magazine Capitalize and italicize the names of magazines. If the word magazine does not appear in the official title, do not capitalize or italicize it. The Oberlin Review, the Atlantic, the New Yorker. See titles of works.

majors, minors, and interdisciplinary programs Do not capitalize unless they are proper nouns. John is an art major. A double-degree student, Sally majored in violin performance and English. Herbert majored in Hispanic studies. See academic disciplines, capitalization, Academics.

man-hour, man-made, manpower Do not use. See bias-free language.

marginalized (v., with object) Avoid usage. **To treat (a person, group, or concept) as insignificant or peripheral (as adjective, marginalized): Members of marginalized cultural groups are often overlooked; The president attempted to marginalize those who disagreed with his policies. See Special Usage Appendix.

master class, master classes

master’s degree See degrees, academic. ****

measurements See dimensions.

media, medium Media is the preferred plural form of medium; it should be used with a plural verb. The media are always under scrutiny.

mid No hyphen unless a capitalized word follows: mid-Atlantic, mid-May, midcareer, midcentury, midsemester. But use a hyphen when mid- precedes a figure: mid-30s, mid-19th century.

midnight Not 12 midnight. Do not use 12 a.m. as a synonym. Midnight is part of the day that is ending, not the one that is beginning. See time of day.

minority Avoid usage. Not a synonym for people of color. See Special Usage Appendix.

mixed media (n.), mixed-media (adj.) A mixed-media show. The Oberlin student prefers to use mixed media in her artwork.

money Use figures in references to money: $9.50, $1,300, $20,000, $3 million, $1.5 billion.

A dollar total with no cents expressed is usually set without the decimal point and zeros: Admission is $3 on Saturdays.

monthlong

months Capitalize the names of months in all uses. Preferred use is to spell out the month’s full name in all but tabular material. See dates, numbers.

When a phrase lists only a month and a year, do not separate the year with commas. When a phrase refers to a month, day, and year, set off the year with commas.

Examples: January 2015 was a cold month. His birthday is May 8. The target date is February 14, 2019.

In tabular material, these three-letter forms without periods may be used: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec.

more than, over More than expresses quantity: More than 100 applicants were interviewed.

Over is an adverb expressing direction: We drove over the bridge.

multi- (prefix) The trend in English is away from the use of hyphens in compounds made with the prefix multi. The Oberlin style is to close up prefixes unless doing so could cause confusion or spellings that could be difficult for readers to decipher.

Examples: multicultural, multidisciplinary, multipartial, multiracial, multimedia, multimillion, multisensory.

musical works, titles of

Instrumental works: Many instrumental works are known by their generic names—symphony, quartet, nocturne, and so on—and often a number or key or both. Such names are capitalized but not italicized. A descriptive title, however, is usually italicized if referring to a full work; set in Roman and in quotation marks if referring to a section of a work.

• Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra
• The second movement, Allegro appassionato, from Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto
• Elliott Carter’s String Quartet No. 5 and his Figment for cello

Opus, Number, Catalog Number: The abbreviations no. (number; plural nos.) and op. (opus; plural opp.) are set in Roman and capitalized if part of a title.

An abbreviation designating a catalog of a particular composer’s works is always capitalized, e.g., BWV [Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis]; D. [Deutsch] for Schubert; K. [Köchel] for Mozart).

Sonata No. 3 in E-flat, Op. 31

Fantasy in C Minor, K. 475

When op. or a catalog number is used restrictively, no comma precedes it.

Sonata op. 31

Fantasy K. 475

• Air with Variations (“The Harmonious Blacksmith”) from Handel’s Suite No. 5 in E

Operas, songs: Titles of operas, oratorios, tone poems, song cycles, and other long musical compositions are italicized. Titles of songs are set in Roman and enclosed in quotation marks, capitalized in the same way as poems.

Handel’s Messiah

“La vendetta, oh, la vendetta” from the Marriage of Figaro

the “Anvil Chorus” from Verdi’s Il Trovatore

Arthur Sullivan’s song cycle, the Song of the Wrens, is a setting of poems by Tennyson. See titles of works.