Specific Terms & Exceptions

The following set of terms and exceptions are in alphabetical order.

A

Ad Interim (roman, and capitalized when used in a formal title preceding a name)
Advanced Placement
advisor (preferred spelling)
African American, Native American (no hyphen)
am, pm (lowercase, no periods)
Amazon.com
antiracism, antiracist
antisemitism
artist-in-residence

B

baby boom, baby boomer
Barnes & Noble (use &)
Barristers Hall (no apostrophe)
BC, as in “before Christ” (full caps, no periods)
Bible (capitalize), biblical studies (lowercase)
Black (adj.)
Blackboard (the app)
blogpost
Board of Trustees (of BU)
Boston Center for the Arts Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
Boston University Theatre

C

CARB-X (The proper name of the program is Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator, but the word mark and frequently used name is CARB-X.)
childcare
Choose to Be Great
Commencement
coursework
crowdfund, crowdsource

D

daycare
deaf (lowercase, when referring to physical condition)/Deaf (capitalized, when referring to community, culture, or area of academic inquiry)
decisionmaker, but decision-making
department chair (not chairman or chairwoman)
developing world is not a favored term, third-world country even less so. Instead, write low-income or low-resource countries
do’s and don’ts
dual degree program (no hyphen)

E

editor in chief (no hyphens)
email

F

farmers market (no apostrophe)
fellow (Guggenheim fellow, MacArthur fellow, Fulbright scholar, etc.)
fieldwork
firsthand
fundraising (one word)

G

Gen X, Gen Xer
grade point average (no hyphen)
Greater Boston

H

hands-on
head coach, assistant head coach (as in, men’s ice hockey head coach, women’s lacrosse assistant head coach)
healthcare (one word, no hyphen)
high school transcript (no hyphen)
homemaker
homepage

I

ID card (no periods)
Indigenous Peoples’ Day
internet
in vitro, in vivo (not italic)

L

late payment fee (no hyphen)
Law tower
LGBT+
login, login name (n.)
log in (v.)

M

MasterCard, Visa
master class (two words)
Matriculation
millennial
Move-In Weekend
multicultural, multidisciplinary (no hyphen)
MyBU Student Portal (formerly Student Link)

N

New Testament (caps), scripture (lowercase)
nonmember (no hyphen)
nonprofit (no hyphen)

O

Obamacare
online

P

Parents Weekend (no apostrophe)
Patriots Day (no apostrophe)
pregame, postgame (no hyphen)
policymaker, policymaking
postdoctoral
post-master’s degree
President Emeritus, Professor Emerita, Professors Emeriti, Professors Emeritae
Presidents Day (no apostrophe)
public schools (lowercase)

Q

Qur’an

R

résumé
Reserve Officer Training Corps

S

sitemap
slideshow (one word)
smartphone
Social Security number
start-up (n.)
State House
study abroad (the act of going abroad for study)
Study Abroad (when referring to proper name of BU program)
StuVi-1, StuVi-2

T

Terrier Card
The Castle
theater (generic)
tool kit
touchscreen
trustees emeriti
T-shirt

U

Umoja
underway (one word)
US (no periods)
user name

V

v. (for names of legal cases, written as v. and italicized)
vs (abbreviation of versus; no period necessary)
Veterans Affairs (VA) (no apostrophe)
Veterans Day (no apostrophe)
voice mail

W

web (lowercase: the web, web address, web page, etc.)
website (one word)
Wi-Fi
Wired.com
Work-Study (Federal Work-Study Program)
workweek
World Wide Web

X

x-ray

Z

zip code