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At CUNY SPH, we strive to create written content that is clear and concise. Our editorial style is guided by AP Style, with a few exceptions. This editorial style guide is a living document. Please direct any questions, comments, or suggestions to Communications Editorial Manager Ariana Costakes (ariana.costakes@sph.cuny.edu) in the Office of Communications and Marketing.
A
Academic degrees
The Office of Communications does not use periods in degrees.
Correct: PhD, DrPH, MPH
When degrees are spelled out, they should be capitalized when referring to the specific degree and lowercase when referencing a generic degree type.
Correct: She holds a Master of Public Health degree in epidemiology and biostatistics.
She holds a master’s degree.
They hold a bachelor degree’s in mechanical engineering
They hold a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering
When a person’s degree is relevant to their credentials, don’t use abbreviations. Instead, describe it in plain language, for example: Fatima Kader, who has a doctorate in psychology.
Doctoral
Use Dr. on first reference only
Do not use Dr. on subsequent references.
When credentials are relevant, describe them in plain language: Cassandra Karoub, who has a doctorate in mathematics, was the lead researcher.
Acronyms
Acronyms may be used, but the first instance of the school name, center, or program must include the full spelled-out name.
Correct: The Center for Innovation in Mental Health (CIMH) will be hosting a lecture next week. (For subsequent mentions, use CIMH).
Addresses
Use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd. and St. only with a numbered address.
Correct:1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Spell them out and capitalize when part of a formal street name without a number.
Correct: Pennsylvania Avenue.
Always use figures for an address number.
Correct: 9 Morningside Circle.
Spell out and capitalize First through Ninth when used as street names; use figures for 10th and above.
Correct: 7 Fifth Ave., 100 21st St.
Abbreviate compass points used to indicate directional ends of a street or quadrants of a city in a numbered address.
Correct: 222 E. 42nd St., 562 W. 43rd St., 600 K St. NW.
Do not abbreviate if the number is omitted.
Correct: East 42nd Street, West 43rd Street, K Street Northwest. No periods in quadrant abbreviations — NW, SE — unless customary locally.
Capitalize Room when used with the room number.
Correct: 55 W. 125th Street, Room 708
Ages
Always use figures.
Correct: The girl is 15 years old; the law is 8 years old; the 101-year-old house.
When the context does not require years or years old, the figure is presumed to be years.
Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives before a noun or as substitutes for a noun.
Correct: A 5-year-old boy, but the boy is 5 years old.
The boy, 7, has a sister, 10.
The woman, 26, has a daughter 2 months old. The race is for 3-year-olds.
The woman is in her 30s (no apostrophe).
B
Bullet points
The Associated Press Stylebook recommends using periods at the end of bulleted list items only if they are complete sentences or complete an opening stem sentence, and use no punctuation at the end if they are single words or short phrases.
C
Committees
Capitalize the full, formal name of a committee, but lowercase the word “committee” in shortened or generalized references.
Correct: She serves on the Biological Exposure Indices committee.
The committee met on Tuesday.
The foreign relations committee (if it’s not the formal name)
Company Names
Follow the company’s preferred spelling and capitalization. However, ignore stylized branding that violates standard English rules—do not use all-caps unless the letters are individually pronounced.
Correct: Ikea, BMW, Yahoo (not Yahoo!),
Use an ampersand (&) only if it is officially part of the company’s formal legal name.
Correct: CUNY Graduate School of Health and Health Policy
AT&T
Lowercase the word “the” at the start of a company name in running text unless it begins a sentence or is officially part of the legal corporate title.
Do not use a comma before “Inc.” or “Ltd.,” even if it is included in the formal name.
Correct: United Airlines is a unit of United Continental Holdings Inc.
Disney’s full corporate name is The Walt Disney Co.
Composition titles (books, movies, plays, poems, albums, songs, operas, radio and television programs, lectures, speeches, works of art, and video games)
Capitalize all words in a title except articles (a, an, the); prepositions of three or fewer letters (for, of, on, up, etc.); and conjunctions of three or fewer letters (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet, etc.) unless any of those start or end the title.
Put quotation marks around the names of all such works.
Correct: “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Time After Time,” the “Today” show, the “CBS Evening News,” “Grand Theft Auto VI,” “A Star Is Born,” “Star Wars,” “Game of Thrones.”
Do not use quotations around the names of magazines, newspapers, the Bible or books that are catalogues of reference materials.
Correct: The Washington Post first reported the story.
He reads the Bible every morning.
Do not underline or italicize any of the above.
Class and course titles
Course titles can just be capitalized, not in quotes.
Example: Leveraging Human Capital
CUNY SPH
In formal communications, such as press releases, use CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy on first mention. In subsequent mentions, the acronym “CUNY SPH” may be used (see “acronyms” section for guidance).
In formal or professional communications to employees, students, and external parties, the university should be referred to as CUNY SPH, not SPH.
D
Dates, days of the week, months, years, New Year’s vs. new year
Days
Always use Arabic figures, without st, nd, rd or th.
Correct: The workshop takes place March 3 in Room 101.
Days of the week: Capitalize them. Do not abbreviate, except when needed in a tabular format (grid, rows, columns).
Correct: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat (three letters, without periods, to facilitate tabular composition).
Months
Capitalize the names of months in all uses. When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate only these months.
Correct:
Jan.
Feb.
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
These months are not abbreviated:
March
April
May
June
July
Correct:
January 2016 was a cold month.
Jan. 2 was the coldest day of the month.
His birthday is May 8.
Feb. 14, 2013, was the target date.
She testified that it was Friday, Dec. 3, when the crash occurred.
In tabular material, use these three-letter forms without a period: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec.
Years
If the reference is to a past or future year, include the year and set it off with commas.
Correct: Feb. 14, 2025, is the target date.
Use the letter s but not an apostrophe after the figures when expressing decades or centuries. Do, however, use an apostrophe before figures expressing a decade if numerals are left out. Correct: The 1800s. The ’90s.
Years are an exception to the general rule in numerals that a figure is not used to start a sentence.
Correct: 2013 was a very good year.
Commas are not necessary if only a year and month are given, but commas should be used to set off a year if the date, month and year are given.
Correct:
Applications will open in September 2027.
She joined the faculty in August 2024.
The event was held on Sept. 15, 2026, at CUNY SPH.
On March 3, 2025, the report was released.
New Year’s vs. new year
Use New Year’s when referring to the holiday or traditions connected to Jan. 1. Use new year when you simply mean the upcoming year.
Correct:
New Year’s Eve (Dec. 31)
New Year’s Day (Jan. 1)
New Year’s resolutions
Exclamations such as “Happy New Year!”
Correct:
We’re hosting a New Year’s Eve celebration.
Happy New Year!
My New Year’s resolution is to exercise more.
The office is closed on New Year’s Day.
What will the new year bring?
The organization is planning several initiatives for the new year.
We’re looking ahead to a successful new year.
Degrees
Use PhD, BA, MPH, MS abbreviations only after a full name, separated by a comma.
Departments (academic)
Department names should use uppercase on their own or that are proper nouns or adjectives, but lower case in titles.
Correct:
The lecture is hosted by the Department of Epidemiology.
Charles Xavier, associate professor of epidemiology
University of Washington Department of Economics
When using abbreviations, it should be clear what the abbreviation stands for (please refer to “acronyms” for guidance).
E
Email addresses
Email addresses should always be spelled out, not simply linked to.
H
Hyperlinks
Link first instances of faculty names to their directory page.
Link first instances of centers or programs to their respective web pages.
Do not include http:// or www.
Correct: sph.cuny.edu
L
Lists
In lists, use a serial comma before an “and.”
Correct: Research on cancer, asthma, and obesity
M
Masters vs master’s
The correct way to spell master’s degree is lowercase with an apostrophe, not masters degree. The apostrophe in master’s indicates a possessive (the degree of a master), not a plural.
Correct: She earned her master’s degree in education.
Keep the apostrophe when you have more than one degree.
Correct: She holds two master’s degrees.
Keep the word lowercase when you talk about the field generally.
Correct: He is studying for a master’s in education.
The same rules apply to bachelor’s degree
Correct: bachelor’s degree
Incorrect: bachelors degree
Drop the apostrophe and capitalize the full title when naming the exact diploma. Write: Master of Science or Master of Public Health
N
Names
Always use a person’s first and last name the first time they are mentioned in a story. Only use last names on second reference. Do not use courtesy titles such as Mr., Mrs., Miss or Ms. unless they are part of a direct quotation or are needed to differentiate between people who have the same last name.
O
Offices
Capitalize office when it is part of an agency’s formal name.
Correct: Office of Management and Budget.
Lowercase all other uses, including phrases such as: the office of the attorney general, the U.S. attorney’s office.
Correct: Office of Human Resources
P
PhD
Use PhD, BA, MPH, MS abbreviations only after a full name, separated by a comma.
Published articles, presentations, webinars, workshops, or speeches
The name of a published article, presentation, lecture, webinar, workshop, or speech should be enclosed in double quotation marks and capitalized. Never use italic, bold, or underlined.
Capitalize all words in a title except articles (a, an, the); prepositions of three or fewer letters (for, of, on, up, etc.); and Editorial Style Guide conjunctions of three or fewer letters (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet, etc.) unless any of those start the title.
Correct: “Collective learning for resilience in Global South cities: a community-based systems mapping approach to integrated climate and health action”
She gave a presentation titled “Living in a Digital Age” at the conference.
She gave three main takeaways from “Living in a Digital Age”: focus, balance, and intentionality.
Exclamation points and question marks go inside only if they apply to the title itself.
Inside (if part of the title)
Correct: Have you seen the slide deck for “Where Do We Go From Here?”
Outside (if part of the sentence)
Correct: Who gave the presentation titled “Living in a Digital Age”?
Periods and Commas (Inside)
Correct: He attended the presentation titled “Living in a Digital Age.”
After watching “Living in a Digital Age,” he wrote a summary.
Colons and Semicolons (Outside)
Correct: She gave three main takeaways from “Living in a Digital Age”: focus, balance, and intentionality.
Question Marks and Exclamation Points
Inside (if part of the title)
Correct: Have you seen the slide deck for “Where Do We Go From Here?”
Outside (if part of the sentence)
Correct: Who gave the presentation titled “Living in a Digital Age”?
Public Health
Public health as a general topic or academic discipline is not capitalized in standard sentence structure.
Correct: She works in public health.
Capitalize it only when it is part of a specific official title, organization, or formal department name.
Correct: CUNY School of Public Health
Introduction to Public Health 101
S
Salutations
The AP Stylebook prefers lowercasing common nouns in email salutations.
Correct: Dear students,
Dear CUNY SPH community,
Dear faculty and staff,
T
Technological Terms
Here are the correct spelling and capitalization rules for some common technological terms:
Time
Use numbers followed by am or pm and only the necessary digits.
Correct: 8pm (not 8:00pm)
7pm to 8pm
Titles
Titles should be rendered in uppercase if before a name; lowercase after names and set off by commas.
Correct: Dean Ayman El-Mohandes
Ayman El-Mohandes, dean of CUNY SPH
Formal titles such as Distinguished Professor should be capitalized; all other titles should be lowercase.
Correct: Albus Dumbledore, Distinguished Professor
Albus Dumbledore, associate professor
Correct: Join us for an interactive conversation with Dr. Jean Grassman, associate professor in the department of Environmental, Occupational, and Geospatial Health Sciences and doctoral program director.