Q. Hello! I need to refer to a school that changed from a college to a university. If it was still Loyola College when that person graduated, is it correct to say “graduated from Loyola College in 1999,” or is it best to use its current name: “from Loyola University in 1999”? Thanks!
A. You must state what is true: the person graduated from Loyola College in 1999.
Q. How would the University of Chicago Press render the names of universities with multiple campuses?
A. As a copyeditor, I allow either a comma, an en dash, “at,” or nothing—but only after looking at what the university in question seems to favor (all universities have an internet presence these days) and then taking into account, if necessary, questions of consistency within the document or book or publication that I’m editing.
University of Wisconsin–Madison (that seems to be what they favor, and an en dash looks elegant here)
Indiana University South Bend (that’s how they do it)
University of California, Berkeley (that’s how they do it; remember to add a comma after “Berkeley” if the name occurs in midsentence)
A one-size-fits-all rule would be far easier to apply, but these days it’s pretty easy to find out the right answer.
Q. Is there some sort of resource available with definitive information about names and titles of various media programs? For
example, is Oprah Winfrey’s talk show really The Oprah Winfrey Show or just Oprah? Do Matt Lauer and
Meredith Vieira appear on The Today Show or Today? Often there is conflicting information. An authoritative resource would
be extremely helpful for the copyediting process.
A. These days, the most authoritative resource for such things is often the website run by a program’s
owner. According to the Today show’s website, they’re just Today (in quotation marks, but Chicago’s rule is to put the titles of shows in italics). Oprah’s
talk show is officially called The Oprah Winfrey Show, though its website also refers to The Oprah Show.