Editorial Style Guide

The intent of this Editorial Style Guide is to serve as an effective resource for communicators across the Brown campus to establish consistency in editorial style for websites, print publications, social media and more. Learn more about the Editorial Style Guide or download a PDF of the style guide.

ALPHABETICAL LISTING

# A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y

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Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award

Spell out on first reference. Use UTRA on second reference only.

underway

one word in all uses

Undocumented, First-Generation College and Low-Income Student Center

On subsequent references, use U-FLi Center as appropriate.

United States

To abbreviate, use U.S., with periods. U.S. is acceptable on first reference. Do not use USA, unless in direct quotation.

the University

Capitalize “University” when referring to Brown, except when used as an adjective (university-wide, university-level).

  • The University honored 20 high-school graduates from Providence.
  • The policy will be implemented university-wide.

university-wide

URLs

URLs are all lowercase; it is not necessary to include “http://” or “www” when writing a URL. Only use “www” if it is a necessary part of the web address. (Be sure to test any URL before publishing it.) Do not underline or italicize URLs. If at all possible, do not break a URL in a line of text. If a web address must be broken between two lines, be sure that a hyphen or space is not added inadvertently at the break point. If a URL falls at the end of a sentence, it should be followed by a period.

Use “brown.edu” when referring to the University’s main web address.