LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — June 6–7, 2008, Page 11

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FREQUENTLY NOTED ABERRATIONS
In its review of bylaw and policy documents, the Commission on Constitutional Matters has
noted that certain minor departures from the norm of how our Synod prepares documents occur
frequently. Rather than repeatedly calling attention to these details, the commission has prepared
this checklist of frequently noted aberrations to alert document preparers and editors and thereby
to encourage and facilitate uniformity of usage in bylaw and policy documents throughout the
Synod.
o

Care should be taken to distinguish between the proper use of hyphens, en-dashes, and
em-dashes. The proper name of our Synod is “The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod”
with an em-dash.

o

Capitalization should be used sparingly, following the usage of the Synod’s Handbook.
Only proper and one-of-a-kind nouns, such as “Synod,” “President,” “Secretary,”
“Appeal Panel,” etc., should be capitalized. Common nouns or nouns of which there are
more than one, such as “district,” “district president,” “circuit,” “board,” “commission,”
“seminary,” “officer,” “corporation,” etc., unless referring to one such in particular, such
as “Wyoming District,” “Concordia Seminary,” “Commission on Structure,” etc., should
not be capitalized.

o

Bylaw language and terminology should be incorporated whenever possible, especially
when reiterating subject matters of which the Handbook directly speaks, e.g., powers and
duties, purpose statements, board membership, etc. Agency bylaws and policies may at
times go beyond the Synod’s Constitution, Bylaws, resolutions, etc., but they may not
contradict them.

o

Refer to and reference Synod bylaws accurately and in a uniform manner according to
common usage. Because the Synod’s Handbook changes every three years, bylaw
references in other documents need to be verified and updated triennially. Reference the
decimal and parenthetical numbering system of the Handbook accurately, referring to
major sections of the Constitution as “articles” and the seven major sections of the
Bylaws as “chapters,” the subsections numbered with a single decimal as “sections,” and
all other subsections as “paragraphs.”

o

Be aware of the following frequently observed errors or less than desirable terminology:


Take care to distinguish between “agencies” as enumerated in Bylaw 1.2.1 (a)
and “entities,” a broader term that includes more than agencies, such as
congregations, RSOs, auxiliaries, and the Synod itself.



Avoid using the word “synodical” in favor of such words as “synodwide,”
“Synod,” or “of the Synod.”



When three or more items are listed in a series and the last item is preceded by a
conjunction (e.g., “and,” “or,” or “nor”), place a comma after the last item before
the conjunction to help with clarity and accuracy.



When referring to the Handbook of the Synod or other documents, Handbook
and other manual-type documents should be italicized.



Be as precise as possible with terminology and spelling. “Civil law” is more clear
than “law.” “Staff” is unclear unless made more specific, e.g., “called staff,”
“clerical staff,” etc. “Bylaws” and “LCMS” do not have a hyphen, while “vicepresident” does.

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