SigEp Journal Guidelines

Do's and Dont's
Journal Facts
Key Style Guidelines
Writing Articles
Submitting Photos

Key Style Guidelines

We will follow AP Style with a few exceptions. Please consider purchasing the book or access to the online version. You can get it at www.apstylebook.com/ for $13.75 and even cheaper at Amazon.com. An online, interactive version is also available for $25 per year.

References:
First reference is always name, school and graduating year in the following format: John R. Smith, Virginia ’98. Leave out the words “college” or “university”. There are some odd references that don’t follow this approach. These references will always be double checked.

If your first reference appears within a sentence, put a comma after the graduating year: “When John R. Smith, Virginia’ 98, came to speak at the chapter house….”

If your article is predominantly about one chapter, you can use a reference without the school, such as John Smith, ’98. But when other schools are referenced within the story, use the full reference for clarity. Be obsessive about spelling names correctly. If the name is common, ask for the middle initial. We have 25 Jeff Johnsons in the Fraternity.

The word Brother is capitalized when referring to a member as a second reference, always using the last name: Brother Smith. You can use “Brother” once or twice. For the most part, use the last name only. Otherwise, the word brother is not capitalized.

Appropriate references for the fraternity are Sigma Phi Epsilon or SigEp (no space!).

Use the term “Sound Mind and Sound Body” in full.

Headquarters is capitalized. The word national, when referring to Headquarters or the national Fraternity is not capitalized.

Fraternity is capitalized when referring directly to SigEp, but not when referring to other fraternities or all fraternities.