Editorial Standards

Basic editorial style guidelines are available from Creative Services and provide guidance for University Life. The guidelines are included in the resources section of Branding Basics or online in the Mason Visual Identity Guide, at logo.gmu.edu.

• Use George Mason University, George Mason, and Mason, but never GMU.
• Lowercase “university” unless it is part of a proper noun.
• Capitalize academic titles before a name but lowercase when used alone or following a name.
• Use last name only on second reference.
• Use a single space after a period.
• Ampersands (&) are not to be used in a departmental name except for IT&E.
• Use hyphens, not parenthesis, in area codes.
• Time of day is a.m. and p.m., noon and midnight.

Other useful style information in the guidelines includes:

• The appropriate punctuation for dates.
• The abbreviations and style for academic degrees.
• A description of George Mason University that can be used in print or web copy.