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Below are the style guidelines for diocesan communications. For print publications, we recommend following the guidelines for Pacific Church News. For electronic communications, please follow the guidelines for DioBytes or Website.

Jump to Style Guide topic:

• Pacific Church News
• DioBytes
• Web Style Guide and Best Practices
  

Pacific Church News

In general, follow guidelines found in the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual.

Punctuation

• Use downstyle capitalization wherever possible.
  

the bishop (but Bishop Marc)
the cathedral
the church (the Church is okay for the global church)
the diocese (but the Diocese of California)
the rector
the vestry

• Do not capitalize pronouns referring to God (e.g., not He or Him).Avoid using gendered pronouns for God.
  

• Use colons before subtitles.

• Use em-dashes rather than hyphens. (In Word, you can search and replace. An em-dash is ctrl+alt+numeric hyphen in Windows or opt+shift+hyphen in OSX.)

• Include spaces around em-dashes.

• In lists, use a serial comma.
  

apples, pears, and oranges

• Use italics for book titles. All other composition titles (movies, lecture series, etc.) are in quotes.

• Spell out state names.

• Use quotes on first reference to introduce new terms.

• Remove double spaces. (In Word, search for double spaces and replace with single spaces. Repeat until none found.)

Time Elements

• Use a.m. and p.m.

• Omit :00.

• Use "to" for a time range rather than a hyphen.

6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Congregation Names

• For reference to churches, always include the city on first mention.

  Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; second reference Grace Cathedral
  

• Do not use "Episcopal" or "Church" in the title unless it is part of the name of the church.

St. Peter's (NOT St. Peter's Episcopal Church)
Church of the Epiphany

• Observe the following:

St. Gregory of Nyssa, San Francisco (St. Gregory Nyssen is also correct, but house style prefers the former)
The Bishop's Ranch

Clergy Reference

• For reference to clergy, always use "the Rev." followed by the person's name

the Rev. Joe Smith

• Do not include academic titles, but if necessary you can add Ph.D. after the clergy person's name.

the Rev. Joe Smith, Ph.D.

• Do not refer to clergy as Father, Mother, or Rev'd.

• On second reference use last name only

Smith (NOT Rev. Smith)

• In quotations, it is okay to use the reference used by the speaker. Columnists may refer to people however they like.

She said "Bishop Marc..." (vs. She said Andrus "...")

• Observe the following:

the Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus or the Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus (second reference Andrus)
the Very Rev. Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral (NOT Dean Jones - clip quotes or change in interviews if possible to avoid Dean Jones, per Jones's request; Alan is okay)
the Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori (second reference is Jefferts Schori)
the Ven. Anthony Turney, Archdeacon of San Francisco, Marin, and the Peninsula
the Ven. Kathleen Van Sickle, Archdeacon of Alameda, Southern Alameda, and Contra Costa

Diobytes

• Provide the title of the event.
• Provide a 100 word description of the event.
• Conclude with as much of the following information as is relevant:

When: Saturday, May 26, 7 p.m.
Where: Christ the Lord Church[http://www.ctlpinole.org/], 592 Tennent Ave., across from Fernandez Park, Pinole
Cost: A free will offering
Contact: Joe Smith, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , 555.555.5555
Links: www.episcopalchurch.org/ens

• Use " -- " rather than em-dashes (note spaces).
• To indicate bold text, place [b] at the beginning of the text to be put in bold and [/b] at the end of the text. For italics, use [i] and [/i].

This is the description of an event. Indicate [i]the title of the event[/i] with italics and [b]emphasis[/b] in bold face. Please use these sparingly.

<

Text will display as follows:

This is the description of an event. Indicate the title of the event with italics and emphasis in bold face. Please use these sparingly.

Web Style Guide and Best Practices

In addition to the style points above use the following guidelines for creating useful content for diocesan web sites.

Understand how people read on the web

People do not read on the web; they scan because

• they are too busy.
• they are trying to answer a specific question or do a task.
• reading dense blocks of text from a computer screen is difficult.

Write information, not documents

Break up large documents and divide web content by

• time or sequence
• task
• people
• type of information
• questions people ask

Focus on your essential message

1. Give people what they need. Less is more.
2. Start with key points, then give relevant supporting info.
3. Focus on facts, not background info.
4. Break dense walls of text into easy to scan blocks.

Design pages for easy use

1. Use page templates provided for your section of the web site. Do not override defaults.
2. Don't center text.
3. Use default sans serif fonts, such as Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana.
4. Don't write all in capitals.
5. Don't underline anything but links. Use italics sparingly.
6. Don't use horizontal lines.
7. Provide at least 7 pixels of space around images.
8. Use default page colors.

Tune up your sentences

Good web writing

• is like a conversation.
• answers people's questions.
• lets people "grab and go."

Guidelines for writing well:

1. Talk to your site visitors. Use "you" rather than "he or she."
2. Use the active voice most of the time, (i.e., "The rector must fill out the form" not "The form must be filled out by the rector" or "The form must be filled out.")
3. Write simple straightforward sentences.
4. Cut unnecessary words. "Due to the fact that attendance is good at this point in time" uses too many words. "Because attendance is good now" is better, replacing one word for five.
5. Keep paragraphs short. One sentence paragraphs are fine.
6. Very short sentences or fragments are often okay.
7. Start with the context. First things first, second things second.
8. Use your web users' words.
9. Use simple, short, common words.
10. Put the action in verbs, not nouns. "The commission's recommendations were few in number" (weak). "The commission recommended few changes" (strong).
11. Do not use jargon or other inside speak.
12. Use full dates (day, month, year).

Use lists and tables to make information easy to grab

Guidelines for lists and tables:

• Keep most lists short.
• Turn paragraphs in steps.
• Give even complex instructions as lists.
• Numbered lists should only be used for defining steps.
• Use tables when you have numbers to compare.
• Use tables for a series of "if, then" sentences.
• Think carefully about the information in the left column of a table.
• Keep tables simple. Usually no more than 2 columns and 5-10 rows.
• Don't center text in tables

Break up your text with headings

Good headings help readers by

• getting them interested.
• helping them get a quick overview of what is on the page.
• setting the context for each section.
• helping them make sense of what follows.
• facilitating scanning so they can find the section they need.
• separating sections, putting a little space on the page.
• making the information seem less dense and more readable.

Guidelines for useful headings:

1. Start by outlining your content with headings.
2. Use questions people ask as headings.
3. Make headings statements.
4. Use action phrase headings for instructions, such as "How do I...?", "How can I...?"
5. Use keywords in headings.
6. Use noun and noun phrase headings sparingly.
7. Use no more than two levels of headings below the page title.
8. Help people to jump to the topic they need with same page links.

Write meaningful hyperlinks

Guidelines for links:

• Don't make titles or headers into links by themselves.
• Think ahead. Match links and page titles.
• Use visitors' words for links.
• Be explicit; take as much space as you need.
• Links of 7 to 12 words have the highest click rate.
• Use action phrases for action links (e.g., Read about our ministries rather than Ministries).
• Make the link meaningful, not just Click here or More. Web users know what hyperlinks look like and do.
• Put links at the end, below or next to main text, not in the middle of text.

Manage collateral materials

Observing File Naming Conventions

Files for collateral materials (images, PDFs) should be named accordingly.

• Use only letters, numbers, underscores, and dashes.
• Do not use spaces.

Example: 2007_parochial_report.pdf

Using PDFs

Guidelines for usage

• Use PDFs primarily for content that will be downloaded and printed.
• Avoid using PDFs documents for content to be viewed onscreen.
• Be sure to fill out the page title field (found under File/Properties) with a descriptive, keyword rich title.

Formatting Images

• Images should be typically 250 pixels across or high. 400 pixels is maximum.
• Images should be screen resolution, 72 dpi.
• File size should be as small as possible, 50K maximum.
• Photo realistic images should be 24-bit JPEGs with no less than 80% compression.
• Illustrative graphics can use GIF or PNG formats.
• Write descriptive alt tags for images. Use keywords!

Create maintenance schedule for all pages you create

• Set a date to review published content.
• Remove or revise dated material.

Word List

Baptismal Covenant
email
online
un-ordained