7. Spellings and Word Choices

7.1 Preferred spellings at Durham Tech

Although the following words may be spelled or hyphenated in more than one way, the list below provides Durham Tech’s preferred forms, chosen to maintain consistency in materials, publications, etc.:

Admissions (when referring to the college’s department)
admission (when referring to anything other than the college’s department)
advising (not advisement);
advisor (not adviser);
a lot (not alot);
alumni (not alumnuses);
appendixes (preferred to appendices);
associate's degree (or bachelor's degree)
bilingual (not bi-lingual);
cannot (not can not);
catalog (not catalogue);
child care (not childcare);
classroom (not class room);
class work (not classwork);
coeducational, coed (not co-educational);
cooperative (not co-operative but use Co-Op or co-op when abbreviating);
coordinator (not co-ordinator);
corequisite (not co-requisite);
co-sponsor (not cosponsor);
counselor (not counsellor);
course work (not coursework);
curricula (not curriculums);
data (not datums);      
database (not data base);
day care (not daycare and not day-care);
daytime (not day time);
decision making (not decisionmaking and not decision-making);
dropout (not drop out);
email (not e-mail or Email);
ensure (preferred to insure accept when the reference is insurance-related);
extracurricular (not extra-curricular);
fieldwork (not field work);
first-come, first-served (not first come, first served);
fliers (not flyers);
fund raiser (not fundraiser and not fund-raiser)
fund raising (not fundraising and not fund-raising, except when used  as an adjective that precedes the noun it modifies);
grant writing (not grant-writing, except when used as an adjective that precedes the noun it modifies);
health care (not healthcare);
internet (or the Internet);
intercultural (not inter-cultural);
international (not inter-national);
lifelong (not life-long);
microcomputer (not micro-computer);
Mini-Session (not mini-session and not minisession and not Minisession);
multicultural (not multi-cultural)
Multi-Purpose Room (not Multipurpose Room and not Multi-purpose room)
noncredit (not non-credit);
nonprofit (not non-profit);
online (not on line and not on-line);
paraprofessional (not para-professional);
postsecondary (not post-secondary);
preregistration (not pre-registration);
prerequisite (not pre-requisite);
preschool (not pre-school);
recordkeeping (not record keeping and not record-keeping);
résumé (not resume—note, to create the accented é in Word 2007, type CTRL+’, e)
statewide (not state-wide);
television (not TV);
textbooks (not text books);
timeline (not time line and not time-line);
web (or the Web)
website (not web site);
workforce (not work force); and
work-study (when referring to the federal financial aid program).

7.2 Preferred word choices

Of many choices, the following words are preferred at Durham Tech:

college (not school);
course (not class, except when referring to the group of people in a course or the actual class section
meeting); and
faculty member or instructor (not teacher or professor).

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