College-Specific Sections

Specific Terms

• e-business
• generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)
• Lifetime Learning Credit
• married filing jointly
• married filing separately
• Porter's five forces
• W-2
• W-2 income

Note: This section includes recommendations for both Teachers College and the College of General Education.

Specific Terms

• at-risk (when used as an adjective before the term) (e.g., at-risk students; not at risk students)
• Bank Street
• bed wetter (but bed-wetting)
• behaviorist approach
• circle time
• consonant digraphs
• Creole: capitalize this word in projects in the EL domain
• day care
• Demonstration Teaching (DT)
• developmentally appropriate practice (DAP)
• early childhood education (adj. or noun, no hyphen)
• English learner (EL): This should be used instead of English language learner (ELL) or English as a second language (ESL) unless the subject matter requires otherwise.
• fine motor (adj.) (e.g., fine motor delays, fine motor impairment)
• functional behavioral assessment (FBA)
• Head Start
• High/Scope
• high-frequency words
• Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP)
• Individualized Education Program (IEP)
• KWL (not K-W-L, and not spelled out)
• Local Education Agency (LEA)
• Manifestation Determination Review (MDR)
• Montessori method
• P–12: primary through 12; this expression is inclusive and therefore should use an en dash, not a hyphen. Ensure the letters used in this expression are capitalized. There may be some instances where PK–12 will be the best term, but P–12 is generally preferable as it is the required language used in several states.
• parent-teacher association (when used generally); when referring to the national organization use Parent Teacher Association or PTA, spelling it out on first reference; PTSA is also used, parent-teacher-student association (both generally or as the national organization).
• parent-teacher conference
• Philosophy of Teaching Statement
• post-assessment
• preoperational
• pre-teaching
• read-aloud, read-alouds: written this way when it is used as a noun
• Reggio Emilia
• snack time
• story time
• stay-at-home parent
• social-emotional skills
• socioeconomic
• school-age child (not school-aged)
• teachers' unions
• think-pair-share activity (no commas or capitals)

 Terminology

• audio recording: preferred over audio tape; audio recording of a book is preferred over book on tape, etc. Avoid using terms like tape, CD, etc. that will date the content and limit the type of audio recording to a specific form.
• case manager: preferred over social worker (which should not be used)
• conduct disorder: without an article (i.e., not a conduct disorder).
• Tier 1 and Tier 2: preferable to first tier or second tier when referring to the RTI (response to intervention)
• modeling clay: preferred over Play-Doh or play dough
• scribbling: a technical term for the markings that are done when mimicking the action of writing.
• students with special needs: should be used instead of special needs students, which is inappropriate

General

• For anything written in IT code or pseudocode, use Courier New font.   
• Government documents should be cited as follows:
  • In-text: NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-37, Guide for Applying the Risk Management Framework to Federal Information Systems: A Security Life Cycle Approach, which . . .
  • Reference List: National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2010). Guide for applying the risk management framework to federal information systems: A security life cycle approach (SP 800-37). Retrieved from: <URL>
  • There is no period between the title of the source and the parentheses with the publication number information.
  • Shorter works should be styled as articles both in-text (title capitalization in quotation marks) and in the reference list (roman type, sentence style capitalization). Most NIST SPs should be italicized unless very brief.

Abbreviations

The following abbreviations are common in the IT industry and generally do not need to be spelled out unless first introducing the concept to students:

• AI (artificial intelligence)
• ARM architecture: ARM has multiple IT-related meanings, but in the context of ARM architecture, ARM should not be spelled out since it is no longer a valid acronym. Do not spell out ARM when referring to computer architecture.
• CSS (cascading style sheets)
• DNS (domain name system)
• FAT (file allocation table)
• FTP (file transfer protocol)
• HTML (hypertext markup language)
• HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol)
• I/O (input/output)
• IP (internet protocol)
• IT (information technology)
• MAC address (media access control)
• Mb/s or Mbps (megabits per second)
• NP: Do not spell out this term when used in a hyphenated compound (e.g., NP-hard, NP-complete, and NP-easy). When the term appears alone and unhyphenated, you may spell it out on the first instance (nondeterministic polynomial) if it seems appropriate to do so. It may be more helpful to students to include a description or definition of the term rather than the spelled-out term.
• OSI model (Open Systems Interconnection model)
• PKI (public key infrastructure)
• POP3 (post office protocol 3)
• QoS (quality of service)
• RADIUS
• RAM (random access memory)
• ROM (read-only memory)
• SMS (short message service)
• SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol)
• TCP/IP model
• URL (uniform resource locator)
• USB (universal serial bus)
• VPN (virtual private network)
• WWW (worldwide web)

Terminology

• 10Base-T (rather than 10BASE-T)
• Aloha
• byte: a byte is a sequence of 8 bits
• cybercrime, cyberlaw, cybersecurity, cyberwarfare (closed compounds)
• data cleaning: Use this term instead of data cleansing, which is associated with cultural insensitivity.
• direct-sequence spread spectrum
• DoS
• frequency-hopping spread spectrum
• GHz I band (e.g., 8 GHz)
• Gigabit Ethernet (GbE)
• hacker: an appropriate term for anyone accessing/manipulating IT programs without authorization or illegally. It does not need to be preceded by malicious.
• intrusion detection system (IDS)
• intrusion prevention system (IPS)
• IPsec
• layer: Capitalize if it is part of a title or part of code where capitalization is required. Otherwise, lowercase.  (e.g., network layer).
• Nmap
• post-event evaluation
• post-implementation (hyphenated)
• software as a service (SaaS)
• superuser
• SYN-ACK (all caps, with hyphen)
• Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act
• USA PATRIOT Act of 2006
• voice over Internet Protocol or voice over IP (VoIP)
• WebDAV (web-based distributed authoring and versioning)
• whitelist/blacklist: Generally avoid these terms since they can be construed as racially insensitive. Consult with the project team to identify appropriate substitutes. Possible replacements could be allowed list and block list. Note that whitelist or blacklist may be provided as synonyms in addition to these alternatives if students need to refer back to the original terms for clarity. 

Example:

See an approved list (sometimes called a whitelist)

Specific Terms

• adverse drug event (ADE)
• adverse drug reaction (ADR)
• client/patient: These terms are often used interchangeably in healthcare settings, and the SME or writer on a project may determine which term to use based on the context. Patient should be reserved for someone receiving direct healthcare in clinical settings, such as a hospital or skilled nursing facility. Client is generally referenced within nonclinical settings, such as outpatient physical and occupational therapy or substance abuse centers. Be consistent within each context, although a given individual could be considered a patient in one setting and a client in another. (For example, an individual receiving WIC vouchers is a client, yet this same individual who is on WIC is also receiving women's health treatment and services as a patient.)
• Drug names: The default is to use only generic names of drugs. The development team may decide, per course or project, to include the brand name for a particular drug for reasons such as for competency. In those cases, the brand name should be placed in parentheses after the generic name for each instance the drug is mentioned.

Example:

diphenhydramine (Benadryl)

• healthcare
• health improvement project
• Medication dosage instructions: Write using a numeral for the dose, a space before the abbreviation, and a spelled-out number for the frequency.

Examples:

5 mg four times per day
Aspirin 81 mg daily (not 81 mg one time per day).

• Other medical terms: For terms specific to the field that cannot be found in this guide, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (M-W.com), or Chicago, you may consult other sources. For example, some useful medical dictionaries include Dorland's, MedicineNet, and M-W medical dictionary. Please ensure you are using terms consistently throughout a project.
• type 1 diabetes/type 2 diabetes: Lowercase type and diabetes, and use a numeral between.