FAQs: Bylines Articles for web and newsletter must include a byline (this excludes web content updates or additions) Our Name and How We Use it - We are the National Military Family Association and will be phasing out the use of NMFA from a lot of uses. In order to not be repetitious, you can use Our Association, The Association, and We in subsequent uses. Increase Use of Service Names - Instead of seven Uniformed Services use Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, and the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Use of Military Families - After listing the Service branches, refer to families as military families Use of more than vs. over Over refers to a direction, more than is used to reference numbers, hang it over the table and more than 1,000 applications were received Use of Active and Reserve Component - When referring to a list of the active component and reserve component, use the following: National Military Family Association serves the active and reserve components of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard. Formatting Items: Acronyms - Even if you know that an acronym is spelled out somewhere else, write it out the first time it appears in your article and give the acronym in parentheses. However, if the acronym is not used later in the article, do not give the abbreviation. Bill and Law References: House bill: H.R. 665 Senate bill: S. 123 Public Laws: P.L. 107-43 Bullets Complete sentences end in a period whether they are in bullet form or not. Bullets that are not complete sentences do not require any form of punctuation at the end.
The key is consistency. If one bullet is a complete sentence, all bullets should be complete sentences. If the majority of the bullets begin with a verb, they all should begin with a verb. Bylines Web and newsletter articles must include a byline with the following format: Staff bylines - Name, Position/Title (eg. Jane Doe, Executive Administrator) Volunteer bylines Name, Position, Location (eg. Jane Doe, National Military Family Association Volunteer, Fort Hood, TX) Captions with several names begin - From left to right: Dates - Reference to dates will always be in the format of month day, year (e.g., March 11, 2006). However, when the year is not necessary to list, the format will be Month day (e.g., On March 11, Congress met to discuss ) Fiscal Year Reference to a fiscal year is to be formatted as FY and last two digits of the year (e.g., FY09) Reference to a Member of Congress - For the first time in an article, give title and full name, with party and state (and Congressional district if from House of Representatives) in parentheses. For example, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Jeff Miller (R-1 st /FL) conducted a joint press conference on the need for increased military construction funding. After first reference, you can use just title and last name: Senator Murray, Representative Miller. National Defense Authorization Act the proper reference is Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act. Any subsequent use can be abbreviated FY2015 NDAA. Numbers Always spell out numbers less than ten. However, if in the case of a list of numbers, some of which exceed the number ten, use the numerals for consistency (e.g., There were 9 people who joined on Monday and 132 who joined last week.) Do not use.00 (e.g., $1,000 NOT $1,000.00) When citing amounts of people or things always use a comma for 4-digit + numbers. For example 1,234 NOT 1234 Operation Purple Program - The Registered symbol only needs to be used once in the document and should be used in the most prominent use of the Operation Purple reference. Also, to preserve the trademark, the term Operation Purple must always be used as an adjective and should be in italics for print. For web, Operation Purple is not to be italicized. Percentages In body copy use the word percent and in statistical copy, such as bulleted reports, use the symbol % Phone Numbers Use the following format: 555.555.1234 or 800.555.1234 don t use parenthesis National Military Family Association, February 2013 2
Quotation Marks Punctuation should always be within the quotation marks (e.g., My name is Mary. NOT My name is Mary.) Service Rank Abbreviations - Services have different abbreviations for their ranks. GR has a list of these always check for the proper abbreviation that corresponds to the correct Service branch. You can also check this site: http://www.defense.gov/about/insignias/officers.aspx Spacing please use ONE space between an end-stopped sentence and the sentence following (e.g., The hat was blue. It also had green spots.) Use of Titles and Subsequent References to: DoD and other agency leadership: Capitalize the title: Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Dr. David Chu in later references, say Dr. Chu; in subsequent references to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, always use Secretary Gates or the Secretary. Websites - REMOVE the hyperlink and italicize. If there is a www before the address, be sure to delete the http:// (ex. WRONG http://www.militaryfamily.org/ - RIGHT www.militaryfamily.org) This is specifically referring to print publications NOT web related articles. Frequently Used Terms (Formats and Capitalization): Airman capitalize active duty has NO hyphen and is lower case. armed forces is not capitalized and refers to the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard. Association is always capitalized when referring to the National Military Family Association as the Association. BoA - The National Military Family Association Board of Advisors BoG - The National Military Family Association Board of Governors child care is two words Chairman when referring to the leadership of the National Association Board of Governors, use Chairman (capitalized) and not Chair or Chairwoman Commissioned Corps is capitalized National Military Family Association, February 2013 3
Congressional Committees - Capitalize names of congressional committees. The following are the committees we deal with most frequently - after the first reference use acronyms as shown: Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC); House Appropriations Committee (HAC) Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC); House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Personnel Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC Personnel Subcommittee) Senate Veterans Affairs Committee (SVAC); House Veterans Affairs Committee (HVAC) Senate Finance Committee (SFC); House Ways and Means Committee (HW&MC) Senate Budget Committee (SBC); House Budget Committee (HBC) Coastguardsman capitalize CR - Concurrent Resolution DoD Department of Defense email is one word and not capitalized enews or enotices lower case e followed by a capital letter (e.g., egroup) family member is two words - not capitalized federal is lowercase when used as an adjective to distinguish something from state, county, etc. (ie. federal government, federal court) Federal is capitalized when it is a part of the organization s formal name (e.g., Federal Trade Commision). health care is two words. His or Her eliminate from writing (e.g., WRONG-Each member is responsible for his or her RIGHT-Staff members are responsible for their ) House Report - H.Rpt. House Resolution - H.Res 123 Houses of Congress - Capitalize names of the two Houses of Congress: U.S. Senate (after first reference, you can use Senate); U.S. House of Representatives (after first reference; House). Joint Resolution - H.J.Res 123 or S.J.Res 123 Marine capitalize National Military Family Association, February 2013 4
Member of Congress - capitalize Member and Congress; capitalize Member whenever referring to a Member of Congress. Nation is capitalized National Guard and Reserve is capitalized. Any subsequent reference can be shortened to Guard and Reserve. nonprofit One word, no hyphen, lower case online is one word and not capitalized quality of life is hyphenated only when it is used to modify a noun (e.g., quality-of-life issues) Reserve does not have an s when referring to the Service (e.g., Army Reserve not Army Reserves) Reserve Component capitalize when using as a proper noun. reserve component do not capitalize when using as a term. It refers to one or more of the following: Army National Guard of the United States Army Reserve Naval Reserve Marine Corps Reserve Air National Guard of the United States Air Force Reserve Coast Guard Reserve Reserve Corps of the Public Health Service reserve duty has NO hyphen. Retired military personnel are referred to as: (Ret) (e.g., Gen John Michael, USMC (Ret)) Senate Report - S.Rpt. Senate Resolution - S.Res 123 Senate Resolution Service is to be capitalized when referring to the branches of Service or military Service. service member is not capitalized and is two words. Sailor capitalize National Military Family Association, February 2013 5
Soldier capitalize Time should be am or pm in lower case (e.g., 9 am) TRICARE should be in all capital letters Uniformed Services is capitalized and describes the seven Uniformed Services: Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, and the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration U.S. is not a necessary precursor to U.S. Army, U.S. Public Health Service, etc. Volunteer Capitalize when referring to National Military Family Association Volunteer(s); in the phrase Association Volunteer(s), both words should be capitalized; where appropriate, Volunteers should be referred to as members of our Volunteer Corps or Association Volunteers. Do not use the term "Representative" to address or distinguish Association Volunteers. website and web are lower case National Military Family Association, February 2013 6