Editorial style guide: C

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capital letters

Proper nouns, job titles and courses

Use initial capitals when writing proper nouns, official titles and course titles in full.

President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Koen Lamberts

Don't use an initial capital when referring to such titles in running text or using a word such as "history" in a generic sense.

The University is about to appoint a new vice-chancellor
Applicants must study history at A Level

The University and departments

Department names use initial capitals, but the word department always uses lower case d, unless it begins a sentence.

The Department of English Literature
Our department
has an excellent reputation.

When referring to the University of Sheffield as the University, use an initial capital. When referring to a university use all lower case.

Titles

Don't use initial capitals for the small connecting words in titles.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Subjects

Don't use initial capitals for subject area names.

If you enjoy maths and physics then this course is for you.

See also title case and headlines, headings and sub-headings


carbon dioxide

If you're writing this using the chemical formula, make sure the 2 is formatted as subscript.

Giant icebergs play a key role in removing CO2 from the atmosphere.


careers adviser

Don't use careers advisor, use careers advisory service.


Care 2050

Two words.


centuries

In keeping with our general guideline on numbers, we use words for everything up to ninth. From 10th onwards, use numerals.

For nouns, use fourth century, fifth century and so on, then 10th century, 21st century.

For adjectives, use a hyphen: fourth-century philosopher, 21st-century furniture.

See dates and times and numbers


Chancellor

Upper case C.

Current University Chancellor


CITY College

See International Faculty


Clearing and Adjustment

  • Clearing always has an upper case C and Adjustment always has an upper case A, whether they are being used together or on their own.
  • Advance Register has upper case A and R.
  • helpline in has a lower case h, unless it appears in full as Clearing and Adjustment Helpline, where the h should be upper case.
  • results has a lower case r, unless it appears as Results and Clearing, where the R should be upper case.

colon (:)

Use a colon to introduce a list in a sentence:

Research topics include: gender and politics in France, French cinema, 20th-century literature.

Colons can also be used to separate statements in a sentence when the second statement explains the first:

The Department of Chemistry has some of the best facilities in the country: its laboratories are state of the art.

Never follow a colon with a dash (:-).


comma

In a simple sentence, there's no need for a comma before and:

The building houses computers, seminar rooms and a library.

In a more complicated sentence, you can use a comma to add clarity:

The most popular subject areas were archaeology, biology, and animal and plant sciences.


compass points: north, south, east and west

Lower case for general regions. Use a capital letter for part of the name of a county or province.

The Royce Translational Centre will support growth and jobs in the north.

Sheffield is in South Yorkshire.


compliment or complement

You pay someone a compliment. You have a full complement of students.

A book review may be complimentary. Two types of medical treatment or two colours can be complementary.


computer-aided

Hyphenated when used as an adjective, as in computer-aided design.


contact details

If a telephone number is given, there should also be an email address. Web addresses are strongly recommended.

Landline numbers should always follow the format +44 114 XXX XXXX. Remove the area code zero and don't use brackets. This will ensure that the number should dial out from anywhere in the world when tapped on a mobile phone.

Mobile numbers should follow the format +44 7XXX XXXXXX.

See also addresses


contractions

Contractions such as "you'll" and "we'll" help establish an informal, friendly tone. They help you to replicate the flow of everyday speech, which makes your copy easier to read. This is applicable to both home and international audiences.

Some contractions can have the opposite effect. "There've", for instance, looks strange and sounds forced.

See also abbreviations


Council

The University Council has an upper case C.

The Council is responsible for overseeing the discharge of the University's legal and regulatory responsibilities.

If you need to refer to a local government council, make the meaning clear by using the full name when you write it the first time.

The project is also backed by Sheffield City Council.


course titles

The correct way to write a course title is BA(Honours) History or BA(Hons) History. Note there is no space between BA and (Honours).

Award abbreviations

  • A Level (not hyphenated)
  • GCSE
  • BA(Honours)
  • PgCert
  • BEng(Honours)
  • PgDip
  • BSc(Honours)
  • MA
  • MPhil
  • PhD

See also capital letters


Covid-19 (coronavirus)

We follow the same practice as the WHO and use Covid-19 to refer to both the virus and the disease. It can also continue to be referred to as the coronavirus.


cue up

When describing the preparation of something, use cue up, not queue up.


curriculums

Use this instead of "curricula". Try to avoid this plural if possible.