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affect/effect—Affect as a verb means “to influence.” (How do you think that will affect us?) Effect as a verb means “to cause.” (The new budget effected many changes on campus.) As a noun, effect means “result.” (The effect of all these changes will become apparent.) Affect as a noun should be avoided (although it is often used in the field of psychology).
art, works of—Italicize titles of paintings, drawings, photographs, statues, and other works of art.
article titles—Put titles of articles in quotation marks.
assure/ensure/insure—Assure is a verb meaning “to convey a sense of reassurance” used in reference to a person; you can assure someone that something will be done, but you cannot assure that something will be done. In the latter, ensure, meaning “to guarantee,” would be the correct verb. Insure is a verb reserved for the insurance industry. I assured her that we would ensure that she was insured by our company policy.
book titles—Italicize titles of books.
co—Most co- prefix words are not hyphenated, unless when forming nouns, adjectives, or verbs that designate occupation or status. (cocurricular, coexist; but co-host, co-worker).
collective noun—A noun that appears singular in form but denotes a group of individuals or objects (faculty, staff, board, committee). The collective noun takes a singular verb when the group in question acts as one unit. (The committee is meeting to set its agenda.)
compare to/compare with—Compare to is used to liken two things or to note similarities. (Her writing style was compared to Zora Neale Hurston’s.) Compare with is used to note similarities and differences. (He arrived at the seminar at 3:45 p.m., which was early compared with those attendees who arrived at 4:10 p.m.)
comprise/compose/constitute—Comprise means to include all of, contain all of, or be made up of, whereas compose and constitute mean to make up. Remember this distinction: The whole comprises (is made up of/contains all of) the parts; The parts compose (make up) the whole. Sentences that use comprised of are incorrect. Comprise should be used as an active verb only: The CSU system comprises 23 campuses not The CSU system is comprised of 23 campuses.
fewer/less—Fewer refers to number; less refers to quantity. Fewer is used for individual things that can be counted. (We invited six fewer people this year.) Less is used when talking about quantities that are not counted individually. (I have less money than you.) Less also can be used for degree, quantity, or extent when countable items are not being considered individually. (We have less than 10 miles to go.)
login/log in, logon/log on, logoff/log off—One word if used as a noun or adjective, but two words in verb form. Note, log in, log off, log on are phrasal verbs; therefore when “to” is used after, the “to” stands along. (First, log in to myCSUDH with your campus login information)
-ly adverbs, hyphenating—Do not use a hyphen between adverbs ending in –ly and the adjectives they modify. Example: fully vested employee.
magazines—Italicize titles of magazines.
movies—Italicize titles of movies.
multi—Most multi- prefix words are not hyphenated: multicultural, multidisciplinary, multitask.
newspapers—Italicize titles of newspapers.
non—Most non- prefix words are not hyphenated, unless confusion in reading might result (non-native) or if used before a proper noun (non-English).
not only…but also—If you use not only, also use but also; a comma is not necessary between phrases. (She not only wrote the book but also drew the illustrations.)
plays—Italicize play titles.
podcasts—italicize titles of podcasts.
post- —Most post- prefix words are not hyphenated (postbaccalaureate); an exception is post-master’s degree.
pre- —Most pre- prefix words are not hyphenated.
publications—Italicize titles of books, magazines, newspapers.
radio shows—Italicize.
re- —Use a hyphen if the word that follows re starts with an e, such as re-elect, re-examine; or if it could be confused with another meaning, as in re-cover/recover; re-create/recreate.
television titles—Italicize the television show name; put the episode title in quotation marks.
-wide—Hyphenated suffix when the base word is three or more syllables (university-wide, but not campuswide, systemwide, statewide, worldwide.