3ASA-Specific Usages and Conventions_
The ASA Council and the Executive Office as well as committees, sections, and other entities have adopted conventions and guidelines for preferred word usages and style to be used for Association records, documents, and publications. Increasingly, ASA documents (e.g., the ASA Code of Ethics, Council minutes, task force and other reports, communications and public affairs releases, newsletters, research reports, programmatic records) are being widely disseminated, especially through the ASA Web site (http://www.asanet.org). The guidelines presented in this section include some of the more common ASA-specific conventions that have been adopted over the years.
3.1 Hyphenation
Hyphenate the following words when referring to officers of the ASA and when used as a title:
• Secretary-Elect
• Vice President-Elect, but Vice President
• Past-President
• President-Elect
3.2 Capitalization
Capitalize the following:
• Sociology only if it is part of a proper name or is used in a special context (e.g., within a title that is set in upper/ lower title case)
• Section when speaking of a specific ASA section. Do not capitalize section when speaking of a section or sections in general: Of the 42 ASA sections, the Section on Emotions...
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ASA Annual Meeting, but in the aggregate ASA annual meetings
Annual Business Meeting NOAH, e-NOAH
ASA Bylaws, ASA Constitution (or references to these)
Council (when referring to ASA Council)
Titles of officers of the Association or official positions (the Vice President of ASA, Council Liaison)
Title of other organization designations such as membership categories. For example, capitalize the Emeritus Membership Category only when referring to it specifically in this form (as a proper noun); do not capitalize it in the following: Membership in the emeritus category increased slightly.
Words designating a title such as chain editor, editor designee, and legal counsel are capitalized only when the title immediately precedes a personal name and is used as part of the name {Chair Patricia Roos).
Names of ASA offices and committees (Committee on Nominations, Chair of the Membership Committee)
Names of subcommittees, committees, reports, and programs. Note that later references to a specifically named entity would also be capitalized:
Council also appointed a Subcommittee on ASA Policymaking and Resolutions, chaired by Patricia Roos. ... In January 2000, Council asked the Subcommittee to continue its work for another year.
Do not capitalize the following:
• publications program (and other general references to procedures, policies, or programs)
• congressional, administration (CMOS 2003:334)
• annual meeting when referring to a non-ASA event
• section when referring to sections in general
• revised Code of Ethics
33 Italics
Italicize titles as follows:
• Section Manual
• Organizers Manual
• Annual Meeting Program Do not italicize the following:
• Rose Series in Sociology
• Issues Series in Social Research and Social Policy 3.4 Preferred Word Usages
• Use Annual Meeting when referring to ASAs major meeting held every summer (convention is not acceptable).
• Use official names of committees (e.g., Committee on Publications is correct; Publications Committee or any other variant of the official name is not acceptable).
• Do not use LISTSERVwh.cn referring to just any electronic mailing list. LISTSERVis a proprietary term and should be used only when referring to the trademarked name. (See Section 5.1.)
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3.5 Some ASA Style Guidelines
Titles: Do not abbreviate academic rank or title (the exception is Dr.).
Right: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, Vice President, President-Elect
Wrong: Asst. Prof, Assoc Prof, Prof, VP, Pres. Elect
In addition, do not refer to a person's title in an article unless there is some content-specific reason for doing so (e.g., a direct quotation). Use only a person's full name or, in later references, their last name only.
Institutions: Do not abbreviate names of institutions; spell out the complete institutional name. When specifying a campus for a university, use a hyphen (Section 2.1.3).
Right: University of California-Los Angeles, Rand Corporation, Louisiana State University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Section 2.1.3)
Wrong: UCLA (usually), University of California, Los Angeles, Rand Corp., LA St. U.
Addresses: For addresses in Washington, DC, there should be no comma between street and quadrant {NW, SW, SE, NE) and no periods in referencing quadrants or in DC.
Right: 1307 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005
Wrong: 1307 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005
Telephone numbers: Separate the telephone number from the address by a semicolon. Telephone numbers should always follow the style shown below, with no slash or hyphen between area code and number but always with a space between the closing area code parenthesis and the number.
Right: (202) 383-9005
Wrong: 202/383-9005 or 202-383-9005
State Abbreviations: Abbreviate states to the U.S. Postal Service two-letter abbreviations.
Right: Miami, FL; Tupelo, MS; Denver, CO Wrong: Miami, Fla.; Tupelo, Miss.; Denver, Colo.
Numbers: When numbering a series of items within a paragraph or article, use the form (1), not 1. or 1).
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