This set of Guidelines is standard as of October 2008. The Agenda editorial staff has approved these guidelines for writers wishing to submit material to The Agenda.
This is a general outline of submission standards for written material. It is also an example of what an ideal submission should look like (including the header in which you, as a contributor, would indicate a title, if you so desire, a subhead, and your byline). Besides the suggestions outlines in this text, the overall form of the document provides a good idea of how submissions should look.
Filetype: We accept submissions in any common filetype, including ‘.DOC’ (Microsoft Word), ‘.ODT’ (OpenOffice), ‘.RTF’ (Rich Text Format), and ‘.TXT’ (unformatted text). We may also accept submissions in a number of more obscure or specialized formats, but please consult with us beforehand.
Please do not submit material in ‘*.HTM’ (HTML, HyperText Markup Language, used in websites and the body of web-based email) or similar format. These do not translate well and require painstaking hand reformatting. If you have no other option, however, you will not be rejected. Just let us know.
We do not encourage hand-typed or handwritten submissions, but will not reject them.
Font: Use a standard font, such as Courier, Times New Roman, Helvetica, or Arial. Do not use fancy, unusual, or obscure fonts. We standardize the font and format of all incoming content, so any special fonts will be lost. If your submission has a contextual need for a special font, embedded bold or underline, please use them within the text but also include a note in your email, or at the bottom of your submission. Any reasonable size is fine; we use 12 pt. most of the time for body content during editing. The design production staff will choose how the final printed version looks, including font, size, formatting and other features. If you have any special requests or design ideas, please include a note in your email or at the bottom of your submission.
Page and Paragraph Format: Use single linespacing throughout in your final submission (this does not mean you have to write your article or text in single linespacing, just that when you submit it choose single line space from the options menu of your word processor). Please do not use tabs or indents: All text should be flush left. Insert an empty line between paragraphs, and two or more empty lines between sections. Use left justification. Do not center text or use proportional spacing. Any reasonable margins are acceptable. Do not include any special codes or other formatting, such as forced page or section breaks, window/orphan suppression, etc. Don’t worry about how the text flows from one page to another; this has not effect on how the end result will look. Do not use pagination (noting page numbers), unless submitting by hard copy; hard copy submissions MUST be paginated.
All submissions should indicate where the article ends. The journalistic convention (an old, historic one at that) is to place three hash marks, or ‘pound signs,’ (###) at the end. (An even older convention is the expression “—30—”, but any clear indication will do.)
Inline objects: If you wish for a table or image to appear at a certain point within the body of the text, you will need to let editors know (in an email, in person, or on the phone) at the time of submission. Please submit the table or image separately, and include a conspicuous placeholder within the text body, such as:
…text text text text.
[[ TABLE/IMAGE PLACEHOLDER ]]
Text text text text…
The same as above applies to any other inline objects, such as diagrams charts, etc.
For non-text objects that will go with a written submission but do not need to appear at a specific point in the text, such as related art or other images, you can include it upon submission. Image guidelines are: 150 to 300 dpi (dots per inch), grayscale or CMYK. A mort comprehensive Image Guidelines Document will be created when we’re finished with this one! Any questions on the subject of images, pictures, artwork etc, in the meantime, can be easily directed to your contact person at the paper.
Dialect / Slang: We do not enforce any strict choice of dialect or lexicon. Feel free to be creative and colorful in your diction and expression. However, we may edit for clarity if we feel that a word or expression may be too esoteric or obscure for our readers to understand.
Spelling: We will not alter spelling if it is correct or acceptable in some dialect. However, we will alter any spelling that is clearly incorrect or not acceptable in any dialect.
Text format: The following section describes our preferred standards for the actual body of the text. Some of these guidelines are intended to avoid unnecessary work by the editors, while others have to do with basic English guidelines that we enforce upon all written content. Basically, this part is a crash-course in grammar and such interesting literary details that most writers are either already familiar with or might enjoy a refresher on.
Spaces: Please use single spaces in all cases, including after periods at the end of sentences. The only exception should be where a double space is used after a header, as seen at the beginning of this paragraph. While we will not reject any submission for using double spaces, we ask that you are at least consistent throughout your text. Note that extra spaces, while small, can add up to a lot of wasted space. Be careful to leave no spaces at the end of paragraphs.
Punctuation: Begin every sentence with a capital letter. End every sentence with a period, question mark or exclamation point. Use commas for clarity: we may add or delete commas as the Grammarian Editors see fit, so use commas judiciously.
If you use colons (:) or semicolons (;), be sure to use them correctly or we will edit them: A colon usually introduces a word, phrase or sentence that amplifies the initial statement; a semicolon, meanwhile, usually introduces a weaker subsidiary statement. Do not use commas, colons or semicolons in place of a period, to end a complete statement: A complete statement may include more than one sentence within it, but always ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point.
Long dashes (—) may be used for emphasis.
Use ellipses (…) to represent original content that has been omitted from a direct quote or outside citation (such as the text of a law or other written statement). An ellipsis may not be used to replace other punctuation marks, or for any other purpose than to represent actually omitted content. Do not use an ellipsis to represent a pause: Use a comma instead, (it is so much more concise). Do not use ellipses in place of colons or semicolons, and don’t use ellipses to run otherwise complete sentences together into run-ons. The editors will edit out all misused ellipses, and have been known to be ruthless about it. The popularity of ellipses is not justification for their misuse, but if using ellipses has become common in your writing, do so through the course of drafts, and upon submission just replace them with commas, periods, or other forms of punctuation.
“A comma or period that follows a word, phrase or sentence that is within quotes,” we say, “should be inside the quotes, not outside.” The only exception is that a period at the end of a sentence that ends with a short phrase in quotes may “be outside”.
Direct quotes always go inside quotation marks.
Special characters: Many word processors automatically reformat text as you type, creating features such as superscript letters after ordinal numbers, as: 3rd. Don’t worry about this; we’ll fix anything we think needs it. If you find it personally vexing, these features can be modified or turned off in the controls of your word processor.
We will generally not add special characters (such as changing ‘cafe’ to ‘café’) but we will usually preserve them in original use. If you want a special character to appear in the final version, just let us know in a note in an email or at the bottom of your submission.
Text Formatting: We will generally respect and preserve basic text formatting such as bold, italic, underline and strikethrough. However, we ask that these be used judiciously. At the same time, there are some chases where their use is standard. Bold should be used very sparingly for emphasis. In most cases where emphasis is desired, italics will suffice, though they should also be titles such as for albums, plays, books and films. (Individual parts of these combined works, such as song titles and chapter headings, should be in quotes.) However, if you feel strongly about it, then we do too.
Do not use superscript and subscript. We will edit this out. Likewise, avoid special capitals, such as ALL CAPS (except very sparingly and only when necessary), small caps, or “StUdLy CaPs”. In most cases, we will edit these out.
Capitalization: All proper nouns, including the names of all persons (Annabelle Anyone, Joe Shmoe), geographic places even if unofficial (Providence, Federal Hill), recognized unincorporated groups (Stink Tank, Grandizer Punch) and official organs such as legislatures and organizations (City Hall, State Assembly, National Rifle Association), as well as the formal titles of persons holding offices (Mayor, Speakers, President), whether official or ceremonial (Chief, Pope, Prince), should be capitalized. Infrequent exceptions include secondary references to official organs (“the legislature”) and artistic names that are intentionally uncapitalized (“small factory”). The once-popular convention of using capitals to indicate Certain Words are Important (as seen in some early American documents such as the Declaration of Independence) has not been standard fro nearly 200 years now. Do not use capitals to indicate emphasis or importance, but only to indicate specific identity.
Proper Nouns (Names): Be sure that you spell all names correctly. If in doubt, look it up. If still in doubt at the time of submission, indicate this, and list the sources used to try to determine the correct spelling. Improper spelling of well-known names is an indication of lazy writing, and just reflects poorly on the submission as well as our little paper. When using nicknames, stage names, or other nonlegal or jocular names, especially for persons, make sure that you use and render them correctly.
Now go ahead and write, and remember: If you don’t write, you can’t edit. Just get your thoughts on paper and we’ll do what we can to make sure it is printed in a high-quality format, in a well-loved publication.