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Writers FAQ and Style Guide

Here’s a short and sweet style guide and general help for submitting a column.

Style Guide

  1. Strunk and White is your friend. Buy it, learn it, love it.
  2. But go against it if you want to.
  3. At the very least, do a spelling and grammar check in Word before submitting your column. A misspelling in the first paragraph means the rest will be ignored.
  4. Paragraphs are flush left and this isn’t a college paper.
  5. This isn’t a blog. We publish only featured length articles. Think 500 words or more.
  6. We don’t do game recaps.
  7. This is a sports website. You don’t have to be too formal.
  8. Big words don’t show you’re smart. We respect beautiful sentences. But we also know when someone is faking it.
  9. A good rule is: never use “utilize” when you can just use “use”. (Strunk and White recommends the use of the period inside the quotes there. But see #2 above.)
  10. Photos really help your story.

Were you expecting a full fledged style guide? Go read the Economist’s Style Guide if you must. There’s some good stuff in there.

Tips on Submitting a Column

  • Images: Add images to your posts by clicking the set featured image link in the featured image box, it’s on the right hand side towards the bottom of the column entry page. Use this page to add your images and captions. Then click, insert into post.
  • Featured Image: The featured image is the image that will be shown next to your article on all category/archive/search pages. To set a featured image, upload the image and then click “Set As Featured Image”. The website will automatically put your featured image into your story. There’s no need to click “Insert Into Post” if you’ve set something as a featured image. Doing so will only result in two of the same image in your story.
  • Featured Articles: If you want your story featured, there are two criteria: 1) make it good and 2) make sure your featured image is at least 390px x 280px.
  • Category: choose one and only one. If you’re writing about the Atlanta Braves, just choose Atlanta Braves, not MLB and Atlanta Braves.
  • Tags should be all lowercase. Phrases are allowed.
  • Use the full name of the team as the tag, e.g. “new york knicks”.
  • Try to keep the number of tags reasonable. Use 4-7 tags, not 15. When deciding on tags, think of what people would search for. If you have to decide between “performance enhancing drugs” and “steroids”, choose “steroids”.
  • Excerpts: By default, the site will choose the first 50 words of your article as the excerpt. If you prefer to create your own excerpt, put it in the Excerpt box.

    Other questions? Ask below.

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