"ESIP Style Guide"

Template:Delete FES and ESIP use AP style for its communications, with a few exceptions. The online AP style guide is available for free through most university libraries, just search for “AP Style Guide.” Purdue University has a helpful shortlist of AP style FAQs: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/02/

1. Use the acronyms “FES” and “ESIP” only after spelling out the full name of the organization first.
2. Use only one space between sentences.
3. Use mixed cap style for headlines. This means major words like nouns, verbs, etc. are capitalized; prepositions with four or more letters (“with,” “through,” etc.) are capitalized; and less significant words like “a” and “the” are lowercased.
4. Capitalize the word “Earth” when you’re using it as a proper noun and referring to the planet we live on (i.e. Earth science), and don’t use the an article (the). No need to capitalize the word when talking about the ground or soil beneath our feet.
5. Website is written as one word and “Web” is capitalized. Commonly used FES/ESIP addresses like esipfed.org, etc., do not need the “www.” (But test an address in your browser to make sure it works without the www before writing it that way.)
6. Commas:

   • Do not use a comma before the conjunction in a simple series. Example: Earth, the environment and research
   • Use a comma in a series when there is an additional conjunction. Example: For lunch, the sandwich choices were cheese, ham, and peanut butter and jelly.
   • Commas always go inside quotation marks.

7. Numbers: spell out one through nine and use figures for 10 and above
8. In titles or headings, use single quote marks around quoted text. Anywhere else, use double quote marks for quoted text.
9. In general, avoid the capitalization of people’s titles and try to form sentences so that titles follow people’s names and are separated by commas. Example: Deirdra Q. Barnum, professor of engineering, gave the lecture.

   • In the few cases where a person’s title precedes that person’s name, it is capitalized, as long it is a proper title (as opposed to “writer” or “researcher”). Example: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Ghana.
   • Do not use Dr., Mrs., Ms., Mr. or Rev. to refer to an individual. After initial identification, the individual’s last name is sufficient.