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UCAR Communications Style Guide


Style Guide Home | Abbreviations & Acronyms | Bullets | Foreign Institutions | Hyphenation | Line Breaks | Numbers | State Abbreviations

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | JK | L | M | N | O | P | QR | S | T | U | V | W | XYZ      | download full PDF icon UCAR Comm Style Guide |http://www.ucar.edu/news/visuals.shtml

P

p., pp.—page, pages

page numbers—Four-digit page numbers have no comma: pg. 5769; five digits or more take a comma for legibility: pg. 11,275. [revised 2/00—CR]

paleoclimate (lower case)

PC—Do not spell out.

PC-McIDAS—PC version of Man-computer Interactive Data Access System.

PDFs—For online material, always make an effort, first, to avoid linking to a PDF. Instead, use advanced search to find a "site:.edu" or "site:.gov" link to a publicly understandable page. If you can't avoid it, then include "PDF" within the text of the link, as in this example: . . . as noted in a 2007 study by Christopher Landsea (NOAA, view a PDF of this paper). You may substitute the PDF icon for the text whenever appropriate or convenient, such as within a list. See, for example: Publications - NCAR & UCAR News Center.

percent—Use % closed up to the number: l8%.

periods—followed by two spaces at end of sentence in desktop manuscripts.

Pg—petagram, a common unit for discussing carbon flux. One Pg equals 1015 grams, or 1,000 trillion kilograms, or 1 trillion metric tons. one metric ton is about 2,205 pounds, or the weight of a small car. [4-00]

Ph.D.—with periods, no space between (Ph.D.-level scientist). Plural: Ph.D.s—no apostrophe (we no longer follow Chicago). [revised 2/00]

photo-electron—Use a hyphen.

photo-oxidation—Use a hyphen.

PIREPs (pilot reports)

pitot (tube)—do not capitalize.

Plexiglas—initial cap, one s; it's a registered trademark

plurals, generic—With generic plurals, Chicago says to use lowercase. For example: "...the departments of Defense and Homeland Security," or "...the Mississippi and Missouri rivers."

p.m.—lower case. See "time."

p-mode—hyphenate (solar acoustic oscillations, called pressure modes).

pockel cell—a laser word (not pocket cell)

Poisson—initial cap

policymaker, policymaking—We follow American Heritage Dictionary style; note inconsistency with decision making. [3/05]

preface—by the author. Foreword is by someone else.

prepositions—never capitalized in titles, regardless of length

press releases—See "news releases."

public service announcements (PSAs)—We do not follow AP style for commas in a series. Dates are written month first, with ordinals indicated (April 28th, not 28 April); time is written as it would be spoken (3 p.m., not 3:00 p.m.). Give pronunciation for difficult names in brackets: NCAR [EN-CAR]. Final copy should be printed in all caps (this is standard radio style). [revised 2/00]

pulse length—two words

pulse width—two words

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