O

off campus, on campus

  • Hyphenate only when used as an adjective, not as an adverb. Off-campus housing is not easy to find. The lecture will take place on campus.  

off-site, on-site

offstage, onstage

Olympics 

  • Capitalize all references to the international athletic contests: the Olympics, the Winter Olympics, the Olympic Games, an Olympic-size pool, but lowercase the games when used alone.

onward

  • Not onwards. Also see afterward, backward, toward.

opening convocation

  • Lowercase.

organizations, student

  • Capitalize official names of student clubs. Do not italicize or put in quotation marks. See clubs.

Orient, Oriental

  • Always capitalize when referring to the Middle East. Do not use in reference to the Far East nations of Asia and the nearby islands: The debate is Orientalism versus Westernism, oriental food, oriental rug.

orientation

  • Do not capitalize when used generically or on second reference. Capitalize only when part of the official name of an event or program: International Student Orientation. The students attended the orientation.

over, more than

  • When referring to something that can be counted, use more than: More than 100 people attended the event.
  • Use over in other contexts, such as: She is over 50. John is over 2 meters tall.

overseas program

  • Use study-abroad program instead.