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Editorial Style

Following NC State's editorial style lends your writing a professional sheen and ensures a consistent experience for all of our readers.

Clear, Consistent Writing

Editorial style is a set of rules that tells you what to do when there's more than one "correct" way to write something. Examples include determining which words to capitalize in a headline or when to spell out a number versus using a numeral. Without a clear-cut set of style guidelines, writers often address these situations in inconsistent and contradictory ways, which undermines their credibility.

NC State’s editorial style is based on The Associated Press Stylebook, with exceptions and additions as noted below. When AP style conflicts with NC State's own guidelines, you should follow the latter. To resolve questions of spelling, AP recommends using Merriam-Webster.

You should follow these rules far more often than not. However, situations may arise when bending a rule makes more sense than following it. Clarity and consistency are the most important considerations.

Use the search bar or index to find a specific editorial style reference.

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e- words

Except for “email” and “esports,” use a hyphen in all e- words: e-book, e-reader, e-commerce, etc.

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) is a federally recognized Indian tribe in western North Carolina. The tribe’s homeland is the Qualla Boundary, approximately 57,000 acres of land purchased by tribal members in the 19th century.

The Qualla Boundary is not a reservation. A reservation is land held in trust and set aside for a tribe by the federal government; the Qualla Boundary is tribally owned and governed land. When describing locations, programs or partnerships, avoid referring to the Qualla Boundary or EBCI lands as “the Cherokee reservation.”

  • Incorrect: N.C. Cooperative Extension staffs local offices in all 100 counties and on the Cherokee reservation.
  • Correct: N.C. Cooperative Extension staffs local offices in all 100 counties and with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
  • Correct: There are 101 N.C. Cooperative Extension centers statewide, including one in every county and the Qualla Boundary.

email

Do not hyphenate this word.

email signatures

It is helpful for emails to include an email signature that provides the sender’s full contact information. Below is a suggested signature format for university employees to use. Note that a boilerplate public-disclosure notice is the last element in the signature.

Name (the sender’s preferred pronouns can also be given in parentheses after their name, at the sender’s discretion)
Title
Department (if applicable; can be omitted for faculty if the title makes it obvious, e.g., Professor of English)
Center or Program (if applicable)
College or unit (if applicable)
North Carolina State University
Mailing address (Campus Box XXXX)
Physical address
City, State Zip
Phone(s) (if applicable)
Website (if applicable)

All electronic mail messages in connection with state business that are sent or received by this account are subject to the North Carolina public records law and may be disclosed to third parties.

email subject lines and preview lines

These are not hard-and-fast rules, but our recommendation is to use sentence-style capitalization for both subject lines and preview lines. Do not use punctuation at the end of the subject line, and use regular sentence punctuation at the end of the preview line.

  • Subject line: Welcome back to campus, Wolfpack
  • Preview line: We’ve got a full slate of fun activities to kick the semester off right.

A general best practice is to keep your subject line below 60 characters and your preview line below 80 characters.

emeritus

Denotes either a retiring full-time faculty member who has been recognized by the chancellor, or a full-time staff member recognized by the board of trustees, for dedicated service at NC State. It is an earned rank and comes with commensurate rights and privileges.

esports

The term “esports” is acceptable in all references to competitive multiplayer video gaming. Capitalize the term if it occurs at the beginning of a sentence. Like other collective nouns that are plural in form, esports takes the singular form when it is regarded as a singular unit: Some gamers say esports is a viable profession.