Rules of Form

Attachment II

Rules of Form

For Writing University Policy and Procedure Statements

I. Punctuation

	Rule	Examples
A.	Capitalization. Titles of officials are capitalized when they refer to specific officials; when used in general or in plurals, they are lowercased.	President Trauth The president will appoint a committee.
B.	Capitalization. The university and its organizational units are capitalized only when used with a specific name.	Department of Biology College of Education The university’s residence halls…
C.	Virgules or Slashes. Avoid slashes that are both conjunctive and disjunctive, such as his/her, and/or, and faculty/staff.	his or her “and” or “or” “faculty or staff” or “faculty and staff”

II. Grammar and Syntax

	Rule	Examples
A.	Use active voice.	Instead of “Notice shall be given…” use “the dean shall give notice…”
B.	Make the verb agree in number with its subject.	One of our most important policies is that we will not illegally discriminate…
C.	Put statements in positive form.	Instead of “Students must not be absent…” use “Students must attend…”
D.	Avoid sexist language	Instead of “The hearing officer will consider the reports that are submitted to him,” use “The hearing officer will consider the reports submitted by the parties.” Or, “Hearing officers will consider reports submitted to them.”

III. Other Rules of Form

Rule

Examples

Numbers. The general rule is to spell out all numbers smaller than 101. However, there are five exceptions to this rule:

1. If numbers are being used for calculations, use numerals.

2. Approximations are always spelled out.

3. In units of measure, words substitute for rows of zeros and digits are used with words of measure.

4. Numbers that begin sentences must always be spelled out.

5. Percentages may be spelled out or written as numbers.

Do not duplicate written amounts with numerals in parentheses.

The university has about two thousand employees.

$3 million; 12 inches

“Two thousand four was an auspicious year.”

Eight percent or 8 percent

Do not use “six hundred (600) students…”

Defined Terms. Be sure that words that are defined are actually used in the policy statement