College proofing checklist for marketing materials

General style and branding

  • Have you included a current logo?
  • Is there enough clear space around the logo (half the height of the Block N)?
  • Are your fonts brand fonts (Myriad Pro, Minion Pro or Arial)?
  • Are your colors brand colors?
  • Have you referred to Extension as University of Nevada, Reno Extension on first reference and Extension on all others?
    • Are all references to "Cooperative" Extension removed?
  • Have you made sure to refer to the Experiment Station as University of Nevada, Reno Experiment Station on first reference and Experiment Station on all others?
  • Are all emails updated to reflect @unr.edu rather than @unce.unr.edu?
  • Is our College's, unit's or department's branding the lead?
    • The College, unit or department should be mentioned first followed by program or curriculum. Programs can be mentioned in the copy of promotional materials.
    • Only the College, unit or department presents or hosts, so word accordingly.
  • Are boilerplates up to date?
  • Do photos have a cutline (caption) with proper attribution? (Photo by Robert Moore.)

Resources 

Civil Rights Compliance

Have you included an "EEO/AA Institution" on your materials?

  • Note, for classes or events, you must also include this statement to encourage individuals who may need accommodations to contact us in advance.
    • "If you require a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this event, please contact Paul Lessick, Civil Rights & Compliance Coordinator, at least 14 days prior to the scheduled event at 702-257-5577 or plessick@unr.edu."

Resources

UAM 5,304: Event Accessibility and Accomodation Policy

Marketing, AP Style and other tips

Have you checked that you are following Associated Press Style? Below are common writing, AP situations and mistakes seen on submitted materials.

  • Avoid "Join us..." in copy; use a more action-oriented verb to engage the audience.
  • Have you included the location, date and time?
    • For the date, did you include day, date and year?
      • Do not add "st," "th," etc. to the date. Example: Dec. 1, not Dec. 1st.
    • Times:
      • Use colons only with times not on the hour. Example: 2 p.m., 11 a.m., 2:30 p.m., 11:30 p.m.
      • Do not use numbers with noon or midnight.
      • Use lowercase a.m., p.m., with a space before the "a" or the "p," and no space after the first period, as shown here.
    • Addresses:
      • House numbers: Always use figures. Example: 9 Morningside Circle.
      • Only abbreviate Ave. (Avenue), Blvd. (Boulevard) and St. (Street) with street numbers; spell out all others (Circle, Road, Parkway, etc.)
      • Spell out and capitalize First through Ninth when used as street names. Use figures for 10th and above. Avoid using superscript. Example: First St., 10th Ave.
  • Have you included mandatory information, such as cost and contact information?
    • Direct to an official College, Extension or Experiment Station website. (Hint: Most end in .edu).
    • Include cost if any; if none say: "Free and open to the public."
    • Include a contact and/or email address or phone number for more information.
      • Telephone numbers:
        • Ensure your phone number uses hyphens only.
        • Abbreviate and lowercase the extension abbreviation after the phone number. For example: 775-784-4040, ext. 101.
  • Have you included the age range for your program or event?
    • Grades:
      • Spell out below 10.
      • Hyphenate the noun forms: First-grader, second-grader, 10th-grader. Also hyphenate the adjective forms: A fourth-grade student, a 12th-grade girl.
    • Ages:
      • Always use figures. A 5-year-old boy, the boy is 5 years old, the 5-year-olds.

Resources

Accessibility

  • Have you run the accessibility checker?
  • Have you used style tools such as headings and paragraphs?
  • Are all your images free of overlay text (text not originally part of the image)?
  • Do all of your images have alt text?
  • Have you checked your reading order?
  • Is there enough color contrast between your text and background?
  • Have you replaced all URLs (web links beginning with http or https) with descriptive text (also known as link text or anchor text)? Does the descriptive text describe where the link goes (e.g. “visit the Extension website” as opposed to “click here”).

Resources