Spelling Words and Hyphenated Words
Editorial Style Guide
Consistent style and usage are essential to conveying quality and professionalism in our written communications. Click below for a guide to Colby standards on capitalization, punctuation, and more.
1. Preferred Colby Style
| Yes | No |
|---|---|
| advisor | adviser |
| aesthetics | esthetics |
| archaeology | archeology |
| audiovisual | audio-visual |
| bilingual | bi-lingual |
| Black (in regards to racial and ethnic identity) | black (in regards to racial and ethnic identity) |
| catalog | catalogue (except Colby College Catalogue) |
| chair and vice chair | chairman, chairperson, or chairwoman |
| cocurricular | co-curricular |
| coeducational | co-educational |
| cooperative | co-operative |
| course work | coursework |
| Covid-19 | COVID-19 |
| daycare | day-care |
| extracurricular | extra-curricular |
| interdisciplinary | inter-disciplinary |
| multidisciplinary | multi-disciplinary |
| paraprofessional | para-professional |
| percent | per cent |
| theater | theatre |
| TV | tv |
Other Words
Consult the American Heritage College Dictionary regarding hyphenation of words and combined words.
Some common examples are listed below:
- All-America (for team)
- All-American (for individuals)
- All-New England
- child care
- database
- Convocation (orientation event at which new students sign the matriculation book)
- fundraising, fundraising campaign, fundraiser
- freelance
- high school students
- internet
- iPlay
- lifestyle
- lifelong
- long-standing
- long-term
- longtime
- midyear
- newly renovated (no hyphen with -ly words)
- nonprofit
- off-season
- online, the online directory
- onsite
- playoffs
- postdoctoral
- postgraduate
- preeminent
- premed
- preschool
- Strider Theater (not theatre)
- subcommittee
- T-shirt
- townhouse
- upload (upload to server; the upload)
- voicemail
- website
- webcast
- webmaster