Georgetown University
Name & title: Kathleen Lawton, Development Writer / Editor
Institution & publication: Georgetown University, hoyasCONNECT
Type of publication: e-newsletter
Readership audience: alumni, parents, friends of the university
Number of pages: variable
Frequency of publication: monthly
Circulation: 60,000
Color: 4-color
Interesting facts about the publication: hoyasCONNECT is an electronic newsletter for Georgetown alumni and other members of the Georgetown community.
Basic style manual: AP Stylebook, institution
Reason for using the manual: We inherited usage of the AP Style Guide, and created our own style guide for Georgetown-specific words and usages as well as the few instances when we deviate from the AP.
Dictionary: American Heritage
Reason for using dictionary: Is the most up-to-date dictionary of modern American usage. Also, has pretty pictures.
Other resources: Web style manuals from Wired and an online Web style guide that can be found at http://webstyleguide.com/index.html/.
Items on our house style sheet not covered in our manual: Our house style manual specifies usage of "Fr.," "Mass," etc. We developed the usage by working with our development officers who cover mission and ministry and with input from Campus Ministry through the development officers. That said, we select the less formal usages in our electronic communications, because readers of e-mail, e-newsletters, and Web sites distrust overly formal language.
Items on our house stylesheet that override our manual: We use the series comma even though the AP dictates against it. We made this decision because the AP usage is due to space constraints, and we do not have such constraints on the Web.
Unresolved issues: We are still developing our Web style guide and would love to hear from others who are doing the same. KEL3@georgetown.edu