5-5-11 Feature Story and Style

Your rough draft is due on Friday before you come to class. The final version is due on Monday before you come to class.

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Lightning Press Style Sheet:

Section I: Capitalization
1. Used alone, the word school is capitalized only when it refers to a particular school and is included in the name (e.g. the high school as opposed to Eastview High School).
2. Capitalize all formal school activities (e.g. Homecoming, Prom).
3. Capitalize course titles and formal class designations, but not general subject names unless they are proper names (e.g. art, science as opposed to French, English, American Literature, Sociology).
4. Do not capitalize names of official organizations or athletic teams (e.g. school board, student council).
5. Do not capitalize the names of school year classifications (e.g. freshman, senior).
6. Do not capitalize titles when used without names (e.g. the principal as opposed to Principal Dick Dewey).
7. Capitalize titles for people only when they precede the name (e.g. Superintendent John Currie).
8. Titles should also only be capitalized when they indicate a scope of authority, profession or academic accomplishment so specific that the title becomes almost as much a key part of the person’s identity as a proper name itself. For example: Principal Dick Dewey, President George W. Bush. Note: For our purposes, the only people in our school district who will have a capitalized title before their name are deans, the principal and the superintendent.
9. Other titles serve mainly as occupational descriptions, and therefore should not be capitalized. For example, social studies teacher Mary Carberry, astronaut John Glenn, sophomore Stan Schmalsley. The ONLY time an academic department is capitalized is if it is a proper noun on its own, such as English teacher Sue Smiley or Spanish teacher Joe Schmoe.
10. Do not capitalize names of seasons.
11. Do not capitalize a.m. and p.m. in stating the time (e.g. The show will begin at 8 p.m.).

Section II: Abbreviations
1. Omit common courtesy titles and abbreviations such as Mr., Mrs. And Ms. Instead, use the complete name the first time the person is mentioned and only the last name in subsequent references.
2. Names of widely known organizations may be shortened to initials without periods in all mentions (e.g. SADD and DECA).
3. Names of less well-known organizations should be written in full at first mention and followed by initials without periods in parenthesis; for later mention in the same story, initials may be used (e.g. Students in National Honor Society (NHS) are building a time capsule. Four NHS students began . . .).
4. Spell out, but do not capitalize, sophomore, junior or senior preceding a name
5. Do not abbreviate the names of states or cities.
6. Unless used with numbers, do not abbreviate feet, inches, yards, miles, etc.
7. Standard contractions are acceptable in newspaper copy: can’t, don’t, didn’t, shouldn’t, etc. Non-standard contractions are no OK: why’ll, how’ll, we’ll, she’ll, etc.

Section III: Names and Titles
1. Every person interviewed must have a title included with his or her name the first time it is mentioned in any story.
2. The first time a name appears in any story, it should be given in full, in the manner preferred by its owner.
3. In later uses, the last name only may appear.
4. If a person has an M.D. or Ph.D or any other doctorate, professional or honorary, refer to her or him as follows: First use: Dr. Ted Smith; Second and subsequent uses: Dr. Smith.
5. Do not use nicknames except in cases when their appearance is obviously important or appropriate.
6. Do not use EVHS or Eastview High School in any story.
7. Titles of movies, books, computer games, plays and musicals, songs, poetry, works of art and TV programs are always placed inside quotation marks. Capitalize the main words, but not articles including a, an or the unless they are the first word of the title. For example, senior Jon Kooksville records “All My Children” every day and watches it right after school. Kooksville then reads at least 20 pages of “Gone With the Wind” before supper each day.
8. Exceptions to rule #5 include the Bible and other reference books such as Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second Edition or Encylcopedia Britannica. Such reference works are not put inside quotation marks.
9. Titles of magazines and newspapers are capitalized in plain text. (No quotes, italics or bold text are used.) The word magazine is only capitalized if it is included as part of the title of the magazine. For example, Time magazine, Harper’s Magazine.
10. Eliminate sexist language whenever possible:
Chairperson (not chairman)
Firefighter (not fireman)
Police officer (not policeman)
Manufactured (not man-made)
...but don’t go to extremes: The ball was caught by the second-base person.

Section IV: Numbers
1. General rule: Spell all numbers from one through nine.
2. Write out any number beginning a sentence except if it is a year (e.g. 1998 was a very good year. Three thousand students graduated.).
3. Large numbers, usually money, above a million are more neatly handled with a word in this way: $6.45 million (not $6,450,000) $190.45 billion.
4. Exact sums of money should always be expressed in figures: 6 cents, $1.29, $3 (no zeros with even dollar sums).
5. Fractions must be expressed with words (e.g. one-fourth).
6. Always use figures for:
addresses dates
ages degrees of temperature
highway designations clock times
scores athletic scores
(e.g. 90 E. Third St.; March 19; Kim is 6; 11 a.m.; ranging from 10 below to 9 above zero; Central won the game 4-3)
7. Always use figures also for:
percentages ratios
heights distances
room numbers speeds
sizes pages
chapters votes
(e.g. 7 percent, 22 percent, 2-1 ratio; Se is 5 feet 8; It is a7-foot fence; Shellack won the election 5-2)
8. Acceptable in headlines only: 1st Lt., 2nd Lt., 21st Century
9. Avoid starting a headline with a figure.

Section V: Dates and Times
1.Use all figures without letters in dates. (e.g. April 1, not April 1st)
2.Avoid unnecessary use of last or next. Past, present and future tense of the verb in a sentence will indicate which day is meant. (e.g. The meeting will be on Tuesday, not The meeting is next Tuesday.)
3.Do not abbreviate names of days or weeks.
4.When a month is used with a specific date, use the abbreviations as follows: Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. Spell out all other months.
5.Do not abbreviate any month standing alone or a month with only a year. (e.g. They will meet in February. The new lunch line will open in September 2005.)

Section VI: Punctuation
1.Place all commas and periods within quotation marks. (e.g. “The water’s cold,” he said; the name of the poem was “The Road Not Taken.”)
2.Use commas to separate words, figures or phrases in a series. But do not use a comma following the final word in a list preceding the conjunction. (e.g. The team includes pitchers, catchers, infielders and outfielders.)
3.Dashes may be used to set off parenthetical or other material within a sentence when it presents an abrupt break in thought. (e.g. He claimed – and no one denied it – that he had priority.) Dashes should be used sparingly. In typing, make a dash with two hyphens. A hyphen is not a dash.
4.Parentheses should rarely appear in ordinary copy. Their use is usually limited to explanatory materials.
5.Use periods in abbreviations for times, degrees, dates, titles and for lowercase words. (e.g. 7 a.m., Feb. 22, Ph.D)

Section VII: Tenses
1.In general, only use present and future tenses in headlines.
2.Keep publication dates firmly in mind when using words such as yesterday and tomorrow.
3.When attributing the source of quote or a paraphrase, use says rather than said.

Section VII: Miscellaneous Information
1.Sizes of headlines are determined by importance and length of story.
2.Flush-left is the most acceptable headline of style.
3.Only the first word of a headline is capitalized unless a proper noun is used. Just like sentence-writing style.
4.Every story must have a headline in the paper. When you submit your story, submit three headline possibilities: one short, one medium and one long.
5.All body copy in the Lightning Press will appear in Times 10-pt. font, largest. May be shrunk to as low as 8-pt. font if needed.