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Hornet Weekly Style Guide

Welcome to the Hornet Weekly Style Guide

The Hornet Weekly Style Guide is intended for submitters and editors (Division Coordinators).

Introduction

This Style Guide should be followed when submitting items to and editing Hornet Weekly.

  • Many of these style guidelines are outlined in Sac State style, CSU style or AP Style, but some differ, so this should be treated as a guide specific to Hornet Weekly.
  • For any and all other style questions, please refer to the Sac State Style Guide and/or the CSU Style Guide.

Voice for Student Audience

  • Most items should use a casual, fun, conversational voice for a student audience.
  • However, for top-level, policy-based or formal items, use a professional voice and serious tone.

Character Counts

Character counts are strictly limited to ensure submissions meet formatting and length requirements.

  • Titles: Titles on the SharePoint and Trumba submission forms are limited to 72 characters including spaces.
  • SharePoint (Body): News and Announcements, Know Your Resources, and Grad Corner (non-Event) items are limited to 500 characters including spaces.
  • Trumba (Short Description): Events and Grad Corner Events are limited to 350 characters including spaces. A link to the full event listing is included automatically.

Headlines (Titles)

  • Headlines (titles) will be automatically formatted as bold (they will show as non-bold, but will be bold in Hornet Weekly).
  • Max 72 characters including spaces.
  • Headline/sentence style – only first word, proper nouns capitalized, no period. DO NOT use title case.
    • Use: Join us for the El Centro Serna Open House this week
    • Avoid: Join Us for the El Centro Serna Open House This Week
  • Descriptive, catchy, conversational, attention-grabbing — you WANT students to read your item!
    • Use: Graduating in May? Tell us what’s next for a chance to win!
    • Avoid: Graduation survey is available now
  • For Events: Since we're using Trumba, using just the name of the event is fine, but try to use a title that is more engaging and attention-grabbing whenever appropriate.
  • Do NOT include dates, times, locations or specific details in titles. They will be removed.

SharePoint Body Editor

The WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor in SharePoint has many formatting options we do not use in Hornet Weekly. When submitting or editing HW body copy, the ONLY acceptable formatting options are as follows:

  • Link embedding
    • Link type: URL, email
    • Ensure https:// is selected under “protocol” (it will do this automatically if you paste in a link that has it, but it's best to double-check)
  • Bullet points (do not use numbered lists)

All other formatting will be reverted and will not appear in Hornet Weekly.

For SharePoint-submitted items, links may be embedded within the body editing block.

All embedded links MUST use descriptive, specific text, not simple words. This is for screen readers/accessibility to ensure every embedded link has unique text.

  • Example: Embed link in “Register to attend this year's Carnival on the Quad”; NOT “Register” nor “Click here to register”

Links using TinyURL or other link shorteners, links from previously published Hornet Weekly newsletters (Emma converts them to specialized links and this causes issues when it converts them again in a new newsletter) or redirect links may cause your item submission to not be accepted.

All links MUST be secure (https://) per Sac State policy. Links using http:// are not accepted. SharePoint will automatically select this option when pasting an embedded link, but be sure to double-check.

Links must be publicly hosted so they are accessible by everyone. SharePoint-based links are not recommended because they are often user-restricted.

Event Style and Formatting

For Events, which are now submitted via Trumba, all proper formatting and style for date, time, location, bold/italicized text, etc. will be automatically applied.

For the Short Description on the calendar submission form, which acts as the body of your Event item, please follow any applicable guidelines in this Style Guide.

Date, Time, Location

This mostly applies to Events, which will be automatically formatted properly by Trumba. However, follow these guidelines if including date, time, location in SharePoint-submitted items or in the Short Description (body) of your Trumba submissions.

  • For Hornet Weekly, follow this order (Date, Time, Location); Note: Sac State style is normally Time, Date, Location.
    • Examples: (1) Tuesday, March 24, from 1-2 p.m. in the University Union Ballroom (2) Wednesday, March 25, from noon-4 p.m. at The WELL
  • Days: Spell out days and ALWAYS include the day(s) of the week.
    • DO NOT use st, th or rd. Example: April 4; NOT April 4th
  • Months: Should be formatted as follows when pairing with a full date: Jan., Feb., March, April, May, June, July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.
    • If a month stands alone, always spell out. Example: "A new program is launching this October"; "A new program launches Thursday, Oct. 1."
  • Years: Don’t include unless it’s a new year (usually just for January) or you’re referencing a different year than the current one; in other words, only needed for clarity.
    • Examples: There is no need, in September 2026, to write Sept. 15, 2026, but you may write Jan. 15, 2027, in January 2027, or in December 2026, you may write register by March 15, 2027.
  • Time: Use a.m. or p.m.
    • Do NOT use AM or PM or any other variation.
    • Separate time ranges with a hyphen (not an en or em dash). Spaces are OK to avoid confusion (1-2 p.m. or noon - 5 p.m.) but usually not needed.
    • There is no need for zeros for on-the-hour times (2 p.m.; NOT 2:00 p.m.)
    • Format midday and midnight as: noon, not 12 p.m., and midnight, not 12 a.m. Also, noon and midnight are not usually capitalized unless starting a sentence or part of a proper name.
  • Location: At or on a location (at the University Union; on the Quad) and in a room (in Lassen Hall 3014). Rooms should also be formatted as such: Lassen Hall 3014.
    • When indicating floor, use words, not figures, and put them in parentheses. Example: (third floor) NOT 3rd floor, floor 3 or any other variant.

Phone Numbers

  • Always use this format: 916-123-4567

Call to Action

While a Call to Action is not required for all items, it is HIGHLY recommended.

Hornet Weekly should ask students to participate, engage and take action rather than simply share information, although informational items are acceptable, too, because sometimes no action is needed.

SharePoint: For most news, announcements and resource items, please include a call to action of some sort. Links may be embedded in the body within SharePoint.

  • CTA examples: Link to register or learn more; contact someone by email or other means; apply by a deadline; sign up or RSVP; take survey; visit a webpage or social media account, etc.
  • Important: A Call to Action does NOT need to include a link, but links are required if they are necessary to complete the action (i.e. "visit website" MUST include the link).
    • The CTA can be a text-based invitation to participate, a save-the-date notice or a request to stay tuned for more information, for example.

Trumba: All events will automatically link back to the full Trumba listing. You will not be able to add additional links within the Short Description (body). The link to the Trumba listing is sufficient for a Call to Action as you can add further links, maps, images, etc. in the full listing.

Though the Hornet Weekly email newsletter only shows title, date/time, and Short Description, it is HIGHLY recommended to fill out the entire Trumba submission form so when students link back to the full description they have plenty of details and information.

The MySacState student portal and archive webpage also link back to the full listing.

"Submitted by" line

The Submitted by line MUST be a submitting office, department or campus organization and NOT an individual person.

  • The "Submitted by" portion of the text is automatically added and this line will be italicized. It will show as non-italic text but will be italized in Hornet Weekly.
  • Submitted by is only included for non-event (SharePoint) items. It is no longer listed on events.
  • The Submitted by line does not have a character count limit, in case multiple areas co-sponsor an item, but please keep them as concise as possible.
    • Example: Submitted by the Career Center and University Union OR Submitted by the Career Center; University Union
  • Add “the” when needed.
    • Use: Submitted by the Career Center
    • Avoid: Submitted by Career Center
  • Avoid “Office of” unless needed for clarity.
  • Use "Department of NAME" NOT "NAME Department" (unless part of a proper name - Ex: Police Department). ONLY use when needed for clarity.
    • Use: Department of English
    • Avoid: English Department
  • Items MUST be submitted on behalf of an office, department, center, group or University-recognized organization.
    • Items MAY NOT be submitted by individuals or those outside of the University.
    • We DO NOT accept items directly from students, but they may work with an official campus representative to submit items on the behalf of their club, group or organization.

Emojis/Punctuation

  • No emojis. This includes Trumba and SharePoint.
  • Occasional exclamation marks are OK but DO NOT overuse.
  • Ampersands (&) are OK in department titles, but use 'and' in most cases within sentences, titles, etc.
  • Hornet Weekly items should usually use complete, concise sentences and proper grammar.
  • Use normal sentence and grammatical punctuation (period, comma, question mark, etc.) and avoid shorthand, abbreviations and uncommon acronyms whenever possible.
    • IMPORTANT: Many of our students are NEW and may not be familiar with our acronyms, nicknames, etc.!
  • Hyphen ( - ) combines two words when used to modify the next word.
  • En dash ( – ) is used in place of 'to' and can be used for spans of numbers, dates, etc.
  • Em dash ( — ) can be used to replace parentheses (usually without spaces), to replace a colon or to insert an interruption.

All Other Styles

For all other style questions, please follow the official style guide hierarchy: Sac State Style Guide > CSU Style Guide > AP Style Guide (subscription or physical book required).