Style Sheet for InTeGrate Materials

For consistency across the materials written for InTeGrate, we ask authors to abide by the following style sheet.

Jump down to: Titles and Headers | Numbers | Links and Images | Common Words

Style Notes:

Style follows Chicago Manual (16th edition) and Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition)

Formatting Text

  • Use en dashes (not hyphens) for inclusive numbers, e.g., 5–10 meters
    (You can create an en dash in the CMS with two consecutive hyphens)
  • Use em dashes (not hyphens) to indicate breaks in text, e.g., These shorter-term changes in climate, which appear as anomalies—or differences from the average—in our records, are generally referred to as climate variability.
    (You can create an em dash in the CMS with three consecutive hyphens)
  • Use italics for emphasis, not all caps or boldface.
  • Use double quotation marks around words and phrases, not single quotes.
  • Do not use contractions.
  • Spell out acronyms initially with abbreviation in ( ) before using just acronym
  • Use indentations, bullets, and numbered lists using the tools in the CMS, where applicable.

Titles and Headers

  • Titles of units and case studies are capitalized according to headline style.
  • Titles of articles, books, and other reference materials are capitalized according to headline style.

Numbers

  • Number style:
    • Spell out number where the number is not referring to something measured or counted, or is used in a nonscientific context (four students, for example).
    • When in scientific context, spell out numbers one through nine and use numerals for higher number.
    • If there are numbers over nine used in the same general location (say, in a paragraph or section), all numbers that refer to the same unit should be numerals; for example, "the first 2 weeks of a 20-week course."

Links and Images

  • References to web resources should always be made with active links that use the CMS link tag. The clickable text in a link should provide a clear indication of where the user is being sent: what material they should expect to see and, if relevant, who is providing the information. For example, learn more about the [link http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/teaching_materials/modules_courses.html 'InTeGrate -Developed Modules and Courses'] OR [link http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/people/joseph.barsugli/anim.html 'Idealized ENSO Simulation'] from NOAA.
  • Images should include captions. These will be automatically generated based on the description you fill in when uploading the image unless you provide a custom caption as described in the image tag documentation. Make sure you accurately fill out the provenance and reuse information associated with all uploaded files.

Common Words:

For consistency across materials, we have provided a list of some of the most commonly used words that may be expressed in various ways.

  • A.D. (with periods, for dates)
  • Case Study, capitalized in running text, as when referring to "Case Study 3.1"
  • data, plural, not singular
  • data set
  • Earth, capped with no "the" when talking about planet
  • Earth system
  • email
  • equator
  • min, no period when used as an abbreviation "for minute" in teaching notes giving time for tasks
  • minutes, spelled out in running text
  • Part, capitalized in running text, as when referring to "Part 1"
  • Unit, capitalized in running text, as when referring to "Unit 1"
  • Webteam
  • web page (two words) or website

For further information on CMS tools and features, please see the Single Page Editing documentation.