We hope these pages will help Bates writers achieve consistency in written style, particularly in capitalization, abbreviation, punctuation and names of places, and also help to answer Bates-specific questions.

Style consistency lets the reader concentrate on content without being distracted by variations in spelling and punctuation. Consistent style allows many voices to harmonize across our community.

The information here can't possibly address the full range of usage and grammar questions, the Office of Communications and Media Relations recommends these three:

•  The Associated Press Stylebook  — the primary style guide for the Bates communicatons;
• The Chicago Manual of Style — a complement to the AP guide most useful for questions around type treatment (italics for publication titles, etc.);
• A Dictionary of Modern American Usage —  for all your grammar questions.

We encourage suggestions for other topics to address on these pages.

— The Office of Communications and Media Relations