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College Style Guide: D

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dash

See em dash, en dash.

degrees

See academic degrees.

diacritical marks

See accent marks.

dateline rules

See cities, U.S., and cities, international.

dates

Use month-day-year sequence (omit the year if it’s obvious): June 10, 2022

Time, day, date, place is the proper order: The event will take place at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, May 18, 2021, in the Music Building.

Use cardinal, not ordinal, numbers: June 30, not June 30th.

Do not separate month and year sequence with a comma: September 2022.

Use day of week in invitations (Friday, Saturday, etc.). Do not abbreviate.

In text use a comma after the year: Her party is on Friday, June 10, 2022, at the Campus Club.

dean’s list

Lowercase: Kristin made the dean’s list this year.

decades

See numbers.

departments

For academic departments, capitalize a department’s full, formal name: Philosophy Department, Geology Department (8.85)

For administrative departments, use caps for the formal names of all campus offices: Admissions Office, Alumni Engagement, Dean of Students Office, Development Office.

DeWitt Wallace Library

The formal title of Macalester’s library is the DeWitt Wallace Library (capitalize). Also referred to as the library (lowercase). See the appendix for names of other campus buildings.

diseases, procedures

Names of diseases and procedures are lowercased except when they contain proper nouns: acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS); Alzheimer’s disease; computer tomography (8.144).

doctor

See also honorifics.

Omit the title when an academic degree or professional designation follows a name: Jane Smith, MD, not Dr. Jane Smith, MD.

When a person being referenced has a doctorate but is not a medical doctor, it’s generally better to refer to the doctorate without using the title Dr.: Mary Smith, who has a doctorate in sociology, will lead the discussion. Or: Mary Smith, PhD, will lead the discussion.

Dr.

See doctor.