UVic Style Guide
The UVic Editorial Style Guide was created for anyone who works on UVic communications. It applies to all general, promotional and marketing communications materials, official correspondence, and reports and submissions to university governing bodies. It is not intended to apply to teaching, scholarly or research texts.
Introduction
Any style guide, this one included, is a work in progress. As new editorial questions arise and language and usage change, the style guide will evolve. University Communications and Marketing welcomes input from users to make this guide more useful. This site will announce additions, changes and updates to the guide.
Spelling authority
The university uses the Canadian Oxford Dictionary as its spelling authority. It can be searched online via the UVic Library.
Abbreviations, acronyms & initialisms
Learn when to use lower case vs. upper case and abbreviations vs. spelling out in full.
Capitalization
Learn when and what to capitalize including after punctuation, on job titles, academic programs and subjects.
Geographic locations
Learn about different place names, how to format addresses and when to abbreviate and capitalize geographic locations.
Inclusive language
Learn how to incorporate inclusive language into your communications work.
Internet
Learn about how to incorporate internet terminology and style into your communications work.
Numbers
Learn how numbers should be used including dates and times, measurements and percentages.
Punctuation
Learn when to use punctuation marks including commas, dashes and hyphens.
Appendix A: academic degrees
Learn about accepted abbreviations of academic degrees at UVic.