The University of Sheffield
Marketing

Editorial style guide - O

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Oceans

The proper names have initial capitals, even when shortened to Mediterranean or Atlantic, or used as adjectives. For instance:

Barnsley is a Yorkshire town with a Mediterranean climate.

Mediterranean Sea

Never use Med.

Atlantic Ocean

Mid-Atlantic is hyphenated. Transatlantic is one word, no capitals.


Open Days

When we refer to the University's four annual open days, we write Open Days with initial caps because it's the official title (proper noun) of a series of events.

Department open days are not part of a series. It's not a proper noun so you don't need initial caps.


Outer space

Earth Use a capital E when referring to the planet where we live. Use a lower-case e if you mean soil.
sun/moon These don't need a capital letter.
solar system No capitals.
galaxy Where the solar system is.
Milky Way This is a proper name, so it gets initial caps.
outer space Not Outer Space, outerspace or outer-space.
Jupiter, Saturn, Mars etc. These are proper names so they always get a cap. In case you were wondering.

There are many galaxies, suns, moons and solar systems in the universe. They're not proper names so they don't need caps. It's fine to refer to 'the sun'. The reader will know you mean our sun.

The sun, the moon, Earth, Mars and all the planets in our solar system.