THE INDEPENDENT
WINONA'S COLLEGE NEWS SITE

STYLE SHEET FOR CONTRIBUTORS

For consistency that helps readers, Indee contributors are asked to follow Associated Press style. Here are frequent style issues, including some specifics not included in AP style and also some exceotions.

abbreviations
Readability studies suggest abbreviations should be minimal. The preferred second-reference to WSU, for example, is "the university" or "Winona State." In the same spirit, try "the bureau" for the FBI. Campus-speak obscurisms to avoid: A2C2, IHRC, UPAC. Remember that you are writing for a mass audience.

academic departmentss
Capitalize formal deoartment names: Mathematics and Statistics Deoartment. Lower-case shrtened forms: the math and stats department.

academic disciplines
To maintain a conversational tone, shortened forms of academic disciplines are favored in most situations: English lit, masscom, math.

addresses
Abbreviate "St." and "Ave." with addresses, but not otherwise: 468 W. 6th St. but W. Sixth Street without a specific address.

addresses often in campus news
102 Johnson St.: Schyde's
107 W. Third St.: Stingers
129 W. Third St.: Brothers
179 E. Third: Gabby's
170 W. Sanborn: Winona State University: Maxwell Hall
175 W. Mark Street: Winona State University: Boiler plant.
213 W. King St: Winona State University: Gildemeister Hall
264 W. Mark St.: Winona State University: Sheehan dorm
250 W. Howard St.: Winona State University: Kryzsko Commons
400 Winona St.: Winona State science building
416 Washington St.: Winona State University: Phelps Hall
457 Gould St.: Winona State University: Lourdes dorm
511 Hilbert: Winona State University: Tau dorm
1124 W. Seventh St.: St. Cecilia Theater
1250 Homer Road: Southeast Tech

all caps
Please avoid all-cap non-abbreviations. Make it Time magazine, not TIME magazine.

broadcast stations
Generally it's best to identify a station by its call letters. If the brand name is relevant to a story, introduce it secondarily: KQAL, which brands itself as "Your Radio Alternative"; KAGE-FM, which markets itself as "Classic Country." Be sure to indicate the kind of station: WKBT-TV, KWNO-FM, WCCO-AM, television station KTTC. Good mobilization information for readers includes frequencies: KQAL, which broadcasts at 89.5 FM; television station; KKTC, which broadcasts on over-air Channel 5; KSTP television, which is carried on Channel 73 on the Hiawatha Broadcast cable system.

capitalization
We use a downstyle that favors lower-case for words on which style sheet preferences vary: Winona State University is the university with a lower-case "u."

committees
Capitalize a specific committee: The Student Services Committee voted to endorse higher parking fees. Be sure the parenatage of committees is clear from context or, if not, include the parentage: The Student Senate Judiciary Committee recommended leniency. Avoid obtuse, pompous and unwieldly commitete titles. Rather than Student Fee Management Committee, make it the student fees committee. Rather than the University Programming Activities Committee, make it the student activities committee. Rather than the Academic Affairs Curruoiculum Committee, make it the curriculum commitee or the academics committee.

college branches
The dizzying variations that have developed for branch campuses impede communication. To help speed readers through stories, use this form with a hyphen: University of California-Los Angeles, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota State University-Mankato. Try to avoid second references abbreviations with terms like "the university" and "the campus." If you must abbreviate: UCLA, MSU-Mankato, UM-Duluth.

dash
If your keyboard does not have dash, use two hyphens. Use a single space at both ends of the dash. A hyphen has no space fore or aft. The m dash and n dash used by some magazines are books are not part of news style.

days
Always spell out: Wednesday.

dates
Use day of the week for seven days fore and aft. Use the day and date together only as mobilization information, as in schedules for event.

e-mail
With hyphen.

honorifics
Acoid prefixes like Mr., Ms., Miss, Mrs. unless gender is relevant and unclear from the first name or context. Also avoid the prefix Dr. If someone's degree is relevant, point out the relevance: Smith, who holds a doctorate in Medieval literature, argued that Shakespeare is overrated. Jones, a neurosurgeon, defended frontal lobotomies.

internet
Lower case in all cases. Avoid compactions and use two words: home page, web site.

italics
Not allowed in AP style. Don't use. Books, chapters, movies, television programs, songs are in double quotes: "Gone With the Wind," "Saving Private Ryan," "I Cain't Get No Satisfaction." Regular newscasts are an exception: NBC Nightly News. Magazines are capped: Newsweek, Time, Ladies' Home Journal, Rolling Stone.

months
Spell out except for specific dates: November but Nov. 23.

names
For a conversational tone and to avoid officiousness and pomposity, we generally prefer to call people as their friends and associates do: Hank Jeffers rather than Henry F. Jeffers.

numerals
Please spell one to nine and use numerals for 10 and more. Use a comma in four-digit numbers: 2,340. Please spell out any number that begins a sentence.

newspapers
Avoid the capped "The" affectation: the New York Times, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Winonan.

on-line
With hyphen.

ordinals
Follow the same rule as for numerals: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, nine, 10th, 11th, 103rd, 202nd.

percent
One word: 17 percent. The sign % is an option for headlines.

place names
These are frequently misspelled place names at Winoan State:
Kryzsko Commons: "Z" has precedence over "C," unlike Crisco.
Gildemeister ed building: Very German. Say as pronounced.
McCown gym: The man's name had two "C's."
Pasteur science building: Cows don't graze here.
Sanborn Street: Simple. No "e."
Smaug cafeteria: Used to be Smog before smoking banned.
Somsen administration building: Not Swedish, hence "en."
St. Teresa: Uncomplicated, without the "h."

quotations
Quotations are indicated with quotation marks and must be the exact words uttered. Full-sentence quotations begin with a capital: Smith said, "This piracy must end." Unless starting a sentence, quote fragments are not capped: Chavez sees the policy as "only slghtly veiled hate-mongering" that must be legislated out of existence. resident assistant
Avoid this campus-speak. For the mass audience, the term dorm supervisor or dorm-floor supervisor is clearer. Add the adjective "student" if it's relevant.

residence hall
Avoid this elegantism. Dorm is shorter and more to the point for the mass audience.

resident
This is another college-speak elegantism for students who live in dorms. Call them tenants. They pay rent, don't they.

states
Use AP abbreviations for states with city or county: Smith, of Rochester, Minn., was graduated in 1935. He died in Trempeleau, County, Wis. Note that a comma is used between cities and abbreviated states, and also after the state. Use postal abbreviations only in mailing addresses: Maxine Rushford, Postal Box 48, Crookston MN 55876. In postal addresses, skip commas between city, state and zip code.

St. Mary's University
Follow AP preference and abbreviate the word Saint when referring to a specific saint or an institution using the saint's name. This applies even if the institution prefers the word Saint to be spelled out. We cannot follow affectations of this sort, any more than we would use all-caps for TIME magazine, as Henry Luce would have it to make Time stand out in a list.

telephone
Use hyphens: 612-687-3142, 507-457-5010.

-re
Please no Frenchified spellings like "theatre." Make it "theater."

streets
Some north-south streets in central Winona have names and numbers:
Sixth Avenue: Broadway
Seventh Street: Wabasha Street
Eighth Street: Sanborn Street
Nnth Street: King Street
10th Street: Howard Street
11th Street: Mark Street
12th Street: Belleview Street

web addresses
Take care to avoid having them end a sentence, which results in an ambiguous period -- or is it dot? Putting web addresses in parenthesis usually works.

World Wide Web
First and second references are fine as "web." The internet also is lowercase. Two words for web site.


JOURNALISM THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE

2004: WSU gymnasts denied national competitions because Coach Rob Murray forgot twice to file proper papers. He gets fired. Reported by Anne Jungen

2004: WSU football recruiting practices loose. High school recruits down booze, puff weed, party out, see bare female bosoms. Reported by Brian Krans

2004: WSU football player assaults cops busting a party, which, once the details were reported, led to the first suspension of a player for criminal reasons in WSU athletic history. Reported by Sarah Lange, Emily Finley and Anne Jungen

2003: Court records confirm the WSU football team's partying reputation -- 25 players, 35 convictions. Totals climbed to 33 players, 44 violations by end of spring semester. Coach Tom Sawyer lax in disciplinary that's specified in university student-athlete conduct code. Reported by Brian Krans

2003: Bars loose in regulating under-age boozing. Even high-schoolers get in at Bulls-Eye Beer Hall. Easiest saloons for under-21 crowd: Bulls-Eye, Shorty's, Brothers, Schyde's. Reported by Brian Krans

2000: Dozens of outside lights that have a security role at WSU are after left unchanged after burning out. By one count, 145 of 399 fixtures were not illuminated -- 36.3 percent. Reported by MCom 230 team

1991: WSU Executive Jon Kosidowksi embezzles $11,000 in athletic scholarship money to support an out-of-control gambling habit. He's demoted, not fired. Repays money. Escapes jail time. Reported by MCom 230 team



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