YSM Style Guide

The following style points are provided to help web editors and others in the School of Medicine community publish using consistent spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.   

Formatting 

  • Headings are flush left
  • Use "Heading 3" for subheadings. If a second level of hierarchy is needed, use "Heading 2" for the first level and "Heading 3” for the second level.
  • For bulleted items, use bullets or numbers from the formatting toolbar (instead of manually typing numbers)
  • Hyperlink web addresses and email addresses to the relevant URL or the person's email address.
  • Include a picture to accompany every article or announcement.
  • Please tag each article added to add keywords and faculty. 

Capitalization

The following should be capitalized:

  • Titles and Headlines: Only the initial word is capitalized (not every word)
  • Proper names, including the names of organizations: 
    • Yale School of Medicine (this is the official name of the school, not Yale University School of Medicine nor Yale Medical School) 
  • Academic and professional titles, but only when they precede a name:
    • Professor of Medicine Jane Doe, but Jane Doe, professor of medicine 
  • Endowed titles either before or after a name: 
    • Jane Doe, the John Doe Professor of Medicine

Abbreviations

Punctuation and type style

  • Use the serial comma before a conjunction, such as "and" or "or," as in: red, green, and blue
  • Composition titles (books, movies, plays, etc) go inside quotes: "The Old Man and the Sea"
  • Names of periodicals, websites are set italic: The New York Times
  • Names of genes are set lower case italic; proteins are set in roman type, always with the first letter capitalized: 
    • the gene ras; the protein Ras
Last updated: September 28, 2012