NAB Written Style

Specific Style Formatting by Category

a.m. (ante meridian), p.m. (post meridian)
Lowercase with periods.

App
Short for application, a program that runs inside another service. Smartphones allow applications to be downloaded to expand their functions. (App is acceptable on second reference.)

Ampersand (&)
Do not use unless part of an official title. Should never be used in place of “and.” except for some accepted abbreviations: B&B, R&B.

Association
Lowercase when it stands alone. Example: The association will meet at the spring convention.

Attribution
Follow AP style with the name, title/company, said or title/company, name said. Example: “We are encouraging every station in America to run these public service announcements,” NAB President and CEO Gordon H. Smith said.

Board of Directors, Board of Trustees
Always lowercase

Book titles
Use quotation marks.

Commas:
An essential clause must not be set off from the rest of a sentence by commas. A nonessential clause must be set off by commas. Example: Reporters who do not read the stylebooks should not criticize their editors. (The writer is saying that only one class of reporters, those who do not read the stylebook, should not criticize their editors. If the “who… stylebook” phrase were deleted, the meaning of the sentence would be changed substantially. It would then mean that all reporters should not criticize their editors.)

Use a comma if the subject of each clause in a sentence is expressly stated, but no comma when the subject of the two clauses is the same and not repeated in the second. Examples: We visited Washington, and we met with our senator. We visited Washington and met with our senator.

Do not use a comma between the last two items in a series unless needed for clarity.

Use a comma to introduce a complete one-sentence quotation within a paragraph. Example: Wallace said, “She spent six months in Europe and came back speaking French.”

Use a comma instead of a period at the end of a quote that is followed by an attribution. Example: “Don’t talk to strangers,” Mr. Black said.

Do not use a comma, however, if the quoted statement ends with a question mark or exclamation point. Example: “Why should I?” he asked. Also see AP Style.

Place a comma before and after the following when they appear in the middle of a sentence:

1. A year, if it follows a month and date. Example: I was born on November 6, 1958, in Madison, Wisconsin.
2. A state, if it follows a city or county name. Example: I was born in Madison, Wisconsin., on November 6, 1958.

Composition titles
Apply the guidelines listed here to book titles, computer game titles, movie titles, opera titles, play titles, poem titles, album and song titles, radio and television program titles, and the titles of lectures, speeches and works of art:

Capitalize all words in a title except articles (a, an, the); prepositions of three or fewer letters (for, of, on, up, etc.); and conjunctions of three or fewer letters (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet, etc.) unless any of those start or end the title.

Put quotation marks around the names of all such works except the Bible and books that are primarily catalogs of reference material. In addition to catalogs, this category includes almanacs, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gazetteers, handbooks and similar publications. Do not use quotation marks around such software titles as Excel or InDesign.

Italicize proper newspaper and magazine titles.

Capitalize “the” in a newspaper's name if that is the way the publication prefers to be known.

Translate a foreign title into English unless a work is known to the American public by its foreign name.

Examples: “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” “Gone With the Wind,” “Of Mice and Men,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Time After Time,” the NBC-TV “Today” program, the “CBS Evening News,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

Congress
Capitalize U.S. Congress and Congress when referring to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Although Congress sometimes is used as a substitute for the House, it is properly reserved for reference to both the Senate and House.

Lowercase “congressional” unless part of a proper name. Example: congressional salaries, the Congressional Quarterly, the Congressional Record..

Use lowercase members when saying members of Congress.

Use Congress’ for possessive form.

Lowercase plural uses. Example: the Virginia and North Carolina senates. Lowercase references to non-governmental bodies. Example: the student senate at Yale.

Congress, Members of
As the salutation in a letter, spell out Representative and Senator for titles of members of Congress. Example: Dear Senator Landrieu.

For abbreviations, use Rep., Reps., Sen. and Sens. as formal titles in regular text.

A member of Congress’ name should be followed by his or her state and congressional district, except when sending correspondence to the Hill. A senator’s name will be followed by only his or her state. Example: Rep. John Dingell (MI-15), Sen. Daniel Akaka (HI). For congressional citations, NAB prefers the postal abbreviations such as (VA-06).

Do not capitalize "member" when writing "member of Congress."

Court cases
Italicize. Use v., not vs. Example: NAB v. ATT

Dates
Always use numbers without st, nd, rd or th. Examples: January 30, 2007, is the date the report is due. Does January 6 work for lunch?

DMA
Local station designated market area. Also see entry for markets of local stations.

Email
Lowercase and no capital E unless at sentence start. No hyphen.

Hyphen
In general, use hyphens in combinations that modify something. Example: full-time job.

Examples: a very good time, an easily remembered rule. Prefixes that generally require hyphens include self-, all-, ex-, half-.”

Do not use hyphens when used as a noun. Example: The job is full time. Never hyphenate words with the adverb very or any adverbs that end in -ly.

Names/titles of individuals: Example: John Brown, vice president of Communications.”

But when a modifier that would be hyphenated before a noun occurs after a form of the verb to be the hyphen usually must be retained to avoid confusion. Example: The man is well-known. The woman is quick-witted. The play is second-rate. Also see AP Style.

Internet
Lowercase unless the word begins a sentence.

Markets of local stations
Always refer to a station as being in the major city located within its DMA, which is not always its mailing address. Example: WCVB-TV is in Boston, not Needham, Mass.

Mic
For microphone. Do not use mike.

NAB Events and Programs
NABPAC: NAB Political Action Committee (there is no space between “NAB” and “PAC”); NAB Show (for more information please consult the Show Style Guide); the Radio Show

Names/titles individuals
Capitalize titles when used immediately before one or more names. Example: NAB President and CEO Gordon H. Smith.

Do not capitalize formal titles when they are used immediately following a name or offset by commas. Example: John Brown, vice president of communications. Be consistent with the format used throughout the document.

Do not place a comma before Jr. or Sr. in a name; however, if a person prefers the use of the comma, then you may use it. The same applies to placing a comma before Inc. or Ltd. in a company name. Examples: John J. Henry Sr.; Cost Cutters Inc.

Use the word chair, not chairman, when referring to committee chairs, as it is gender-neutral. For the same reason, use representative, not congressman, when referring to members of Congress.

Next Generation TV
To be used when talking about the ATSC 3.0 standard technology. Next Gen TV acceptable on second reference. Example: Broadcasters are excited about unleashing the possibilities of Next Generation TV.

NEXTGEN TV
To be used when describing Next Generation TV-enabled consumer products. Example: Consumers should look for NEXTGEN TV sets that can deliver new services from broadcasters, including enhanced emergency information.

National Association of Broadcasters (NAB)
Write out on first reference with the abbreviation in parentheses. Use NAB on second and subsequent references. The same applies to the education foundation. When using “NAB” in a sentence, do not use “the” before it. Example: He works at NAB.

Numbers
Any number up to the value of 10 must be spelled out. Example: 10 little boys, five apples.

RANK: He was my No. 1 choice. (Note abbreviation for "Number"). Kentucky was ranked No. 3. The band had five Top 40 hits.

AGES: a 6-year-old girl; an 8-year-old law; the 7-year-old house. Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives before a noun or as substitutes for a noun. A 5-year-old boy, but the boy is 5 years old. The boy, 5, has a sister, 10. The race is for 3-year-olds. The woman is in her 30s. 30-something, but Thirty-something to start a sentence.

Percent
Use the % sign when paired with a numeral, with no space, in most cases. Examples: Average hourly pay rose 3.1% from a year ago; her mortgage rate is 4.75%; about 60% of Americans agreed; he won 56.2% of the vote. Use figures: 1%, 4 percentage points.

Phone numbers
Use figures. The form: 212-621-1500. For international numbers use 011 (from the United States), the country code, the city code and the telephone number: 011-44-20-7535-1515. Use hyphens, not periods.

If extension numbers are needed, use a comma to separate the main number from the extension: 212-621-1500, ext. 2.

The exception is in running copy, in which case use this format: (703) 683-4300.

Q-and-A
Use Q-and-A within the body of a story and not Q&A. Example: There will be a Q-and-A session with the audience after his remarks.

Quotation marks and punctuation
The period and the comma always go within the quotation marks.

Radio or television station call letters
If the TV station ends in TV, as in WXTV, do not repeat the TV. Example: WTOP-AM Washington, D.C. or KTLA-TV Los Angeles, California, but WXTV Omaha, Nebraska.

States
The names of the 50 U.S. states should be spelled out when used in the body of a story, whether standing alone or in conjunction with a city, town, village or military base. Use the two-letter Postal Service abbreviation to note the state after the name of a member of Congress: Rep. Howard Berman (CA-28). Use the Postal Service abbreviations with full addresses, including ZIP code.

When referring to Washington, D.C., in running copy, always place a period after D and C. Use lowercase in all “state of” constructions. Example: the state of Maine.

For a full listing of state abbreviations, refer to the abbreviations page.

Time

Use figures except for noon and midnight. Use a.m. and p.m. Use a colon to separate hours from minutes. If there are no minutes, use hour only. Example: 11 a.m. not 11:00 a.m. When referring to a time range, use a hyphen with no space before and after it. If in the same time frame, only use one a.m. or p.m. Example: The session lasts from 9-10 a.m.

URLs
Write out a website’s URL in lowercase letters, unless the URL forms more than one word. Also, lowercase URLs that are acronyms. Do not use “www.” Examples: WeAreBroadcasters.com; nabef.org

Web and website
In web and website, the “w” is lowercase. Website is written as one word.

When using the terms webcam, webcast, webfeed, webmaster and webpage, they are lowercase and one word. The terms web address, web browser, the web are lowercase and two words.

Web address
Web addresses and URLs should not be italicized in text.