PaperDolls Style Guide
Submission Guidelines
All text should be submitted electronically, ideally as Microsoft Word documents. If you do not have a word-processing program, or access to one, you can send your work as a simple-text (.txt) document or a rich-text-format document (.rtf). We prefer that you do not copy and paste your work into an e-mail, because the formatting gets lost in the transition; however, you may do this as a last resort.
All other submissions¾photography, hand-drawn illustrations, graphic illustrations¾should also be submitted electronically (saved as .jpg or .gif); however, we will try to work with you if you have trouble accessing a scanner, or some related problem.
Formatting Guidelines
-Do not include a header or footer.
-No tabs or indents anywhere on the page; make everything left-justified.
-One-inch margins.
-Font: Times New Roman, Size: 12 pt., single-spaced.
-ONE SPACE between sentences.
-At the top of the page, type your headline, which we have the liberty to change. Below the headline, write: By Your Name. No colon between the “By” and the “Your.”
-At the end of the article type “###,” and below it type your phone number, e-mail address, and any questions or comments you have about your writing.
Interview Format
Paper Dolls: So you recently started your own vegan-shoe line?
Natalie Portman: Yeah, that's right.
PD: So are the shoes edible?
NP: Sure. That's pretty much all I eat these days. That's how I stay so skinny.
Review Format
Arts reviews:
Title of show
Venue (city)
Date
Duration
Ex:
“Women on the Verge of Killing”
Austin Museum of Art (Austin, Texas)
Through May 22
Multi-Purpose Doom
Menomonee Club (Chicago)
July 30 (last day)
2 hrs, 10mins
Books:
Title: Subtitle (year published)
By Author's Name
Publisher
Ex:
Cunt: A Declaration of Independence (2002)
By Inga Muscio
Seal Press
CDs:
Musician or band
Album Title (record label, year released)
Ex:
Portishead
Third (Mercury, 2008)
Concert reviews:
Band name, venue (city), date
Ex:
Thao With the Get Down Stay Down, Emo's (Austin, Texas), April 30
Sleater-Kinney, the Metro (Chicago), Aug. 4
Movies:
Title
Dir: Director's name (year released)
Starring: a few actors' names
Ex:
But I'm a Cheerleader
Dir: Jamie Babbit (1999)
Starring: Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, Cathy Moriarty, RuPaul
Television reviews:
Title
Channel
Day/Time
Ex:
Veronica Mars
WB
Monday/8pm EST
Style
Tidbits
ages Use numerals for all ages. Ex: Bethany, 5, is my only daughter. I love teaching 8-year-olds. Mattie, my dog, is already 13 years old! I love my 20s.
band names Do your best to follow the band's specific style. Regardless of what the band does, however, use an ampersand in place of an “and” to avoid confusion when talking about multiple bands. Ex: Brothers & Sisters are playing with Alvin & the Chipmunks.
dates Abbreviate the month if it is more than five letters and precedes a day and a month. Ex: Oct. 31, 2008; May 4, 1987; March 2004; December 2007. Months that can be abbreviated: Jan., Feb. Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. Months that cannot be abbreviated: March, April, May, June, July.
decades Write as numeral with an apostrophe. Ex: ’70s, ’80s, ’90s.
decimals Write decimals less than one with a zero before the period. Ex: 0.1, 0.3.
dimensions Use numerals when speaking of dimensions Ex: That television’s not big enough; I need a 2-foot-by-4-foot TV. The ruler is 9 inches long.
em dash The size of an “M”; two hyphens (¾). Use as dashes between phrases; no spaces on either side of the dash. Do not use en dashes. Ex: I finally got to pee¾it was fantastic. His hair was golden blond¾more of honey color, really¾and his mustache was too big for his face.
foreign words Italicize foreign words unless they are common to the English language. Only italicize the word the first time it appears in an article.
fractions Use numerals. Ex: 4 1/2, 3/4
numbers Spell out the numbers zero through nine. All numbers greater than nine or less than one (decimals) should be written as numerals. Ex: eight, nine, 89, 8.9, 0.4. Write numerals up to six place holders: 999,999. After that use a numeral followed by million, billion, zillion. Ex: 1 million, 75 billion, 8 trillion.
online
percent Use the symbol tight to the numeral. Ex: 2%, 57%, 100%.
school grades Ex: 10th-grader, 10th grade; fourth-grader; fourth grade; fourth-grade class
theater
time Use am and pm, lowercase, no periods, tight to the number. Ex: 9am, 4pm. To avoid confusion, use noon for 12pm and midnight for 12am. Ex: Lunch is served from noon-3pm. Dinner is served from 6pm-midnight.
Web site two words, cap W
who vs. whom Who is the subject of your sentence; whom is the direct object. Ex: Who is going to be at the party? Whom should I take to the party?
Punctuation Guidelines
ampersand (&) Can be used to replace “and” at the editor’s discretion. Use to replace “and” in band names. Ex: Tilly & the Wall.
apostrophe (’) Possessives not ending in “s”: the girl’s ideas. Plural nouns ending in “s”: Add only an apostrophe: the girls’ magazine. Singular nouns ending in “s”: Add only an apostrophe: Texas’ crazy laws.
boldface Use boldface to denote importance or emphasis in text. Ex: The most impressive band at the concert was Thao With the Get Down Stay Down; they were wicked.
comma (,)
compound sentences: Use a comma to separate two independent clauses separated by a conjunction: Ex: We drove quickly to the airport, but we still missed our flight.
introductory phrases: Use a comma after an introductory phrase. Ex: After I finished that burrito, I felt like throwing up. If the introductory phrase is short and does not require a pause, you can leave it out. Ex: Last night he asked me to marry his sister.
non-restrictive phrases: A non-restrictive phrase is a subordinate clause that is not essential to the sentence's meaning. Use commas to set off non-restrictive phrases. Ex: Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is a beautiful city.
restrictive phrases: A restrictive phrase is a subordinate clause that is essential to the sentence's meaning. Do not set off restrictive phrases with commas. Ex: The woman whom I spoke with on the phone said the show is canceled.
separating adjectives: Use a comma to separate adjectives of equal value. You will know if a comma is necessary if it can be replaced with “and” or if the adjectives can be switched. Ex: It was a vile, disgusting object. It was a vile and disgusting object. It was a disgusting, vile object. Do not use a comma to separate adjectives that are unequal. Ex: Delicious oatmeal cookie. Not: Delicious and oatmeal cookie. Not: Oatmeal, delicious cookie.
serial comma: Teen girls are intelligent, strong, and capable.
hyphen (-)
adjectival modifier Use hyphens to separate compound adjectives in order to avoid confusion. Ex: The thin-lipped woman asked me for the key. He prides himself on being a small-business proponent.
adverbial modifier Don’t hyphenate unless the compound modifier includes the word “well.” Ex: The ridiculously tall child hated to play basketball. They were well-mannered children.
compound verb Hyphenate. Ex: I drop-kicked the ball.
list: 6- to 7-year-olds; three or more words: a thousand-in-one chance.
Double quotes: Use double quotes for dialogue and names of short titles. Commas and periods go inside the quotation marks. Exclamation marks, question marks, colons, semicolons go outside quotation marks unless they are part of a title or quote. Ex: “Global warming is not a reality,” evangelical Christian Tanya Blawyna said. “If it were a reality, wouldn't God have told me by now?” How can she think “global warming is not a reality”?
Single quotes: Use single quotes for quotes with in a quote. Ex: “I told her, ‘You're a nut job, Tanya.’”
Capitalization and Titles Guidelines
Capitalization
articles and prepositions In a title, do not capitalize articles and prepositions under four letters.
official titles Only cap if the title directly precedes the name. Ex: President George W. Bush. The president of the United States, George W. Bush. George W. Bush, our president. Titles that function more as job descriptions are not official titles and should not be capped before a name. Ex: professor, chef, director (of a movie or play; do cap director if it is an official title: Director of Financial Planning Bethany Bond)
proper nouns bands, establishments, government entities, organizations, publications, etc.
trademarks Ex: Dumpster, Jell-O, Mohawk, Popsicle, Realtor, Roller Derby
Titles That Take
Italics
album titles
artwork: paintings, photos, sculptures
books
comic books
comic strips
court cases
dances
games: board games, online games, video games
movies
operas
plays
publications: magazines, newsletters, newspapers
radio programs
rockets and ships
symphonies
TV series
video games
Web zines
Titles That Take Quotation Marks
acts or scenes in a play
art exhibitions
articles and columns
chapters
episodes
poems
short films, under 60 mins
short plays, under 60 mins
short stories
songs