Many people have asked to contribute to Weekender.
In order to ensure quality across all submissions please
1) follow the simple guidelines provided
2) use the copy template attached:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8pi9ms18awxrbun/Issue_Section_Topic_By.docx
WEEKENDER EDITORIAL & HOUSE STYLE FOR WRITERS V2.3
Updated Mar 4, 2014
EDITORIAL INTEGRITY & STYLE SAFETY:
1. Please make sure your article is proof-read at least once before sending in for editing.
2. Please ensure your article has been Spellchecked in English (UK).
[Ctrl A to highlight all, then click Review on menu bar, then Language, Set Proofing Language, Spelling & Grammar check]
3. Please ensure all details are complete, including if there is a need for an info bar or contact details at the end, in italics. Sometimes it is inconsistency, with a few places listed with postal code but one or two don’t have, etc.
4. Please ensure, in each article, there are about two to three sub-headers written in and that they are interesting.
5. Please indicate in bold and brackets at the top of the document [strap] if your article has a sub-section or strap highlight. E.g. [Movie Preview], [Word of Mouth], [Power 98 _______], [Part 2], etc.
6. Challenge yourself to come up with a catchy yet good header.
7. It is recommended for you to print out your article to check because that makes it easier to spot errors.
CASE & PUNCTUATION STYLE:
– Headlines should all be in lowercase letters, except names and titles. E.g. “New Alfred Hitchcock movie is a delight”
– After the header, indicate clearly the “Standfirst:” [a.k.a. Deck or Lead-in] as the art team may be confused and layout the article incorrectly. This sentence or paragraph leading into the article should be 25 words or less, and does not have a full-stop at the end.
E.g. Standfirst: In this Weekender exclusive, we give you a preview of the upcoming Perth Arts Festival
– All first letters in sub-headers should be capitalised unless prepositions. E.g. “A Twist in the Plot”
– For any century, e.g. “19th Century”, the first letter of “Century” is capital, as it refers to a specific one.
– “Ice cream” not “ice-cream”
– Unless a brand or name, initials do not have punctuation. E.g. “MRT”, “Homer J Simpson”, “UP” [usual price] not “U.P.”
> When it is a brand or product name, please ensure every initial has a full-stop/period at the end, unless the name or brand style indicates otherwise. E.g. “The Notorious B.I.G.” but “M.A.C cosmetics”.
– “Three years old”, or three-year-old”. Not versions in between.
– Company and brand names not all caps as far as possible. E.g. “Zalora” and “Beat’a Box” not “ZALORA” and “BEAT’A BOX”. There are just a handful of exceptions.
WORDS:
– “Barbecue” not “Barbeque”. Frank checked UK dictionary and says “BBQ” as short form is acceptable, but let’s try not to use that as far as possible because from my knowledge “BBQ” is not the usual accepted publication style.
– Any number ten and below is spelt out. E.g. “Ten men entered the cabin.” Any number 11 and above is numeric. Unless a statistic/measurement, in that case the style may be acceptable. E.g. “10 per cent” or “10cm”.
– In UK English, it is “Programme” not “program” unless IT or software program.
DATES & YEARS:
– In an article, months are only three letters and followed by the date. E.g. “Sep 22”, not “Sept 22” In article, please indicate Sep 22 to 27, but in blurb or event info the reverse and with hyphen is OK. e.g. “22-27 Sep, 6pm, $10”
– In the article, when only mentioning a month, not a date, the full month is spelt out. E.g. “He will be back in town in February.” Not, “He will be back in town in Feb.”
– Put the year only in cases where specificity is critical such as in the period when flights or promotions are valid for. E.g. “… by Dec 15, 2014.”
– For decades, editorial Style [as in Oxford Style Guide] is “1950s”, “1960s”, etc. Not ‘50s, ‘60s or 50’s, 60’s. > The exception is when it is a blurb or header and we are short on space, or when someone says it, we can put a more casual “ ‘50s or ‘60s”.
GRAMMAR:
– It is actually incorrect to say “serves up” or “started up”. It should simply be “serves” or “started”. Only rarely, in a somewhat casual statement, is it acceptable to use a descriptive such as: “Serving up a storm”
– Sometimes, two sentences are joined into one long one but it is grammatically incorrect when joined. Be careful of sentence structure, grammar and description. You can use shorter, clearer sentences that are grammatically correct.
OTHER EDITORIAL CHARACTERISTICS:
– In print, two sentences in a paragraph can already appear very long to the reader. Try not to put more than two sentences in a paragraph unless they are strongly connected and would sound weird divided.
REGULAR SUB-SECTIONS & LINERS:
*Sometimes different variations appear before editing. The following are a few standardised liners:
– Fash Snips: Stirrings in the fashion world that you would want, need and love to know about
– Beauty Snippets: The long and the short of the beauty industry
– Word of Mouth: Seen and heard of the best of local Singaporean food
– Tech Bytes: These bits and bytes will make you the most tech-savvy
> *You can copy and paste from here if you need to.
DOCUMENT STYLE
– We usually use Calibri font, size 11, for article submission. Again, in English UK. Please leave a margin of about 2.5cm all around.
Please check grammar, style and consistency in each article before submission. Thank you.
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