Capitalization

• Headlines should be no more than 10 words or 75 characters.  Shorter headlines are encouraged.
• The first word of the headline must be capitalized.
• The remaining words of the headline are not capitalized unless it is a name of an individual, a title of an individual, institutional names, titles of regulations or other proper nouns and title of an event. Therefore, a headline should be sentence case.
• Do not begin a headline with the, and, or, but. 
• Do not end a headline with punctuation (e.g. period, exclamation mark) except if a question mark is warranted. 
• When creating a headline, it should speak to the reader directly but contain a strong, active verb to create a mental picture. 
• A headline should encapsulate the central emotion and or drama of the content. 
• Avoid creating a headline that is long drawn out phrases and ones that can be read in two different ways. 
• One tip is to think about what keywords people are likely to use in a search for your content. 
• Acronyms are acceptable if they are defined immediately following the content. 
• Do not use all caps for a headline.

• Headlines on websites or in social media should be descriptive and as brief as possible. 
• On the Saint Mary’s website, page titles are automatically used to create website navigation. Please use title case for page titles and subheadings. Title case involves capitalizing all words except short conjunctions (e.g., “and,” “as,” “but,” “for,” “if,” “nor,” “or,” “so,” “yet”), articles (e.g., “a,” “an,” “the”), or short prepositions (e.g., “as,” “at,” “by,” “for,” “in,” “of,” “off,” “on,” “per,” “to,” “up,” “via”).

Example:

Saint Mary's University Professor Goes Above and Beyond With Astronomy Research and Teaching

Other conjunctions are generally capitalized.  Lower case the articles the, a, and an as well as the words to and as.

e.g. means for example, while i.e. means that is or that is to say.

SMU students come from many countries (e.g. Iran, Australia)
SMU students come from many countries (i.e. SMU is an international school)

Works

Published, stand alone works-such as books, films, newspapers, magazines, professional journals, plays, long poems, radio programmes, television programmes, long musical compositions and works of art-should appear in italics:  

The Catcher in the Rye, The National Post, Mad Men

Articles, essays, short poems, short stories, songs and chapters of books should appear in quotation marks:         

“A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “Howl,” “Fire and Rain”

• the Maritimes, the Maritime provinces, not the Maritime Provinces
• the East Coast, not the east coast
• the North (when referring to Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon), not the north
• the county, the city not the County or the City

Capitalize terms with political connotations:

• Western Canada, Eastern Canada

The generic term in a proper noun is lower cased if used in the plural:

• the Atlantic Ocean but the Pacific and Atlantic oceans
• Fifty-Fifth Street but Fifty-Seventh and Fifty-Fifth streets
• the American and French revolutions

Capitalize full titles of committees and other bodies, but lower case partial forms.

• Investment Committee, the committee

*However, the Board, and the Senate should be capitalized when referring to Saint Mary’s University, the Board of Trustees and the Academic Senate.

The words 'department' and 'faculty' should be lower case unless if it is in a name.

Examples:

• Faculty of Arts
• External Affairs department
• The department will participate in the panel discussion.
• The faculties have voted for a joint arbitration.

The seasons (fall, summer, winter, spring) are not capitalized. Semester names are capitalized, however:

• Fall Semester
• Winter Semester, etc.

Capitalize an individual’s title before or after their name e.g. Saint Mary’s President Robert Summerby-Murray, Professor Rohini Bannerjee, Erin Sargeant Greenwood, Vice-President (Advancement). Lower case a title when it appears on its own and separated from the individual’s name e.g. After the summit, the dean expects research to be completed in July, 2020. The instructor is teaching 200 students.

Capitalize titles and offices only when preceding a name and not modified:

• President Robert Summerby-Murray (but Robert Summerby-Murray, the president)

This does not apply when individuals appear in a list or in situations at the beginning of letters.  For example, in a list of speakers at a conference, Summerby-Murray would appear as:

• Robert Summerby-Murray: President, Saint Mary’s University

NOTE: As per the Canadian Press Style Guide and Candian Oxford Dictionary, a hyphen must be used in the title of Vice-President and Vice-Chancellor. However, do not use a hyphen in the title of Associate Dean and Adjunct Professor.

Lower case “former,” “acting,” and “designate” titles:

• former president Kenneth L. Ozmon

On the first reference of a person, their salutation, first and last name should be used as the introduction. Any subsequent reference to the person after the introduction is only by last name.

Example:

President Robert Summberby-Murray has been in his role with Saint Mary's University since 2005.   He has served in a number of senior academic roles, including the Dean of Social Sciences at Mount Allison University from 2003-2010 and as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Dalhousie University from 2010-2015. Summerby-Murray is married to Susan, a speech-language pathologist.