3. Use commas in dates. Dates must be accompanied by a year in every article. Departmental items are the exception.

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1 The official stylebook of Communiqué is the Chicago Manual of Style. Please reference it for any grammar, punctuation, or usage question that you may have that is not covered in this manual. To preserve the editorial style of Communiqué throughout editorial terms and staff changes; please reference this manual while making edits to ensure each article maintains one consistent format and voice throughout the magazine. A. Grammar and punctuation 1. Commas are used to set off items in a series; including the last item in the set of the series. Note: This rule has been passed by the committee and is different than the rule stated in Chicago Manual. Ex: Coffee, tea, or milk. Bread, wine, and cheese. 2. Use special care when using commas in a law firm name; some firms do not use commas, such as Lionel Sawyer & Collins. Great resources to cite law firms correctly is to check out the firm Web site or its listing in the Nevada Legal Directory 3. Use commas in dates. Dates must be accompanied by a year in every article. Departmental items are the exception. Ex: January 16, 2009 On January 16, 2009 the committee held a meeting NOT On January 16, 2009, the committee held a meeting 4. Use commas to set off a parenthetical thought or before a conjunction introducing an independent clause. Ex: The senator, who was born in Nevada, was elected to office four times. I have reviewed your settlement terms, but I am unconvinced of your sincerity. 5. Use a semi-colon to separate two independent clauses. 6. Use a colon to introduce a list, amplification or a quote. Ex: At CCBA we have several committees: publications, CLE, trial-bypeers, community service, membership services, and new lawyers.

2 7. Use a long dash ( ) not (-) or (--) to set off an abrupt break or interruption or to announce a long summary. This is known as the m dash. Ex: The Publications Committee meets once a month sometimes twice a month if the need arises. 8. Use a medium dash (-) to connect continuing or inclusive numbers, dates, or other thoughts. This is known as the en dash. Ex: :30-8:30 a.m. 9. Ellipses have spaces between the periods, and between the ellipses and the words, unless the ellipses end the sentence. When ellipses end the sentence there are four periods. Ex: Editing can be time consuming... you can count on that.... B. Technology references World Wide Web is a proper noun and is always capitalized, even when shortened to Web. Web site is the official Communiqué usage. Internet is a proper noun and is capitalized. is hyphenated and appears with a lower case e. Exception is the department section, Member Watch. C. Commonly misused words Among, Between Use among when more than two persons or things are involved. Use between when only two persons or things are involved. Effect, Affect As a noun, effect means a result: special effects; the effect of global warming. Also may be used as a verb to mean to bring about or to accomplish. Affect is only a verb meaning to influence. And/or Using and/or promotes confusion. Rewrite the sentence and clarify the thought. Farther, Further Farther is a distance word: he ran farther than me. Further is a time or quantity word: further research is necessary.

3 Its, It s Its is a possessive pronoun: The organization had its annual mixer. It s is a contraction of it is: It s a movie about controversial court cases. Percent Is always spelled out. That, Which That is a defining or restrictive pronoun which specifies an item for example: the coat that my mother bought me is in the closet. Which is non-defining and nonrestrictive and merely adds facts about an item: my coat, which my mother bought me, is in the closet. etc., i.e., e.g. Use sparingly. Must be relevant to the instance in which it is being used in the article. Composition, formatting, and sentence construction Forget legalese! Nobody ever uses heretofore, hereby, herein, or thereunder, when speaking so don t use it in your writing. Editors will remove these instances from article submissions. A. Formatting 1. One space between sentences. 2. Keep sentences short and avoid run-on sentences. About 15 words or less is appropriate. 3. Subheadings are required in articles and appear in sentence case. Subheadings that are not acceptable include: Introduction, Biography, In Conclusion. 4. Articles are to end with a short bio that should be no more than five sentences. Acceptable information in a bio can include: Name, title, law firm/organization, year with firm/organization, areas of practice, law school and related dates, and firm/personal Web site address, a personal or professional accolade (i.e. mother of two, CCBA executive board member.) B. Voice 1. Use active voice, not passive, in your writing. C. Person First person article submissions will not appear in Communiqué. Editors and authors are responsible for ensuring articles read in the third person and are not self serving to the author or their related organization/firm.

4 Features and columns are the exception. Submissions that are written in first-person for creative effect will be reviewed by the editor-in-chief, who will give the final decision. D. Tense Articles should be written in the present tense and not future tense. Ex: The focus of this article will be... The focus of this article is... E. Contractions Communiqué will not use contractions in its features or articles (isn t, aren t, can t, shouldn t). Exceptions are to direct quotes and columns. F. Capitalization Generally proper nouns should be capitalized. o For Courts: In first references the official name of a court should be spelled out completely and capitalized. Second references, will then allow for lowercase citations. The Eighth Judicial District Court will be closed today due to a power outage. The court made the announcement earlier today to the media and on its Web site. o For States: State names are capitalized but the word state is not. In the state of Nevada, not State of Nevada Exception is if this is a title or name of an official office of building. o For Titles First reference capitalized, second reference lowercased. The President of the Clark County Bar is the Hon. Frank Sullivan. As president his first order of business is to meet the rest of the executive board. John Smith is a Partner at Smith & Smith. He became a partner with the firm in 2008.

5 G. Wordiness Trim unnecessary words! Due to the fact As to whether Pertaining to/ regarding In order to The truth is... The fact of the matter is... because whether about to Just state the truth or fact! Prior to before H. Numbers, Years, and Dollars o Spell out one through ten, use numerals for 11 and higher. o Never spell out a number and then repeat it with a numeral. o Never start a sentence with a number of year; rewrite the sentence. o Always put a comma in a number greater than 1,000, unless it s a year. o Decades are written without an apostrophe. o Use numerals for dollar amounts less than $1 million. o Round off dollar figures. Never include cents, unless it is exact dollar figure pertinent to the story. o For numerals, Communiqué does not do subscripts and will default to the numeral rule at all times. Ex: The sixth annual holiday party. The 11th amendment states... I. Abbreviations o Citations relevant to degrees should be abbreviated with the periods. Unless a degree or certification abbreviation is not common, it will be spelled out completely. J. Hyphenating o As a general rule: Words that might otherwise be misread should be hyphenated. Where no ambiguity could result, hyphenation is not mandatory. It is quite acceptable to leave out hyphens. From the 15th edition of The Chicago Manual Style K. Legal Citations

6 Communiqué uses the The Bluebook law review style for citations. All citations need to be in the body of the text, as footnotes are not allowed. Id s are also not to be used in the body of the text.