AgriLife and agency names
“AgriLife” is spelled as one word, with only the “A” and “L” capitalized.
When writing each agency’s name, use the full official agency name on first reference. The second time you mention it, use the approved short form. The following list gives the official name, followed by the short form.
| Official Full Name | Short Form |
| Texas A&M AgriLife | AgriLife |
| Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service | AgriLife Extension |
| Texas A&M AgriLife Research | AgriLife Research |
| Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory | TVMDL |
| Texas A&M Forest Service | TFS or Forest Service |
Except for TVMDL and TFS, there is no acronym, initialism, or other alteration of agency names.
AgriLife Communications Editorial Style
We follow the Texas A&M University System written style guidelines. Style choices specific to AgriLife entities are as follows:
4-H
The Texas 4-H programs, foundation, and members can be mentioned in text as:
- Texas 4-H and Youth Development Program
- Texas 4-H Youth Development Foundation
- Texas 4-H Friends and Alumni Association
- National 4-H Council
- 4-H member
Abbreviations
The only AgriLife agencies that may be abbreviated are Texas A&M Forest Service (TFS) and Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL).
AgriLife administrative units
When referring to the administrative units of Texas A&M AgriLife, use the following form:
- Texas A&M AgriLife Office of Federal Relations
Ampersand (&)
Avoid using in running text, and as a rule do not use unless it is an official part of a name or title. Change “&” to “and” in most cases.
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
See the Texas A&M University System style guidelines.
Land-grant
Hyphenate when used as an adjective: land-grant university.
Program, project, model with acronym
In general do not capitalize program, project, model, and the like when following a name that is more familiar as an acronym or initialism:
- Strengthening Our Capacity to Care (SOCC) program; SOCC; the SOCC program
- Semi-distributed Land-Use-based Runoff Processes (SLURP) model
Do capitalize in all other instances:
- Project Reach, Roving Leader Program, and Upper Rio Grande Water Operations Model (URGWOM).
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
When referring to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service or another specific extension service, uppercase “Extension Agent” when used as a title before a name.
Examples for Extension titles
- Extension agent name and title: Use en dash between “agent” and specialty.
- In running text: In text when relationship to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service has been established
When referring to extension and/or research in general terms, do not capitalize. Essentially, capitalized the full formal name but do not capitalize when using only the word extension to reference the organization.
Texas A&M University
For titles, try to avoid constructions using “Texas A&M University’s”.
Example title: Dr. Such-and-such, professor, College of Engineering Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University.
URLS
When referencing a URL in print, use the following capitalization rules for easy reading.
| Texas A&M AgriLife | AgriLife.org or AgriLife.tamu.edu (Choose one based on context. Use tamu version if university tie is important). |
| Texas AgriLife Extension Service | AgriLifeExtension.tamu.edu |
| Texas AgriLife Research | AgriLifeResearch.tamu.edu |
| College of Agriculture and Life Sciences | AgLifeSciences.tamu.edu |
| TVMDL | TVMDL.tamu.edu |
| Texas Forest Service | TexasForestService.tamu.edu |
| Texas A&M AgriLife Communications | agrilife.org/digitaleducationunications |
| Texas A&M AgriLife I.T. | AgriLife.org/it |
| AgriLife Bookstore | AgriLifeBookstore.org |
| AgriLife Today | AgriLife.org/today |