Punctuation

Follow AP style and lowercase titles, along with “department” and “division,” unless the reference is the first mention. See below.

This year marks a special milestone for the Department of Health Sciences as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the department’s founding.

The department continues to elevate its work across each of our divisions in critical areas, including interprofessional education and practice, global affairs and wellness.

Always capitalize UNC School of Medicine. In most cases, avoid using “the” in front of UNC School of Medicine.

Lowercase the initial cap in residents, fellows, faculty.

Avoid the series comma / oxford comma unless the pause is better to break up longer phrases or to avoid confusion, as in below:

Physicians and nurses, faculty and staff, and fellows and residents attended the event.

His career has impacted countless lives here at the University, across the state, and around the world.

Items in bullet lists items that aren’t complete sentences need no end punctuation.

• a gas card for a father to drive his son to an appointment
• child care for a toddler while Mom is in the hospital

Only one space following a period. Never two!

Hyphenation

AP Style is for these commonly used words not to be hyphenated:

• lifesaving
• groundbreaking

Hyphenate well- combinatoins before a noun, but not after: a well-known researcher; the researcher is well known.

Many two-word combinations that are hyphenated before a noun are not hyphenated after the noun:

• a full-time job | He works full time.
• a second-rate team | The team is second rate.

The prefixes self-, all-, ex-, half, usually take hyphens when joined with another modifier, as do the suffixes -free and -based.

Age

• a 54-year old man | The man is 54 years old.
• 5- and 6-year-old | The kids are 5 to 6 years old.