Follow IU’s official writing standards
A-Z Editorial Style Guide
This longstanding resource covers all elements of usage, from spelling, capitalization, and punctuation to the official names of IU campuses and how to style content related to courses.
To use this guide, simply select the letter that corresponds to your question. Wondering when to use a hyphen? Choose "H." Need to know what our style is for dates in running text? Choose "D." If you just need the answer to a quick spelling question, visit the Spelling and capitalization quick guide.
Directory by letter
Answers to common style and formatting questions
- For proper nouns ending in S, add only an apostrophe — no additional “s.”
- Correct: James’ book, Kansas’ economy
- Incorrect: James’s book, Kansas’s economy
Yes.
- Always use a comma before the final conjunction in a list
- Correct: We invited the president, the vice president, and the secretary.
- Incorrect: We invited the president, the vice president and the secretary.
One exception: News stories at News at IU and related news sites, which follow AP Style.
Em dashes
- No spaces on either side of an em dash.
- Correct: The decision—which was unanimous—will be announced today.
- Incorrect: The decision — which was unanimous — will be announced today.
En dashes
Use en dashes in place of hyphens to join two elements when at least one element contains two or more unjoined words.
Examples: a non–English speaker, post–high school, the Pre–Dental Hygiene Program
Inclusive dates and other number sequences may be printed with en dashes, rather than with hyphens.
Examples: 2007–08, chapters 12–17, pages 3–10, 8 a.m.–5 p.m.
An en dash is also used to indicate the minus sign in a grade.
Example: A grade of C–
Keyboard shortcuts for dashes
Em dash
- On Mac: Press the Option key, the Shift key, and the minus key (-) simultaneously.
- On Windows (with numeric keypad): Hold down the Alt key, type 0151 on the numeric keypad, then release the Alt key.
En dash
- On Mac: Press the Option key and the minus key (-) simultaneously.
- On Windows: . Hold down the Alt key, type 0150 on the numeric keypad, then release the Alt key.
At IU:
- Healthcare is one word.
- Well-being is hyphenated.
- We use toward in almost every case—it is the preferred American usage. Only use towards if you’re quoting British English or referencing a British source.
Curly quotation marks and apostrophes are the standard in all of our publications. It's been long-established that they improve legibility and readability.
However, if you are coding things in HTML or entering data in an Excel spreadsheet, "straight," plain text quotations are important. Pasting curly (also known as “smart quotes”) from a word processing program into these environments can mess up their functionality. When in doubt, copy your work into a text editor first or default to "paste as plain text" when you’re relocating words.
To make quotes and apostrophes curly in web and digital spaces, do the following:
Keyboard shortcuts
On Mac
- Opening double quote: Press Option + [ to get “.
Closing double quote: Press Shift + Option + [ to get ”. - Opening single quote: Press Option + ] to get ‘.
Closing single quote: Press Shift + Option + ] to get ’.
On Windows (using the numeric keypad)
- Press and hold the Alt key. Type 0147 on your numeric keypad to get “.
Type 0148 on your numeric keypad to get ”. - For single curly quotes, type Alt+0145 for ‘ and Alt+0146 for ’.
In HTML code
- Left Single Curly Quote: ‘ or ‘ (‘)
- Right Single Curly Quote (Apostrophe): ’ or ’ (’)
- Left Double Curly Quote: “ or “ (“)
- Right Double Curly Quote: ” or ” (”)
The B isn’t short for anything.
IU’s fabled president was given the letter B as a placeholder for a middle name when he was born, but his parents never settled on one. He insisted that “B” was his entire middle name.
Source: New York Times obituary