• Always include the name of East Tennessee State University, spelled out in full, in the lead sentence of each news release (if a creative lead simply will not allow this, it is acceptable for the name of the university to be in the second sentence).  In the second and all succeeding references, "ETSU" (without periods) is used.
• Keep your wording and sentence structure simple!  You are writing for a broad, general audience with varying levels of education.
• Avoid editorializing (interjecting the writer's opinion) and grandiose, "flowery" language.  Do not say, "The group is sponsoring an exciting lecture by a fantastic, wonderful speaker."  This is simply your opinion as the writer, and it would be promptly chopped by any self-respecting editor.  Give the title of the lecture, which should interest the reader if it is properly crafted, along with a short description of the lecture; and without actually saying that the speaker is "fantastic" and "wonderful," give that impression by briefly listing the speaker's primary qualifications to speak on that topic.
• Keep your paragraphs short!  One or two sentences will usually suffice.  This is because on a newspaper page, longer paragraphs make large chunks of gray space, which is tedious for the reader.
• Use the "inverted pyramid" format, in which the most important information is included in the first paragraphs of the news release and the least important information in the last paragraphs.  This makes it easier for editors working with limited space to determine what information can be deleted without omitting the crucial facts of the story.
• Capitalization of colleges/schools/departments/offices--
  
  For Publications:

    Capitalize the names of the university's colleges, schools, offices, departments, divisions and centers.

For News Releases and Accent:
     Capitalize the names of the university's colleges, schools, and centers.  Lowercase the names of  departments  and offices.  Major divisions (such as the Division of Health Sciences) or structural entities not prefaced by "department of" or "office of" (such as University Bookstore, University Press, News Bureau or Carroll Reece Museum) should be capitalized.      The News Bureau uses capitalization rules that differ from those of Publications for various reasons.  One is because news releases are prepared in Associated Press style for greater usability by media outlets as well as readability (long strings of capitalized words tend to "lose" readers -- they skim over these).  And although ETSU Accent is an official university publication, lowercasing the titles of departments, offices and some other structural entities is done because (1) Accent is generally edited according to AP style, (2) it increases readability and (3) it saves much-needed space, thereby reducing cost.

• Professional titles
  
  For Publications:

 
     On the first reference to a person, give the person's full name and title (Dr. Pat J. Doe, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics).  If the person holds a doctoral degree, put "Dr." in front of the name instead of the degree abbreviation after the name.  If the person has a short title, such as "ETSU President Dr. Paul E. Stanton Jr.," it is acceptable to place the capitalized professional title before the name.  However, if the person has a long professional title, it is easier for both the writer and reader if the title and department are placed after the name.  On the second reference to the person, refer to that person, whether male or female, by last name only (Stanton said . . .).

For News Releases and Accent:

     On the first reference to a person named in a news release, give the person's full name and title (Dr. Pat J. Doe, assistant professor, department of mathematics).  If the person holds a doctoral degree, put "Dr." in front of the name instead of the degree abbreviation after the name.  If the person has a short title, such as "ETSU President Dr. Paul E. Stanton Jr.," it is acceptable to place the capitalized professional title before the name.  However, if the person has a long professional title, it is easier for both the writer and reader if the lowercased title and department are placed after the name.  On the second reference to the person, refer to that person, whether male or female, by last name only (Stanton said . . .).
     Again, lowercasing the professional title after a person's name is done in accordance with AP style and to save space/cost in Accent.
 

• Courtesy titles (Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms.), as a general rule, are not used.  An exception to this rule is when two people with the same last name are used in an article (for example, if you are writing a story in which you write about a husband and wife, you would refer to both of them by their full names in the first reference; on the second reference, you could call them "Smith" and "Mrs. Smith").
• Dates, months, years -- Spell out the names of the days of the week.  Months should be abbreviated (except March, April, May, June and July) when used as part of a date; they should be spelled out when they stand alone in your text.  Years should be specified only if the year in question is any year other than the current year.  Examples: "ETSU researchers made the discovery on Aug. 15, 1993," "The seminar will be held Wednesday, May 10" and "He expects to complete his research in September."
• Times --  When specifying a time at the top of an hour, use only the numeral without the ":00" (8 p.m. instead of 8:00 p.m.).  Always specify "a.m." or "p.m." in lowercase letters with periods.  Use simply "noon" and "midnight" instead of "12 p.m.," "12 a.m.," "12 noon" or "12 midnight."  Do not use military time.
• States and cities -- According to the AP Stylebook, states should be spelled out when they stand alone in your text, but should be abbreviated when used in conjunction with a city or other municipality.  The Stylebook lists 42 states that have abbreviations (for example, Ariz., Md., N.C., etc.); eight states -- Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah -- are never abbreviated.  Do not use the two-letter postal abbreviations.  The Stylebook lists 30 major cities throughout the United States, such as New York and Atlanta, which are so commonly known that they are named without a state; most cities and towns, however, require the use of a state after the municipality name.  Note (for News Bureau purposes): If a city or town in Tennessee is mentioned in your story, do not include the state; it is understood that if the city named in the news release dateline (which, for ETSU news, is generally Johnson City, Kingsport or Bristol) is in Tennessee, each municipality named in the release is also in Tennessee unless otherwise specified (for example, Asheville, N.C., or Bristol, Va.).
• Names of ETSU buildings -- The "D.P. Culp University Center" should be completely written in full in the first reference; it may be called the "Culp Center" in the second reference.  Academic and administrative buildings should be called by the last name of the person(s) they are named for before "Hall," such as "Rogers-Stout Hall" or "Burleson Hall."  Exceptions to this rule occur when two buildings are named after people with the same last name -- "Burgin E. Dossett Hall" would be used to distinguish the administration building from the dormitory, "Nell Jennings Dossett Hall."  The University Physicians' Practice Group is located within the Palma L. Robinson Clinical Education Center.
• Acronyms -- Spell out the name of East Tennessee State University in the first reference; the acronym ETSU may be used (without periods) in the second reference.  Spell out the name of an organization, legislative act or other "term" in the first reference.  Acceptable acronyms may be used in the second reference.  For example, the Northeast Tennessee Area Health Education Center may be called NETAHEC in the second reference, the Americans with Disabilities Act may be called ADA, the Public Relations Student Society of America may be called PRSSA, and so on.
• Be careful in using the names of products that have become commonly used terms but are actually trademarked brand names, such as Styrofoam, Frigidaire, Vaseline, Kleenex, etc.  Instead, use such words or phrases as plastic foam, refrigerator, petroleum jelly, tissue paper, etc., unless you are specifically referring to the trademarked product.
• Numbers -- According to the AP Stylebook, you should "spell out first through ninth when they indicate sequence in time or location. . . . Starting with 10th use figures. . . . Spell out whole numbers below 10, use figures for 10 and above."