College Terms, Names and Formats

When describing the college, use any of the following:

• Bellevue College
• Bellevue
• The College (when used within a sentence the college is not capitalized).
• Bellevue College (formerly Bellevue Community College)

When referring to the previous college name, Bellevue Community College, provide a link to the information page provided at http://bellevuecollege.edu/about/college/collegename/.

When describing the college using the abbreviation, BC,:

Spell out Bellevue College first. Then, put BC in parentheses. Subsequent references to the college may then be referred to as BC. Never use the acronym BC on the cover or title page.

When describing a branch campus:

Use the full name on first reference, for example, Bellevue College North Campus. Subsequent references should be BC North Campus or BC Main Campus. Main campus and north campus are capitalized only when preceded by BC or Bellevue College and are lowercase when used in a general sense.

Examples:

• The class is held at BC North Campus
• The class is located on the main campus.
  

Other terms

• Late-start (class) is always hyphenated and is not capitalized unless it occurs at the beginning of a sentence or in a page title.
  
• Service learning is not hyphenated.
  
• Professional/technical program (use a slash and not a hyphen: not professional-technical)
  
• In Student Service Center, service is singular.  Don’t use Student Services Center.  Do use the plural, “services”, when talking about the Student Services Building or the organizational unit of the college, Student Services.  

 

Acronyms and Abbreviations of College Language

• As a general rule, acronyms and abbreviations should be avoided unless space is at an absolute premium.  There are only a few instances where this would be true on the web.  While we can easily understand the acronyms, our students do not.  Acronyms and abbreviations also cause difficulties in comprehension for individuals with disabilities and non-native English speakers. 

• Use lowercase when spelling student identification number (SID) and put the acronym in all caps in parentheses after the first reference. Use SID for subsequent references in the same page or section.
  
• Use lowercase when spelling personal identification number (PIN) and put the acronym in all caps in parentheses after the first reference. Use PIN for subsequent references in the same page or section.
  
• Use a period after Ed. when abbreviating the word education in Continuing Ed. and Distance Ed.  Although, you should avoid abbreviations and acronyms whenever possible. 
  

College Building Names & Room Locations

• Either R Building or Building R is acceptable, but do not put quotes around the letter --- not Building “R.”
  
• Rooms can be listed with just a letter and room number, as in room R130 (note that the word room is not capitalized and there is no hyphen between the letter and the room number).
  
• Carlson Theatre – The British English spelling is used when referring to the proper name, Carlson Theatre.   In all other cases, the American spelling of theater is preferred.  That’s an –er, not an –re!
  

Campus Telephone Numbers

• The correct format for all campus phone numbers is: (425) 564-1000, not 425-564-1000, 425/564-1000, or 425.564.1000.
  

URLs

• The college website URL is http://bellevuecollege.edu.
• When spelling the URL in a sentence, use the format www.bellevuecollege.edu (without the http:// prefix).