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What is our style guide for?

Our style guide sets standards and conventions for language use across the division, helping to give a necessary level of consistency to our communications and contributing to an overall AAD identity. While reaching out to particular audiences on behalf of our different program areas, we may vary in our messages and tones—but let’s do our best to adopt our "house" style in the service of the greater AAD brand. 

What is it based on?

Keep in mind that various university groups—in the absence of one Cornell style—base their styles on different guides. The Cornell Chronicle, for example, conforms to the Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, also known as the AP Stylebook.

In large part, our AAD style guide is based on the 16th edition of the Chicago  Chicago Manual of Style. On matters of word spellings and forms, the AAD style guide also refers to the the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. If there are topics not covered here, you may turn to these sources.

Keep in mind that various university groups—in the absence of one Cornell style—base their styles on different guides. The Cornell Chronicle, for example, conforms to the Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, also known as the AP Stylebook.

What topics are covered?

Below are the topics covered by our style guideOur style guide covers topics that we often encounter in our day-to-day writing, from how to properly indicate class years to how to cite academic titles. Below is an overview of these topics. Happy navigating!