Courses: Abbreviated title guidelines

September 2021

To foster a consistent look and feel to abbreviated titles where they are visible, the Office of the Registrar recommends implementing the following guidelines when creating (new courses) or updating course abbreviated titles (when title changes).

The main goals are to make sure the course's abbreviated title makes sense, doesn’t have a completely different meaning from the long title, and takes the subject matter into consideration. Use the following guidelines, in the order presented, to assist in abbreviating titles:

1. No need to shorten/abbreviate long titles that are under 30 characters in length, though some can be if desired to increase consistency across courses.
   • Exception: Always abbreviate certain words to reduce inconsistency on a student’s record:
     • And -> &
     • Introduction/Introductory -> Intro (and don’t include “to” after Intro)
     • Laboratory -> Lab
2. Always use spaces between words.
3. Punctuation:
   • Do not use periods when abbreviating words, to save character space, including locations and people (e.g., US instead of U.S.).
   • Do not end an abbreviated title with punctuation (e.g., colon, hyphen, etc.).
   • Colons are preferred over hyphens (e.g., “Topics:” instead of “Topics-”).
   • For titles with three key themes:
     • Unlike long titles, don’t use serial commas: Use one comma and an “&”, or just three commas.
       • E.g., Islam, Women & Modern World
       • E.g., Power, Agency, Community (there is no “and” in the long title)
     • Also acceptable to use “/” without spaces, instead of “&”, if it can be shortened while following other guidelines and space is a premium.
       • E.g., Chem Reac/Equilibria/Kinetics
4. Never abbreviate certain words, due to cultural sensitivities. Use the Equity Office as a resource if unsure.
   • People groups (e.g., Aboriginal, Indigenous).
   • Topics that could be seen to be being trivialized by the practice of shorting (e.g., Holocaust, genocide, colonialization, etc.).
5. Special topics courses (and similar type courses):
   • If there is a theme to the topic course, format it as “Topics: Name of topic”.
     • E.g., Topics: Islam & Arab Cultures.
   • If there is no theme, don’t repeat the course’s subject, and format it as “Special Topics” only.
     • E.g., “Special Topics” instead of “Special Topics in Aviation” (AVIA courses).
6. Be consistent within course series (i.e., A/B, part 1/part 2, courses with matching labs).
   • Don’t work on abbreviated titles in silos – search Kuali Curriculum Management database for examples.
7. For titles that are particularly long:
   • Remove excess words, while ensuring clarity, readability, and a full thought:
     • Prepositions: To, in, with.
       • For date ranges, use “-” instead of “to”, with no spaces on either side.
     • Articles: The, a, an.
     • Words referring to the subject being taught since the title is accompanied by a subject code.
       • E.g., ACTSC3XX: “Readings 1” instead of “Readings in ACTSC 1”
       • E.g., ECE2XX: “Advanced Calculus 1” instead of “Adv Calculus (Elec.&Comp.Eng.)”
     • Words that aren’t necessary to get the sense of the course.
       • E.g., “Topics: Solid-State Materials” instead of “Special Topics in ….”
   • Consider if qualifiers/descriptors can be moved or rearranged, and abbreviate where possible and before other keywords in the title:
     • Some qualifiers/descriptors and their abbreviations:
       • Enriched -> Enrich
       • Advanced -> Adv
       • Intermediate -> Intmd
       • Non-Specialist -> Non-Spec
       • Placement of qualifiers/descriptions:
         • At the end, in parentheses, if it is about an audience. Examples:
           • “Intro Financial Math (Non-Spec)” instead of “Intro Fin Math (Non-Specialist)”
           • "Linear Algebra 2 (Adv)"
           • "Advanced Calculus 1 (ECE)"
         • At the beginning, no parentheses, if it is about the course material. Examples:
           • "Advanced Calculus 2" (fits, no need to shorten)
           • "Adv Research Apprenticeship"
     • When course audience is a specific major:
       • If course subject isn’t related, list/abbreviate in parentheses at the end.
         • E.g., “Calculus 1 (Science)” for a MATH course.
       • If course subject is related, don't need to list it.
         • E.g., Not “Comm SYDE Written & Oral” for a SYDE course.
     • Abbreviate course component references.
       • Seminar -> Sem
       • Project -> Prj
     • Rearrange the order to shorten the thought.
       • E.g., “Children’s Literature Studies” instead of “Studies in Children’s Lit”
8. If all of the above have been applied and words still need to be abbreviated:
   • Shorten longer words to their shorter form, if applicable. For example:
     • Engagement -> Engage
     • Implementation -> Implement
     • Measurement -> Measure
   • Consider if changing from plural to singular makes sense.
   • Avoid making it look like a typographical error (i.e., do not remove only 1 letter from a word).
   • Use standard abbreviations before abbreviating words not as commonly abbreviated. Search the Oxford English Dictionary for reference and the following conventions. Note: The following list can’t include every possibility, but should provide a starting point. The list can be added to if there is more than one way to abbreviate a word or if a unit is still unable to shorten a title to the required 30 character limit.