:
- Editors | Emeritus | Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS) Guidelines for Emeritus Content
- Spelling: Merriam–Webster
- Use the Title Case Converter to confirm correct approaches to casing capitalization.
- Refer to [link TBC] for definitions of the different types of video screen.
Important Notes
- For CBS-DDIL, "VC" is an acceptable abbreviation – no need to write out/define the term.
- For CBS-CEO.SEPO, organization, company, and firm can be used interchangeably.
- For CBS-VALU:
- Please allow for the use of "firm" in place of "organization."
- There should not be any title case in split screens or text boxes (all text should be sentence case). If there seems to be a title, then it should be converted to a lead-in.
- For CBS-OPST:
- Use title case in graph headers.
- 60:40 screens can have a mixture of headers and lead-in lines depending on the requirement of the content.
- Headers will use a colon (:) before "Example". This is fine - please do not edit.
headers
- Default: Capitalize prepositions in title case if they are four letters or more.
- e.g., With, From, to, in.
- Exceptions: CBS-PCDM, CBS-INMA.SEPO, CBS-VCPE.SEPO, CBS-CEO.SEPO
- Follow regular CMoS title case (ignore the CBS style guide!).
BULLETs/LISTS
- Use CMoS specifications for bullets:
- Do not use punctuation at the end of basic/fragment bullet points.
- Use end punctuation if the points are complete sentences, make up a full sentence, or there is more than one sentence in a bullet point, and be consistent.
TITLE SCREEN
- CMoS Title Case
SPLIT SCREENS
- Body text and lead-ins: sentence case
- Note: there should not be any titles or title case in a split screen. If there is something that looks like a title, it should be converted to a lead-in.
- Exception: CBS-OPST (see Important Notes above)
- Use periods only for complete sentences that are not lead-ins.
GRAPHICS
- Text: sentence case
- Use periods only for complete sentences.
tEXT BOXES
- Body text: sentence case
- Note: There should be no title casing in text boxes.
- Use periods only for complete sentences.
NULL SCREENS
- Headers: CMoS Title Case
- Sub-headers: sentence case
- Includes captions, headers, and labels in infographics/charts/graphs/tables.
- Body text: sentence case
- Graphs, charts, and graphics: sentence case
- Use periods only for complete sentences that are not lead-ins.
CALLOUTS
- Screen Header: Title Case
- Sub-header: sentence case
- Headers in callouts: sentence case
- Body text in callouts: sentence case
- Use periods only for complete sentences.
Tables
- Header row and column: sentence case
- EXCEPTION: For CBS-OPST, use Title Case for graph headers
- All other rows and columns: sentence case
