Le Moyne College
Name & title: Carol Boll, College Editor
Institution & publication: Le Moyne College, Le Moyne College Magazine
Type of publication: Magazine
Readership audience: alumni, donors, community leaders/supporters, students, faculty and staff
Number of pages: 42
Frequency of publication: twice a year
Circulation: 20,000
Color: 4-color
Basic style manual: AP Stylebook
Reason for using the manual: It was a tradition I inherited; thankfully, it also was the one I was most familiar with as a former newspaper editor.
Dictionary: Webster's
Reason for using dictionary: It was inherited from my predecessor and is VERY large. But it's also quite old, and I probably will replace it soon with Random House or another. Any suggestions?
Other resources: Thesaurus, and occasionally the Catholic News Service Stylebook (only if the item is not in the AP Stylebook).
Items on our house style sheet not covered in our manual: We really don't have an inhouse style sheet (something we just haven't gotten around to compiling). I was once a slave to AP style, but more recently I've been loosening up and compiling my own list of exceptions -- most often in areas relating specifically to higher ed (for instance, capitalizing Department of ... even though AP says you shouldn't). For questions relating to Catholicism, I usually look to the Catholic News Service guide if it's not in AP. I capitalize Mass, don't use "Father" except in very rare instances (I can't think of one offhand). Really need a more formal compilation of exceptions to AP in order to ensure consistency. I try to keep exceptions to a bare minimum -- especially capitalizations because I feel as though I'm constantly fighting obsessive tendencies by others to capitalize anything and everything.
Items on our house stylesheet that override our manual: Department of ... -- I capitalize this even though AP says not to. The style guide originally was designed for newspaper use, and I finally decided that some exceptions should be made when it's applied to the environment of higher ed.
Also I capitalize "the College" when we're referring to our own institution in subsequent references. I initially balked at this, but I do it now because my boss told me to.
Unresolved issues: When/Whether to precede professors' names with "Dr." in first reference. Whether to cap Board of Trustees (we don't as per AP style, but others in our division continue to argue the point), Board of Regents, Board of Governors. Whether to cap "professor" before a name even though AP says not to.
How to handle capitalization on some less traditional courses of study, ie., Women's Studies, Military History Studies... Normally we would not cap anything but English and other subject languages, but these would seem to demand it in order to avoid a more generic connotation.
I welcome any suggestions: bollcl@lemoyne.edu