League Brand Guidelines

Grammar, Punctuation, Capitalization, etc.

Dates —In the month-day-year style of dates, commas must be used to set off the year. Ex: The conference will take place on October 7, 2024, in Michigan . Where only a month and year are given, or a specific day with a year (like a holiday), neither scenario requires a comma. Exs: In January 2014 she turned 26. On Thanksgiving Day 2011 he forgot to thaw the turkey. We do not use ordinal indicators with dates (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.). Ellipsis— An ellipsis is the omission of a word, phrase, line, paragraph, or more from a quoted passage. Sentences created with an ellipsis must make grammatical sense. Create an ellipsis with three spaced periods. If the end of a sentence is omitted in the quote, use a period at the end of the sentence, followed by the three spaced periods. Ex: “It is not the critic who counts. . . . The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood who strives valiantly . . . and who at worst, if he or she fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” Em-dash —Often simply called a dash, an em-dash (the longer of the two dashes) can set off an amplifying or explanatory element (instead of parentheses or commas). Ex: The one time I went to Disney—when I had pneumonia—I couldn’t go on any of the rides or enjoy any of the food! They are also used in layouts to separate elements, like the terms and definitions in this guide. En-dash —When indicating a period or span of time, either the en-dash (–) should be used between numerals or the words “from....to”, but they should not be combined. Incorrect Ex: The meeting will be from 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Correct Exs: The meeting will be from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Or: The meeting will be 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Numbers —Spell out cardinal numbers one through nine and use numerals for 10 and above (following AP Style). The same pattern follows for ordinal numbers: spell out first, second, third...ninth, and use numerals with suffixes for 10th, 11th, 12th, etc., but do not use superscript (1 st ,2 nd ). Percent —Spell out the word percent on all references; do not use the % symbol, unless in graphics.

MAY 2024

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