VCOM Brand Guide

Style Guide ‘Class of ’ vs. OMS (continued)

students from VCOM-Virginia participated in a health fair at the Roanoke Rescue Mission.” Double Spaces VCOM does not use double spaces between sentences in its publications. Em Dashes Em dashes can be used either with or without a space before and after the dash, depending on preference. Usage must, however, be consistent within a document or publication. Emphasis Avoid using capitalization or underlining for emphasis. Instead, use italics or bold to emphasize words. Healthcare For consistency, whenever using healthcare in documentation make it As a general rule, all compound modifiers should be hyphenated: • first-year students • on-campus program • land-grant university No Hyphen: • Vice president (no hyphen) • Fundraising, fundraiser (preferred use is without a hyphen or a space) • Highly developed (no hyphen with adverbs ending in “ly”) one word. Hyphens

• Nonprofit, postgraduate, preadmission. No hyphen with “non,” “pre,” “post,” “sub,” etc., compounds. Exceptions: • W hen the second word in a pair is capitalized, such as non-English. • N umbers, such as pre-1954. • R e-create when used to mean create again; recreate is an awkward verb meaning to take part in recreation. • U se a hyphen when the last letter of a prefix is the same as the first letter in the second word, use a hyphen: anti-intellectual, pre-existing. Quotation Marks Punctuation at the end of a quote will go inside the quotation marks. Correct: “We are grateful for the support of the administration and medical staff at the hospital,” said VCOM President Dixie Tooke-Rawlins, DO. Spell out the word “percent.” Do not spell out the numbers in percentages, use numerals instead. Correct: An average of 68 percent of graduates have entered primary care residencies. Incorrect: 48% of students are from communities under 30,000 population. Exception: Use % in tables and charts. Numbers Percent

Captions If a caption is not directly near the picture it describes, then use directional words in bold to identify the location of the picture. • Top left: from left to right, President and Provost Dixie Tooke-Rawlins, DO; Virginia Dean Jan Willcox, DO. Commas Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series: Example: “Basically, students will do course work in three major areas including economics, languages and history.” Put a comma before the concluding conjunction in a series, however, if an integral element of the series requires a conjunction: “Basically, students will do course work in three major areas: economics, languages, and eastern and western history.” Use a comma also before the concluding conjunction in a complex series of phrases: “The main point to consider is whether economics impact everyone, whether languages create barriers, and whether history will repeat itself.” When including a date in a sentence, a comma is used after the year: “On December 9, 2018, second-year

When referring to a particular class of students at VCOM, the “c” in Class is capitalized. Correct: The VCOM-Virginia Class of 2019 commencement ceremony was held on May 24, 2019. Punctuation and Grammar Apostrophes: • MS’s, PhD’s (plurals) • Plural of a single letter: A’s, B’s • Decade as a noun:The 1990s were a profitable time.The ’90s saw a rise in enrollment. • Decade as a possessive: His thesis discusses the 1990s’ cultural changes. Articles and Chapters: Use quotation marks. “How I Spent My Summer Vacation.” Books/Videos: Names of books, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, reports and videos should be italicized. If an italic font is not available, underline the name. • Student Handbook • VCOM View magazine • C ollege Catalog

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