UIL Copy Editing 1

Colleges

Capitalize the full name OR abbreviate without periods: UT, OSU, UNT

Course titles

Use lowercase except for words that are proper nouns or adjectives: physical education, English IV

Days of the week

Capitalize them. Do not abbreviate, except when needed in a tabular format: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat (three letters, without periods, to facilitate tabular composition)

Tenses of days of the week

Avoid next Tuesday or last Tuesday, instead say "he finished Tuesday" or "he will finish Tuesday"

NO todays tonights or tomorrows

Months

Only abbreviate when followed by a date. Never abbreviate months with 5 letters or less.

Organizations

Write out full name or first reference. Abbreviate on second reference and after, NO periods. Do not follow org's name with abbreviation in ( )

States

Spell out U.S. states when used in the body of the story, whether standing alone or with cities. Only use 2-letter abbreviations with full addresses including zip code.

Street addresses

Street, avenue, and boulevard are only abbreviated when with numbered addresses. Road and other related causeways such as court, drive, lane, way, etc. aren't abbreviated. Ex: 123 Public Relations Blvd., 12 Brady St., 26 Media., 1 Championship Road.

Street Addresses- compass points and quadrants

Abbreviate compass points in street addresses and no periods in quadrants. E. 23 St. NW, SE

Number spelling

Spell out numbers 1-9 then use figures for 10 and higher. Spell out numbers when they begin sentences

Roman numerals

Use for wars, people, acts of plays

No. 1 vs. Number 1

use No. 1

Ages

Use figures for ages. Timothy is 5-years-old

dates

Give dates in figures. April 1, not April 1st.

decades

Use figures, no apostrophe, and add S for plural. 1980s, '20s, the mid-1970s

Measurements

use figures and spell out the words feet, inches, yards, etc. Use hyphens when directly before the noun. She is 6 feet 4 inches tall. The 6-foot-4 woman.

Money

figures used for sums of money, except for casual references. Use $ and spell out the word million, omit decimals and 0's when sum is even. $4, $4.5 million, give me a dollar.

Percentages

use figures and spell out percent. 1 percent, 25 percent

Ratios

USE FIGURES AND HYPHENS. Word "to" omitted when ratio comes before word. 3-1 ration, a ratio of 4-to-1

Adviser

not advisor

class titles

do not capitalize and put before name on first reference. sophomore Kayla

Speeds

use figures. avoid multiple hyphens. the speed was 55 mph

due to vs. because of

because of

farther vs. further

farther is a physical distance, further is extension of time or degree.

fewer vs. less than

fewer for individual items, less than for bulk quantities.

over vs. more than

both are acceptable

off of

the of is unnecessary

toward

never towards

Titles

Use quotes "The Sweater Song"

coach

do not capitalize

event titles

capitalize official titles, but not shorthand ones. They won the championship, they won the Big XII Conference.

junior varsity

capitalize and no periods when abbreviated. JV. otherwise spell it out no capitalization

pounds

use lbs

teams

don't capitalize