Children's Issues
Programs & Services
Parent Involvement
Running Your PTA/PTSA
The Comprehensive Guide for PTA Leaders and Members
PTA Style Guide
CAPITALIZATIONCalifornia Congress of Parents, Teachers and Students, Inc.California State PTA – not CSPTA or CAPTA State PTA National Congress of Parents and Teachers National Parent Teacher Association National PTA Parent Teacher Association Parent-Teacher-Student Association PTA or PTSA – no periods Founders Day Sacramento County, but Sacramento and San Joaquin counties Nouns or Adjectives Forming Part of Proper Name of an OrganizationSun Elementary PTAHillside Council PTA Twenty-Fifth District PTA University of California Do not capitalize association or unit, council, district PTA, university when used alone. Terms Specific to California State PTAAdvisory BoardBoard of Directors Board of Managers California State PTA Annual Convention CALL (to board or convention) Continuing Service Award – CSA "everychild.onevoice." Golden Oak Service Award Honorary Service Award – HSA Mission Statement of the California State PTA Purposes of the PTA – as title or in a sentence Vice President for Communications (etc.) PTA Projects, Programs or WorkshopsPTA Leadership TrainingReflections Program “SMARTS: Bring Back the Arts!” State or National Government TermsTitles (Governor, Senator and Assembly Member) capitalized ONLY when preceding a nameLegislature, Senate and Assembly capitalized when referring to the California bodies TITLE CAPITALIZATION• For titles in text, capitalize the first and last words and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions (therefore, however).• Articles (a, an, the), conjunctions (and, or, for, but), and prepositions of three letters or less (for, to, on) are lowercase, unless they are the first or last words of a title or subtitle. • The infinitive “to” should be capitalized. • Use typeset italic or boldface for titles of books, periodicals, movies, videos, plays, operas, reports, pamphlets, and kits. – California State PTA Toolkit – The Communicator – National PTA Quick-Reference Guide – Parents Empowering Parents (PEP) Guide • When the title or designation precedes the name, it is capitalized. If it follows the name, it is lower case. – President-elect Jones – Jane Jones, president – Sarah Smith, president-elect – Henry Jones, the principal of the school – James McCay, Ed.D., principal • Capitalize schools of a university, but not courses or departments. Capitalize languages. – School of Journalism – biology department – UCLA Spanish department DO NOT CAPITALIZE• Association, unit, council, district PTA, or board of education unless used as part of a name of a specific group;• Titles after the word “the” or after a name; • Organizational terms such as bylaws, chairman, committee, director, parent education, preschool, policy, scholarship, grant, vice president, workshop; • Seasons of the year, directions (north, southeast), state, nation, federal, flag. NUMBERSSpell Out Numbers• At the beginning of a sentence, except for years;• One through nine, 10 and above use numerals; • First through ninth, after 10th use numerals; • First grade, grade one, first-grader. • 10th grade, grade 10, 10th-grader • More than 100 (not over 100) and fewer than 100 (not less than 100). Use Numerals for• Large numbers such as million and billion– $12 million • Percentages – 15 percent (spell out “percent”) • Ages – age 3 to 6 – 26-year-old (hyphenate) • Pages – page 2 • Ratios 3-to-1; No. 1 killer of teens PUNCTUATIONQuotation Marks• Always set outside the comma and the period;• Always set inside the colon and the semicolon; and • Set outside or inside the exclamation point, depending on whether the marks belong to the quoted matter. • Use single quotation marks for quotations within quotations. • A quoted passage of four lines or more may be used without quotation marks if indented from the body of material. • Use quotation marks for themes, such as for conventions, workshops, or administrations. • Avoid overuse of exclamation marks! • Ellipses (…) should be treated as a word with a space before and after. At the end of a sentence, a period is still needed (for a total of four dots). • Dashes require space before and after. Colons and Semicolons• Use a colon only if the introductory phrase can stand alone as a sentence.• Do not use a colon after a verb. • Capitalize the first word after a colon if it is a proper noun or the start of a complete sentence. For a vertical list, capitalize the first word of each item, use commas or semicolons with a final period if the phrases are lengthy. • Use semicolons to separate elements of a series when the individual elements contain information that is set off by commas or to join two clauses when a coordinating conjunction (and, but, for) is not present. CommasUse a comma:• Before the conjunction only when the series of items or phrases is complicated or lengthy. – The flag is red, white and blue.; • Before an independent phrase: “He gave me an apple, and I ate it.” • Between names of states and nations used with cities – Los Angeles, California, is a big city. • For dates with month, day, and year – October 30, 2007; • When the day of the month is omitted, so is the comma – June 2007. Apostrophes• Singular possessive - PTA’s office;• Plural possessive nouns not ending in “s” – children’s books; • “It’s” meaning “it is”; not the possessive, “its size”; • Plural possessive nouns ending in “s” – unit PTAs’ collaboration; • Not with plural nouns, figures – PTAs advocated for arts education – legislation in the 2000s. WRITING STYLEUse:• Active tenses, not passive; • Verbs, not adverbs; • 4 p.m., 10-11 a.m., noon and midnight; • Chairman, not chair or chairperson; • People, not persons; • Parent involvement; • Either Dr. Jane Jones or Jane Jones, Ed.D., not Dr. Jane Jones, Ed.D.; • United States as a noun, U.S. as an adjective. • Rewrite to avoid using etc., and/or, he/she, s/he.(Usually, a plural form does the trick: “A student likes his/her homework” becomes “Students like their homework.” • Beware singular noun plural pronoun problems. “Speak with the teacher about your child’s home-work. Their success depends on it.” This is incorrect because the antecedent of “their” is the singular “child.” Better: “Speak with the teacher about your child. Your student’s success depends on it.” • The term disability is preferred to handicap. • Use “people first” style – “a student with a disability,” rather than “a disabled student” • Include the year of passage with the names of all laws except those passed in the current legislative session. • No all cap headlines (except CALL to Convention). • Conform to time, date, place format: meeting is at 10 a.m., May 4, at the Capitol. PTA’S VISUAL IDENTITYSee the National PTA website www.pta.org regarding use guidelines for the logo and tagline. Customize the logo for the unit, council or district PTA using Arial Black or Helvetica Black font for the PTA name. Use Times Roman font for the tagline. Black or dark blue color is preferred, or reverse white on a colored background. OFTEN-USED PTA WORDSafter-school programsat-risk back-to-school bylaws caregiver citywide curricula (plural) curriculum (singular) day care (noun) day-care (adjective) dropout extracurricular flier (NOT flyer) fundraising activities fundraiser (noun) handout (noun) health-care clinics HIV/AIDS Internet kindergartner nationwide noncommercial nonpartisan nonprofit nonsectarian online preschool president-elect preteen school-based seat belt self-esteem statewide teenage/teenager T-shirt vice president Washington, D.C. website well-being year-round Mission Statement of the California State PTAThe mission of the California State PTA is to positively impact the lives of all children and families by representing our members and empowering and supporting them with skills in advocacy, leadership, and communications. California State PTA Board of Managers, July 2007 FOR MORE INFORMATIONDarrell Christian, Sally Jacobsen, David Minthorn (editors). The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law: 2009 (Basic Books, 2009)Strunk, William Jr. and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 2000). |
Talking Points Visual Identity Communicating with Confidence PTA Style Guide
Articles for PTA Newsletters and Web Sites
Communications Basics: Talking Points Public Relations Plan Web Wise Kids Internet Safety 101 Simple Strategies for Introductions Why Write Right? Bragging About Your PTA! Websites: The “Next Generation”: Resource for Your PTA Make PTA Visible Using PTA’s Logo PTA and the Media Writing for PTA Publications PTA in California Communicator PTA Connects SMARTS Newsletter Basics for PTA Leaders Promoting Your PTA Press Room Television & Media Literacy Order PTA Materials Toolkit
|
Many of the materials in this Web site are available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. The Acrobat reader is a