DRAFT Guidelines for FIU UNIS Implementions (University Networked Information Systems)

Format Guide:

a. All UNIS services must contain an identifying reference to Florida International University or FIU and in addition, UNIS web pages must include a button to the FIU Home Page (www.fiu.edu).

b. Contributor data must include the name of the individual and/or organization responsible for the information, the date of the creation or copyright (date proceded by a "c") and last update, as well as a valid locator, such as an e-mail address, telephone number and/or office address.

c. Each FIU document contributed or linked to FIU UNIS systems/services should have its mandatory contributor data displayed clearly, either at the end of the document or as a direct link to the data.

d. For HTML documents, an explicit button for an action is preferable, if appropriate in context. If a clickable word or phrase in a sentence is used, highlight that word or phrase by formatting. Do not depend solely on colors (underscoring in monochrome). The practice of embedding the clickable word "here" in text is discouraged strongly.

e. Stubs (links-to-be) to intended destinations which supposedly or actually are "under construction" should not be activated for use until enough content has been contributed to provide something useful for the University community. A mere announcement that construction is under way is not useful.

f. Every effort must be made to keep UNIS information current. Information that is dynamic (changing once a day or sooner) needs to be labeled as such. University departments, centers, institutes and affiliated organizations must review their WWW information at least once a semester and update or remove information that is no longer relevant. Failure to do so will result in a warning and if no action is taken in 30 days, links to the outdated or inaccurate information will be broken.

g. Images should be designed to be under 25K where possible. As a general rule, images should be in GIF format since not all browsers support JPEG.

h. The University logo and other official art work is available in computer graphic files and will be made available by University Computer Services. Contact the webmaster@fiu.edu for more details. Photos and some computer graphic files of University buildings, grounds and personnel are available from the Publications Department, 348-2235.

i. Photographs, complex graphics, video clips, audio clips and other elements which require time-consuming loads should not be compulsory parts of a document. Rather, these should be user-selected options, e.g. "Click on this button for a message from the President".

j. Simplicity, clarity, usability, and performance should be explicit design objectives. As much as possible, contributions and participation should be by links to the Web site of the contributor, not embedded in a higher-level Web site. Such forced higher-level embedding not only complicates and slows the service to the user but also tends to confuse the issue of identification of responsibility and authority. For example, pages within a department hierarchy should link back to the department's homepage, rather than all the way to the University homepage.

k. Official information on the University as a whole should not be duplicated on departmental or unit pages. The preferred practice is to link to the relevant University pages for this information. Addresses for these links can be obtained from University Computer Services by contacting the webmaster@fiu.edu.

l. All the usual laws and standards associated with intellectual property, copyright, citation, plagiarism, etc. that apply to hard copy publications apply to WWW documents and other UNIS documents. If an existing document is appealing, the preferred practice is to link to it. To copy and/or alter an existing document, prior permission must be secured from document owner(s). Evidence of such permission should be retained by the receiver.

m. Departments, units and individuals need to post a disclaimer (for example, of warranty) for material (for example, shareware) which others might use with unintended or unexpected results.

Names

• Florida International University remains the official and legal name of the University.
• Our nickname, FIU , is also but in a first reference use the full name: Florida International University (FIU). Do not use periods in FIU.
• The University's schools should always be referred to by their full names in a first reference.

Capitalization

• Capitalize both the name and the word "department" or "office," but not the preceding "the": the Psychology Department, the Counseling Center, the Medieval Studies Program, the Undergraduate Studies Office

  When referring subsequently to "the department" or "the school," do not capitalize. Note, however, that "University" is always capitalized when referring to FIU but is not when referring to universities in general.

• Capitalize department names and the official names of courses, but not the names of disciplines or fields (except languages or names of countries and ethnic groups, which are capitalized anyway): You can earn a degree in history in the History Department.
• Major annual events of the University are capitalized, as are specially named events and activities. Names of specific academic terms and names of graduating or alumni classes are also capitalized: Commencement, Convocation, Class of '84, but freshman class.
• Bachelor's and master's degrees are lowercased and expressed as the full name followed by "degree," or in a shortened version with an apostrophe and "s": a bachelor of science degree, a bachelor's degree. Ph.D. or Ed.D. degrees may be referred to as "doctorates" or "doctoral degrees."
• Professional titles are not capitalized unless they precede the person's name: Provost Mary Ann Swain; William Isbell, department chair and associate professor of anthropology.
• In subsequent references, use only last names, which may be preceded by a short title: Professor Little, Dean Biemer, President Maidique.

Punctuation

• In a list or series with commas, use a comma before the conjunctions "and" and "or."
• Use semicolons in a series only if one of the elements contains its own commas or other punctuation.
• For abbreviations composed of initial letters don't use periods: NYS, BA, MA, MFA, PhD, NCAA, USA.
• Periods and commas always appear inside quotation marks.
• Omit hyphens after most prefixes, unless they precede a capitalized word or end with the same letter that begins the next word: nonmatriculated, but non-University and non-negotiable.
• Always hyphenate with the prefix "self-."
• Hyphenate compound adjectives when they come before the noun: on-campus residence halls. Do not hyphenate adverb-adjective constructions before the noun: lightly seasoned tacos.

Usage

• Avoid using the abbreviation "prof." for professor.
• On first reference, alumni should always be identified with the class year(s) after the name. For undergraduate degrees, list the year only; if the person earned a graduate degree at FIU, use commas to set off its abbreviation and year.
• Following common usage around the University, "faculty" and "staff" may be singular or plural. Each of these examples is correct:
  • Three faculty members team-taught the course.
  • Three faculty team-taught the course.
  • Our faculty enjoys interdisciplinary teaching.

Numerals

• In prose, spell out numbers from one through ten; use numerals for 11 and up. You may also spell out "twenty," "thirty," "forty," etc.
• Never begin a sentence with a numeral; either spell out the number or rewrite the sentence so the number is not the first element.
• Use commas in numbers over 999.

Campus addresses

• The University's address must include a post office box number and a nine-digit zip code. If you must also include your office's building and room number, abbreviate it in parentheses immediately after your office's name:

        University Publications (PC-515)
        Florida International University
        University Park
        Miami, FL  33199

Nondiscriminatory Language

• Avoid gender-specific language-most commonly, the use of a male pronoun ("he," "him," "his") in reference to such general terms as "the student," "the applicant," or "the professor." One approach is to make everything plural, so that plural pronouns can correctly be used. In the few cases when singular forms must be used, indicate both male and female pronouns (in either order) and separate them with "or" rather than a slash.
• When writing about an ethnic or racial group, use the term widely preferred by members of the group.

Last updated/reviewed: 12/07/2000