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Editorial Guidelines

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Words shape our world. The tone we use in our writing defines our campus culture and communicates our value. Just as our visual identity relies on specific colors and fonts, our editorial identity depends on a consistent verbal style.

This guide outlines our core brand voice and explains how to adapt that voice to reach our diverse audiences effectively.

Our Core Brand Voice

Regardless of the medium or the audience, all communications from Franklin & Marshall College should anchor to these three foundational voice attributes:

  • Intellectually Curious, Never Pretentious: We value rigorous thought, deep exploration, and academic discovery. We write clearly and accessibly, choosing straightforward language over dense academic jargon. We invite people in; we don’t shut them out.

  • Empowering and Collaborative: We emphasize the close partnership between students and faculty. Our tone celebrates mentorship, joint research, and personal growth. We speak with our community, not down to them.

  • Grounded and Purposeful: We are historically rooted but forward-looking. Our tone is confident and resilient, focusing on the real-world impact our students and alumni make.

Adapting Tone for Different Audiences

While our core voice attributes never change, our tone shifts depending on who we are speaking to – much like how you adjust your manner of speaking when presenting to a board versus talking to a friend.

Prospective Students and Families
  • The Tone: Energetic, warm, welcoming, and reassuring

  • The Strategy: Focus on discovery, community, and support systems. Avoid overwhelming them with internal administration names or complex academic policies. Use active verbs and highlight real student stories.

  • Example:
    • Instead of: "F&M offers an array of foundational undergraduate research opportunities across multiple disciplines."
    • Write: "At F&M, you won't just study history or science – you'll create it alongside faculty mentors starting your first year."
Alumni
  • The Tone: Proud, respectful, nostalgic, and impact-driven

  • The Strategy: Connect F&M’s current achievements to its rich legacy. Show donors exactly how their gifts translate into student scholarships, faculty research, and campus improvements. Use sophisticated, mature storytelling.

  • Example:
    • Instead of: "Donations to the annual fund are utilized to update facilities inside our campus laboratories."
    • Write: "Your support directly funds the state-of-the-art lab equipment our students need to pioneer new research and continue F&M's legacy of discovery."
Faculty, Staff, and Internal Community
  • The Tone: Direct, professional, transparent, and collegial

  • The Strategy: Prioritize clarity, institutional alignment, and shared purpose. Keep information straightforward, actionable, and free of unnecessary fluff.

F&M Quick Style Sheet

Franklin & Marshall College follows a modified AP Style. To maintain clean and consistent editorial standards across campus, follow these quick rules for common institutional terms:

Academic Degrees

Capitalize the full names of academic degrees 

  • a Bachelor of Arts degree

In copy, lowercase and use possessive if the full name of the degree is not used

Use definite or indefinite articles (the, a, an) preceding the name of a degree rather than possessives (her, his, their).

Alumna, Alumnae, Alumnus, Alumni

Use alumni when referring to a group of graduates. This is the preferred form for a group. 

When referring to one female graduate, use alumna. When referring to a group of female graduates, use alumnae. When referring to one male graduate, use alumnus.

Alumni Class Years

When referring to a person's class year, the apostrophe preceding the class curls away from the numbers (option + right bracket on a Mac). Multiple class years (for people who have received several degrees) are separated by commas.

Capitalization

Eliminate excess and eccentric capitalization whenever possible. When in doubt, do not capitalize.

Capitalize the name of a specific course or course title

Do not capitalize subjects, fields of study, majors, minors, etc. unless they contain a proper noun and no specific course is referred to 

College Name

On first reference, use Franklin & Marshall College. On secondary references, Franklin & Marshall, F&M, or the College (capitalize "College" when referring specifically to F&M) are acceptable.

Credentials

We do not use credentials (i.e. PhD, MBA, etc.) when writing out faculty and professional staff names.

Diplomats

Our students, athletes, and alumni are Diplomats (always capitalized). The casual shorthand Dips is acceptable for informal student-facing communications, student life, and athletics, but should be avoided in formal academic or presidential communications.

Email

No hyphen is used. Lowercase email except at the beginning of a sentence of a line of display copy.

Exceptions

General titles describing professions (author, actor, pilot, etc.) are not capitalized before a name.

A title is not capitalized when it appears before a proper name used as a nonrestrictive appositive. (A clue to this usage is that the title is often preceded by the word the or the name of an organization.)

Titles used as appositives following names are not capitalized unless they contain proper nouns.

Titles without accompanying names are not capitalized.

Money

For amounts of $1 million or more, use the $ sign and numerals up to two decimal places. Don't use a hyphen between the figure and the word unless the amount is used as a temporary compound adjective preceding the noun it modifies.

For amounts less than $1 million:

one dollar; $10; $100; $1,000; $100,000

For amounts under one dollar, use numerals and the word cents. Use the $ sign and decimals for larger amounts.

Do not spell out amounts in parenthesis following the figures, and never use both the dollar sign and the word dollars together.

More than vs Over

More than is preferred with numerals. Over generally refers to spatial relationships.

Motto

Lux et Lex (translated as Light and Law). When written, it should be italicized.

Numbers

Spell out numbers below 10; use numerals for 10 and greater except when they begin a sentence; use commas in 4-digit numbers; use figures with ages and units of measure; spell out all numbers in direct quotes.

Oxford Comma

Use an Oxford comma before the word "and" in lists.

Rooms, Offices, Suites, Labs

Capitalize the word room, office, suite, lab when designating a particular room

Seasons/Semesters

The names of the season and semesters are not capitalized.

Time of Day

Use figures with am and pm. Use zeros after the colon.

When writing about a length of time, use am or pm only at the end if the time frame occurs in the same time of day; if the time frame occurs in both the morning and afternoon, use it after each time. Always use a space on either side of the en dash and no periods in am or pm.

Titles of People

Official titles that immediately precede a proper name are capitalized.

Using the "&"

Do not use the & to represent "and" unless it is part of a proper name, such as Franklin & Marshall. 

Unit and Program Names

Departmental, unit, office, or program names are capitalized when written out completely (i.e. the Department of XXX). Words such as department, office, and other common nouns are lowercased when used alone.

F&M Brand Guide