UCAR Communications Style Guide

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N

names—On first use, give first and last name; afterwards, use only the last name (Staff Notes style guide gives exceptions). For NCAR staff, use what's in the phone book unless the person requests otherwise.

In lists of names that are in all caps, it's preferable not to cap the "r" in "Jr." or the "c" in "McCarthy," e.g., unless it's necessary to do so for machine sorting. Last names consisting of two words (such as van Loon) can be spelled in all caps with no loss of readability.

See also "titles."

NASA—no longer spelled out in any context [to aid memory, that spellout is National Aeronautics and Space Administration]. Its centers are treated as follows: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Ames Research Center (no slash or hyphen). [08/01]

nautical mile—convert to standard mile (1.15) or km (1.85). See also "knots." [2/00]

Navy—capitalized; U.S. Navy

NCAR—Except in news releases, you never have to spell it out in NCAR pubs.

NCAR Graphics package—copyrighted in this form

negative exponents—Avoid where possible. See "numbers."

netCDF

the Netherlands

news releases—write dates as month, day, year (March 16, 1988, not 16 March). Preserve the last comma before "and" in a series; we do not follow AP style (see also "AP style"). [revised 2/00]

Nimbus—for the satellite, initial cap only; arabic numerals are used for flight numbers (Nimbus-6)

no.—abbreviation for "number." Cap only at beginning of sentence, etc.

nose boom—two words

NO_x—NO + NO₂ (very reactive species that dominate atmospheric chemistry). Scientists don't always use NO_x and NO_y consistently. Some call all oxides of nitrogen NO_x, for example. So it's best to ask. [revised 2/00—CR]

NO_y—total odd nitrogen (NO, NO₂, N₂O₅, N₂, N₂O, HNO₃, HNO₄, ClNO₃, and probably others.) See also NO_x. [revised 2/00—CR]

NSF acknowledgment—See "sponsorship statement."

number—abbreviated no. Also see Numbers section.

numbered lists—See "lists, numbered or lettered."

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