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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.

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.

faculty

At NC State, “faculty” refers specifically to employees who hold faculty appointments and have academic, research, teaching or Extension responsibilities that align with faculty rank. Faculty typically hold titles such as professor, associate professor, assistant professor, Extension specialist or Extension assistant professor.

Use faculty as a collective noun when referring to this group as a whole (e.g., NC State faculty, Extension faculty). Do not use “faculty” as a general synonym for university employees.

Use lowercase except when part of a formal title or a proper name.

Feed the Pack Food Pantry

The on-campus food pantry is part of the Pack Essentials Hub and is open to all members of the NC State community.

first name vs. last name

When referring to a person in a news or feature story, use both the first name and last name on first reference. On second and subsequent references, we generally use the last name only:

  • The new vice chancellor, Jane Smith, came to NC State from the University of Florida. “I’m so excited to be part of the Wolfpack,” Smith says.

Exceptions to this rule:

  • When referring to children — i.e., from birth through high school graduation or age 17, whichever is later — use the first name on second and subsequent references.
  • When referring to multiple people with the same last name, use both first and last name on second and subsequent references for all such people in the story.

fiscal year

Fiscal years generally begin in one calendar year and end in the next calendar year. For this reason, they are often stated as a year span, and all digits should be used for both the beginning and ending years:

  • The budget will take effect for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.

You may also state a fiscal year with a single year. If you do, use the calendar year in which the fiscal year ends. Thus, for the 2026-2027 fiscal year you could also say “fiscal year 2027.”

For an even shorter abbreviation, you can abbreviate “fiscal year” as “FY” and delete the space before the number, which would give you “FY27.”