大象传媒

Ampersand

Use only for business and other entities that include it as part of the formal name (大象传媒鈥檚 Communications & Marketing, AT&T, Grand & Toy).

Do not use an ampersand instead of 鈥渁nd鈥� except in graphs, charts and printed figures or text arranged in columns on a page. (In select marketing materials, the ampersand can sometimes be used as a graphic element.)

Apostrophe

Do not use an apostrophe to form the plural of an acronym.

Example: URLs, not URL's

For regular nouns that do not end in s, the general rule is to add an 鈥檚 to the singular to denote possession and an apostrophe only after the s to the plural.

Examples:

• the dog鈥檚 tail (singular)
• the dogs鈥� tails (plural)
  

For singular common nouns ending in s or z, add an 鈥檚except when the next word begins with s.

Examples:

• the campus鈥檚 bus stop (plural: campuses鈥� bus stops)
• the campus鈥� stadium (plural: campuses鈥� stadiums)

For proper nouns ending in an s follow CP Style and add only an apostrophe to the plural form.

Examples:

• Zeballos鈥� history
• Socrates鈥� plays
• Martinez鈥� family is coming
• the Martinezes鈥� house is small
• Lewis鈥� house is brown
• the Lewises鈥� and the Martinezes鈥� houses are old
• Gulf Islands鈥� representative
• Gulf Islands鈥� structures
  

Singular proper names ending in x or z: Add an 鈥檚

Examples:

• Comox鈥檚 airport
• Agassiz鈥檚 population

Most possessive pronouns do not use apostrophes.

Use:

• hers, not her鈥檚
• its, not it鈥檚
• theirs, not their鈥檚 or theirs鈥�
  

Plurals of letters and numbers: For nouns formed from single or multiple capital letters and single or multiple numbers form the plural by adding s alone (the 1960s, IUDs, MBAs,). The plural of single lowercase letters is formed with an apostrophe and s (watch your p鈥檚 and q鈥檚).

Bulleted and numbered lists

Lists can begin with capitals and end with periods, or not, as long as you are consistent throughout the body of your text. 

Keep the elements in a vertical list parallel. If you don鈥檛 have a verb in the introductory phrase, you should have one beginning each of the listed elements.

Example: Vertical lists let you:

• Show a set of terms, choices or statements clearly
• Avert reader fatigue or confusion from a long list in a sentence
• Escape repetition by using one opening phrase with several clause items
  

If your lead-in statement is a whole sentence, use a colon at the end of the sentence to introduce the list. The items can also be listed as sentences.

Example:

• 大象传媒 supports the local economy in at least three major ways:
• It spends millions of dollars on goods and services in the community.
• It employs almost 6,000 people.
• It pays millions in taxes to local governments.

Brackets (parentheses):

Use brackets (parentheses):

• to include material that you want to de-emphasize but include nevertheless
• when other punctuation won鈥檛 do the job
• to enclose a nickname within a name
• to number or letter a series within a sentence
• to enclose political or other affiliations
• to enclose equivalents and translations

Examples:

• 大象传媒 President Andrew Petter was dean of the University of Victoria鈥檚 law faculty from 2001-08 (the first year as acting dean).
• The Moose Jaw (Sask.) Times-Herald
• William (鈥淏ible Bill鈥�) Aberhart
• The union pressed for (a) more pay, (b) a shorter work week and (c) better pensions.
• Senator Nancy Greene Raine (PC鈥擝.C.)
• 鈥淲e can expect two more inches (five centimetres) of rain.鈥�
  

Commas

Omit the last comma before 鈥渁nd鈥濃�攌nown as the serial (or Oxford) comma鈥攊n a list of three or more items.

Example: Students must take history, economics and English.

But use the last comma in a series of items if it prevents confusion.

Example: I dedicate this book to my parents, Alice, and God.

Dashes, en dash, em dash and hyphenation

Although they are frequently overused, en and em dashes have numerous applications. Common word processing software applications apply a space before and after an em dash.

EN DASH

An en dash is about the width of an N, slightly longer than a hyphen. It is normally used in place of the word 鈥渢o鈥� when indicating a date, time or number range. It can also be used to combine open compounds.

Examples:

• 8 a.m.鈥�5:30 p.m.
• 贵别产谤耻补谤测鈥揗补谤肠丑
• B.C.鈥揂lberta border
• high school鈥搖niversity conference

EM DASH

An em dash is the width of an M. Em dashes can replace commas, semicolons, colons and brackets to indicate additional emphasis, a break or a sudden change of thought. Use without spaces surrounding it.

Examples:

• 大象传媒鈥檚 Aboriginal EMBA鈥擟anada鈥檚 first鈥攊s an example of how 大象传媒 is engaging Aboriginal communities.
• She takes three courses鈥擡nglish, math and chemistry.

HYPHENATION

Hyphens are commonly used to join compound modifiers鈥攖wo or more words serving as a single adjective modifying a noun鈥攖o avoid ambiguity.

Examples: used-car dealer, small-business tax, big-car lover

Don鈥檛 use a hyphen with compound modifiers when the meaning is clear because of common usage.

Examples: acid rain threat, sales tax increase, savings bank deposit

Don鈥檛 use a hyphen with adverbs ending in -ly. The -ly alerts readers that the next word is being modified.

Examples: brightly coloured room, eagerly awaited speech

Use hyphens:

• to indicate joint titles and conflicting or repetitive elements
• to avoid doubling a vowel, tripling a consonant or duplicating a prefix
• with ex-, self-, all-, post- and -elect. Exception: postgraduate, postdoctoral

Examples:

• secretary-treasurer, writer-editor
• re-emerge, anti-intellectual, doll-like
• ex-husband, self-contained, all-American, president-elect

Quotation marks

In most cases, use double quotation marks except for headlines and quotes within a quote.

All punctuation marks except colons and semicolons are positioned within quotation marks. Exception: when the last word in a sentence appears in quotation marks, the punctuation falls outside.

Use quotation marks to enclose direct quotations, indicate words used ironically and highlight unfamiliar terms on first reference.

Examples:

• 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 the players鈥� fault,鈥� said the coach, of the 鈥渇riendly鈥� soccer game that ended with two players being 鈥渞ed carded鈥� in the last half.
  
• 鈥淭hese red cards seemed like the referee鈥檚 attempt to make up for his own shortcomings. It was like he was thinking 鈥業鈥檒l get you two for the penalties I missed in the first half鈥�.鈥�

Do not use quotation marks to enclose sayings or headlines or to format question-and-answer text

Use quotation marks for:

• Titles of academic papers, short poems, articles, individual chapters and short stories
• Symposiia and conference lectures and paper titles
  
• Dissertation and thesis titles
  
• Title given to a conference (e.g., 鈥淭he State of Canadian Education鈥�). The complete official name of a conference, such as the annual Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada meeting, is simply capitalized, with no italics or quotation marks. (The words "meeting" and "annual" aren鈥檛 capitalized because they aren鈥檛 part of the title.)
  
• Songs, other short musical compositions, radio and television shows (or single episodes of continuing series)

Colons

The colon is used to mark a break in grammatical construction to explain, expand, enumerate or elaborate. It emphasizes the content relation between the separated elements.

The colon is commonly used to introduce a series or list or series. Lowercase the first word after a colon in a sentence unless that word is the start of a complete sentence or quotation or is a proper noun.

A colon should not separate the main elements of a sentence鈥攕uch as a verb and its direct object鈥攅ven if that object is a vertical list.

Semicolons

Semicolons mark a more important break in the sentence than commas.

They:

• separate two parts of a compound sentence that are related but not connected by conjunctions such as 鈥渁nd鈥�, 鈥渂ut鈥� or 鈥渇or鈥�
  
• separate items in a series that are long and complicated or entail internal punctuation.

Example:

大象传媒 invited presidents from several universities: Peter MacKinnon, University of Saskatchewan; Mamdouh Shoukri, York University; and David Turpin, University of Victoria.

To determine if a semicolon is suitable in a compound sentence, try substituting a period in its place and see if each part can stand alone, with a verb and subject:

Example: We were running late; the plane was due in 20 minutes.