Writing Styles and Standards
ѿapp's website and online communications adhere to a modified Associated Press (AP) Stylebook. For more details and examples of common style occurrences, it is highly recommended to visit the College Style Guide that's posted under ѿapp's Marketing and Communications Office.
Additional Style Information for Online Content
Consistent look, feel and function improves usability and presents ѿapp as a unified organization.
- You may use italics to indicate book titles and magazine titles.
- Do not use underlines; Web users may think that they are links.
- Use bold only sparingly to emphasize points or bring attention to key phrases.
- Do not colorize text. You don’t need to make things red and flashy to grab attention. A clean page and layout does that for you automatically.
- Do not manually adjust font size.
- Do not use UPPERCASE for anything (except abbreviations or acronyms).
- Use header styles (H3s and H4s) for headings as provided in the CMS editor. Do not create your own headings in the HTML.
- Don’t try to override or change the page style that is already present. Focus on content.
WRONG
The ѿapp Business Plan Competition seeks to teach students at ALL high school, college and university levels the IMPORTANCE of developing high quality business ideas and plans. The competition also seeks to provide them with the resources, not only to write comprehensive, complete and concise business strategies, but to also see those plans come to be realized. Participants of ѿapp Business Plan Competition are strongly encouraged to participate in the spring Donald W. Reynold's Governor's Cup Business Plan Competition and the subsequent Tri-State Competition to compete for a share of the more than $250,000 in CASH prizes offered.
RIGHT
The ѿapp Business Plan Competition seeks to teach students at all high school, college and university levels the importance of developing high quality business ideas and plans.
The competition also seeks to provide them with the resources, not only to write comprehensive, complete and concise business strategies, but to also see those plans come to be realized.
To compete for a share of the more than $250,000 in cash prizes, we strongly encourage participation in the and the Tri-State Competition.
Accuracy and Timeless Content
Make sure that all information presented is correct. Incorrect or outdated information is unacceptable and should be updated immediately. Try to avoid posting absolute dates and years in your content if you can. Making your content timeless (or evergreen) will lessen how often it might become outdated.
WRONG
The Handbook of Guidelines for students for 2007 (including information from ѿapp President Philip Ringle) is a required resource for all students.
COMING SOON: The Updated Handbook of Guidelines. We are working on it and should have it ready in the very near future!!!
RIGHT
The ѿapp Handbook of Guidelines for Students is a required resource for all students and includes important information from the ѿapp President. An updated/revised version will be available on November 5, 2022.
Spelling, Grammar and Abbreviations
All Web pages must be free of spelling errors. Carefully proofread material and review the CMS spell-checker results that appear after you submit a page. Text on the ѿapp website should follow the grammar, punctuation and spelling rules outlined in the Associated Press Stylebook.
Use of abbreviations should follow the ѿapp style guide and the AP Stylebook.