SCC Styleguide Cheat Sheet

Some Popular Questions Answered

and – in lists, do not place a comma before the “and” or “or” that appears in front of the last item in the list. (e.g., women, men and children).

Buildings/rooms numbers – Spell out the entire building name in first reference. Exception: In mailing addresses and running text, it is acceptable to use short forms of building names. See specific building name entries in this section for proper names.

CORRECT EXAMPLE:  The meeting will be held in Room 2121 in the Administration Building.

When using a building name and room number in text read by people within the college community, use an abbreviated style for the building name and room number.

CORRECT EXAMPLE:  The meeting will be held in ADM 1121.

Building abbreviations – The following is a list of the correct abbreviations for SCC buildings:

• Administration Building – ADM
• Café/Bookstore – CB
• Campus Services – CS
• College Center – CC
• Child Development Center – CDC
• Daniel J. Conoyer Social Sciences Building – SSB
• Donald D. Shook Fine Arts Building – FAB
• Humanities Building – HUM
• Learning Resource Center – LRC
• Student Center – SC
• Technology Building – TECH
• Visual Arts Building – VAB

Commas in use of a series – When using a series of three or more items in text, do not use a comma in front of the conjunction before the last item in the series. 

CORRECT EXAMPLE:  My favorite colors are red, green, blue and purple.

Currency – When using a currency figure in text or titles, do not use double zeros when referring to an even dollar amount (i.e. $5.00).  Use instead, $5.

CORRECT EXAMPLE:  He had $5 in change.  She borrowed $2,500 from a bank.  Ticket Cost:  $10.

Day, date and time – Use time first, followed by day of the week, followed by the date.  When the time is listed at the top of the hour, do not use a colon followed by two zeros, as in 2:00 p.m.  Use instead, 2 p.m.

CORRECT EXAMPLE:  2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009.  Use this in most all cases including within text and in invitations.
Use noon for 12 p.m. and midnight for 12 a.m.

When listing a range of times the times should be separated with a dash. There should be no spaces on either side of the dash.

CORRECT EXAMPLE:  8 a.m.-4 p.m.

Job Titles – Do not capitalize a job title in text.

CORRECT EXAMPLE:  John Doe, professor of science, works at SCC.  Jane Smith, vice president for external affairs, is chair of the committee.

Capitalization of divisions, departments, programs – When using the proper name of a program, office, department or division, capitalize the entire phrase.

CORRECT EXAMPLE:  The Continuing Education Department sponsored the event.

website – Website, webcast and webmaster are considered one word and should be typed in all lowercase.

Web page – should be typed as two separate words with the Web capitalized. All other references to the Web should be capitalized.

email – do not use a hyphen after the e in the word email.

Phone numbers – use hyphens instead of periods in phone numbers. Don't use parentheses around area code.

CORRECT EXAMPLE: 636-922-8000