Style Guide

SEIU style is based on Associated Press style. Here are the most commonly used rules.

Addresses

Abbreviate Street as St., Avenue as Ave., and Boulevard as Blvd. only when used as a full address:
The Salinas office is at 334 Monterey St.
The Salinas office is on Monterey Street.
Do not abbreviate Road, Court, Lane, Way, Highway or any other synonym for street.
Don’t put the name of the state after a city unless it could really be some other state than California. If it is necessary to specify that something is happening in California, the abbreviation is Calif., not CA.

Capitalization

Capitalize proper nouns, which means names. Do not capitalize common nouns that refer to a proper noun:
Correct: Kern County, the City of San Jose, Service Employees International Union
Not: the County, the City, the Union

Capitalizing job titles

We diverge from normal style on our internal communications. Our members’ job titles are capitalized.
When working on external communications, such as a press release, follow these guidelines. Also, when writing about someone who is not a member (such as a manager or elected official), follow these guidelines:
Capitalize titles only before a name, not after a name or alone:
Correct:
Eligibility Worker Maria Jones
Administrative Officer Scott Smith
Maria Jones, an eligibility worker
Not correct:
the County’s Administrative Officer told us no
Maria Jones, Eligibility Worker

Dates

Spell out days of the week. If they must be abbreviated for space, use Sun., Mon., Tues., Wed., Thurs., Fri., Sat.
Abbreviate months only when used with full dates: Feb. 28, but not “Meetings in Feb.”
Abbreviations: Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.
Do not abbreviate March, April, May, June, July
Don’t put the year after a date when you’re talking about an upcoming event, unless someone seeing it today would assume it’s next year. Or it is next year.
Microsoft Word likes to convert dates to ordinals (e.g. 1st, 5th, 28th). Don’t let it. We use cardinals (e.g. July 1, June 28).

Percent

Don’t use the % sign. Exceptions: graphics where there isn’t room for the word “percent” and text messages where you don’t have room. In written material such as fliers, never use %. Notable exception: In referring to “the 99%” and “the 1%,” the % is used. However, this refers only to the income stratifications in society, not to 1 percent of anything else.