THWS Style Guide

Full name

The full English name is Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt

Short form "THWS"

THWS is always used without an article ("the") as it is an independent term. If the short form is an addition to, for example, an university department, "the" is added.

Examples:

• THWS offers a wide variety of degree programmes.
• The President of THWS welcomes students from all over the world.
• Students can apply at the THWS Department of Student Affairs (HSST).

1. Würzburg or Schweinfurt are "locations"

Examples:

• With the cities of Würzburg and Schweinfurt THWS has two locations situated only about 40 km apart.
• If you plan to study Electrical Engineering you will be based at our Schweinfurt location.

2. "site" is used for THWS buildings at one location

Example:

• The various faculties have different sites throughout Würzburg.

3. "campus" is only used in already existing names

Examples:

• In Schweinfurt, most lectures are on Campus Ignaz Schön.
• The THWS Institute for Applied Logistics Solutions (IAL) is based on Campus Konrad Geiger.
• The Campus for Professional Development offers continuing education for almost everyone.

They/Their instead of he/she/it

Instead of he/she/it the pronouns they/their are to be used, even if the subjekt is singular.
Examples:

• If a student fails to hand in their thesis on time, they will have to write a new thesis with a new topic, unless they are granted an extension to their deadline due to extenuating circumstances.
  • a student, fails, thesis etc. singular, only pronouns and connected verbs plural

or everything plural:

• If students fail to hand in their theses on time, they will have to write new theses with new topics, unless they are granted an extension to their deadlines due to extenuating circumstances.
  • students, fail, theses and all prounouns, verbs plural.

Headlines and titles of documents, degree programmes, reports, etc.

We used to capitalise titles and headlines of the first order following the standards of the Modern Language Association (MLA).

From August 2022, to promote consistency and user-friendliness, titles and headlines are capitalised follwing the usual rules of the English language.

Dates

Within texts the date is given as D Month YYYY

Example:

• 1 October 2016; 12 June 2017

In tables or lists the month is shortened to the first three characters.

Example:

• 1 Oct 2017; 12 Jun 2017

Days

In texts days are always written out in full. In tables, lists or for office/consultation hours they are shortened by using the first three characters.

Examples:

• We can all meet on Monday, Wednesday or Thursday to talk about the exam.
• Opening hours: Mon, Wed, Thu

A list of these abbreviations can be found in the section Abbreviations.

Dates and periods of time

The 24h-format is obligatory without leading zeros. Within texts there is no hyphen used when periods of time are given.

Examples:

• 9:45; 13:15
• The group meets at 14:15 in front of room 501.
• The main building is open daily form 6:30 until 21:00.

For contact boxes, consultation/office hours a hyphen can be used. There is no additional space before and after the hyphen.

Examples:

• 22-26 Jan 2016
• Consultation hours daily 10:00-12:00
• Contact:
  Room 0.0.0
  Ignaz-Schön-Str. 11, Schweinfurt,
  Mon-Wed 10:30-11:45
  or upon arrangement

Please always set all terms that are not translated into English in italics.

Example:

• German universities are committed to Bildung, emphasising individual character formation.

Please note: Genuinely German academic degrees (e. g. Diplom, Magister, Habilitation) are not translated and always set in italics. You may add "German" for disambiguation (except with Hablitation).

Examples:

• The German Diplom is a unique and prestigious degree.
• The German Magister is sometimes confused with the usual master's degree.
• Theodor just earned his Habilitation.

A serial comma or series comma (also called Oxford comma and Harvard comma) is a comma placed immediately before the coordinating conjunction (usually and or or) in a series of three or more terms.

Examples:

There are courses about basic economics, financing and accounting, but also psychology.

Without the Oxford comma financing and accounting could be part of basic economics or two parts of the enumeration.

There are courses about basic economics, financing, and accounting, but also psychology.

With the Oxford comma, it is clear that financing and accounting are courses like basic economics or psychology.

Short forms of Faculties, Departments etc.

If there is an obligatory English term, this term is always used. Behind the term and in brackets the German abbreviation is given.

Example: You can get information about the application process at the Department of Student Affairs (HSST).

Only exception: Study and Examination Regulation (SER) has its own English abbreviation (in German: SPO) which has been in use before this style guide was written.

All obligatory abbreviations can be found in the relevant section of the Glossary and in the section Abbreviations.

Currency symbols, currency codes and big numbers

Different from German, in English the currency is not written out. Please always use the currency symbol for Euro or Dollar. For all other currencies, please use the official code according to ISO 4217.

Examples:

• € 200.000
• $ 37.95
• € 3.2m (= eng./ger. "Million")
• € 4.8bn (= eng. "billion"; ger. "Milliarde")
• CHF 20.00