You don’t need to be a linguistics expert to write good articles. As long as you have the background and expertise in whatever area you’re writing about, you need only put that knowledge into written, easily-digestible language. Don’t worry—it’s not as hard as it sounds.
As an editor, these are the details I see writers trip over most often, along with guidelines to help you master them.
Headlines: Many people find it tricky to discern which words to capitalize in a heading or subheading. Here’s the gist: Capitalize all words except articles (a, an, the, etc.) and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, for, nor, etc.) in the heading, and lowercase all but the first letter of the first word in the subheading, excepting proper names, titles of art, etc.
e.g.
Heading: Do You Really Want to Be an Entrepreneur?
Subheading: Why freelancing might be the better option
Anything that would be in either regular quotations or italics in the body of the text (titles, quotations, etc.) should be written in single quotes in a headline.
Numbers: The numbers one through nine are spelled out; 10 and above are numerals. Exceptions are made for large round numbers that look better in text, or that are deliberately meant as an abstract rather than a specific number (“A million people will be competing for tickets to this show, so arrive early” as opposed to “1,000,000 people will be competing…”) There are some exceptions, however:
- Ages are always numerals: “His 1-year-old daughter will turn 4 in three years.”
- Percentages are numbers: 8%, 47%, 100%.
- Numbers at the beginning of a sentence are always spelled out: “Fourteen people showed up to the screening.”
- But never spell out years at the beginning of sentences: “2014 was a great year for comedy.”
Titles (art): Italicize the titles of most works, including movies, plays, books and albums. A major exception is TV show titles, which you should put in quotes. Song titles also go in quotes.
* Examples of italics vs. quotes):
Title of play
Title of book
Title of film
Title of individual work of art
Title of album
Title of dance concert
“Title of TV show”
“Title of radio show”
“Title of art exhibition”
“Name of song”
“Name of individual dance within a concert”
Titles (formal): Capitalize formal titles when they are used before one or more names (CEO Michelle Roach, Creative Director Dylan Contois). However occupational descriptions do not get the same formal treatment (writer Shaye Graves, actor Tom Hanks). Lowercase formal titles when they are not used with a person’s name, or when they are set off from the name by commas: Michelle Roach, the founder and CEO of Promote Local.
Decades and ages: The format for decades is ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, not 1960s, 1970s, etc., unless it isn’t clear what century you’re referring to. Generalized ages follow the same pattern: “He was in his late 70s” rather than spelling out “seventies.”
Dashes and slashes: Slashes between words (“an artist/model…” “a swimmer/diver…”) do not have flanking spaces. Slashes separating lyrics or poetry lines (“Well, she’s walking through the clouds / With a circus smile that’s running round…”) do have flanking spaces.
Long Dash (em-dash): For long breaks, use the em-dash (—). It’s best to use these sparingly, however, since they can become a crutch. They can be used to mark a break in thought or to separate a very long list, but in general do not use them when a simple comma will suffice. For more on proper usage of the em-dash, including how to make one, check out http://www.dashhyphen.com/using-em-dash/. If you’re writing in AP style, as most publications do, put flanking spaces before and after an em-dash.
First Reference: Always give the full name of any individual, group or item being reviewed on the first reference in any blog post. Don’t count a headline as part of an article; the full name must be included in the body copy.
Avoid passive voice
e.g. “Bo Johnson played the part with humor and verve.” rather than “The part was played by Bo Johnson with humor and verve.”
Punctuation in quotations:
The period and comma always go within the quotation marks. The dash, semicolon, the question mark and the exclamation point go within the quotation when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.
e.g.
“It’s a beautiful day,” she said.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
If, as he says, “the show must go on,” then why hasn’t the curtain risen?
Spaces: Only include one space between words and between sentences (we’re not in the 1900s using a typewriter). Do a find/replace to eliminate double spaces.
Clichés: Avoid them “like the plague.” Do not fall back on hacky old expressions or tired constructs. In general, if you think it might be a cliché, it is. Come up with something original.
Those are the fundamentals! If you can master them (or simply save this blog post to reference), you’ll be well on your way to writing a grade-A article.