theWAHMmagazine House Style Guide
General things:

For the most part, we follow Associated Press (AP) style, as found in The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, ed. Norm Goldstein, Basic Books, 2006.

Please use the active voice unless constructions in the passive voice are integral to the meaning, style, overall voice, or subject matter. 
Please watch for overuse of “as well,” "too" and “also.”  
Watch for “it’s” versus “its.” “It’s” is the contraction of “it is.” “Its” is the third person impersonal pronoun akin to “his” and “hers.”
We do not use the serial and. For theWAHMmagzine it's “red, white and blue” not “red, white, and blue.” The only exceptions are in very long phrases or constructions that include and to begin with such as “His favorite things were peanut butter and jelly, Hansel and Gretel, and black and white photographs.”

In most cases, a comma should precede a dependant clause that begins with “which.”
Please NEVER use “importantly.” It is not an adverb (even if it is used in colloquial speech.) Instead use “most important” or “utmost importancev if something needs to be described as being even more important than important already conveys.  

Spell out ampersands as “and” except in abbreviations (such as R&D for research and development) or when the ampersand is part of a company name.

Do not use "mom" and "dad" or any of their derivatives as proper nouns unless they are referring to a specific person by name or are at the beginning of a sentence.

Examples:

Correct: Moms across the across the country are celebrated and honored on Mother's Day.
Correct: Mother's Day is when moms across the country are celebrated and honored.
Incorrect: Mother's Day is when Moms across the coutnry are celebrated and honored.

Correct: I called out, "Dad, where are you?"
Correct: My father answered, "Here, Hon. In the garden."
Incorrect: My Father answered, "Here, Hon. In the garden."
No apostrophe before the “s” in the plural of a decade.  1970s not 1970's. 
 
Numbers
Spell out “percent.” Do not use the percent symbol (%)
Example: 40 percent NOT 40 %

Use numerals with “percent" and numerical amounts higher than the thousands.

Examples:

40 percent NOT forty percent
12,000 NOT twelve thousand, NOT 12 thousand
12 million NOT twelve million
1.4 billion
 
When these values are dollar amounts use the dollar sign ($) and omit the word “dollars.”

Example:
$1.4 billion NOT 1.4 billion dollars and NOT $1.4 billion dollars.

Except for above, spell out one through nine; use numerals for 10 and above.
The only other exception to this rule is when a numeral begins a sentence, in which case, it should be spelled out.

Example:
Sixty percent of the group surveyed preferred to receive notification by e-mail.
NOT
60 percent of the group surveyed preferred to receive notification by e-mail.
 
Ordinal numbers up to nineteenth are spelled out.
Examples:
First NOT 1st
Third NOT 3rd.
52nd NOT Fifty-second (unless it begins a sentence).
 
Ordinal numbers are not adverbs and should not have –ly attached to them.

Examples:
First NOT firstly
Second NOT secondly
 
Spell out fractions. 

Examples:
1/3 or 1/2 should be one-third or one-half or a third or a half.
 
Opt for the decimal equivalent where ever possible:  2.5 instead of two-and-a-half or 2 ½

Only go out to two decimal places.
Example:
Pi is 3.14 as opposed to  3.14159.



Units of measure

Weights, measures, and distance (physical quantities) should be expressed in numerals, and follow the English/U.S. measures with the appropriate metric equavlemt in parentheses.

Example:
             It weighed 85 pounds (39 kilograms).
            OR
            It weighed 85 lbs. (39 kg).

Common Measurements
Dates

When providing date ranges such as birth and death dates, an en-dash NOT a hyphen. 

When only an approximate year is known, as in a birth date, use “c.” for circa. Do not use a question mark.

Use 1980s NOT 1980’s. 
1980s is preferred over '80s or eighties unless at the beginning of a sentence..

If the decade abbreviation is used, follow this convention: the ‘80s.  Note: there is no apostrophe before the “s.”


Dashes and Hyphens

Use em-dashes (the long dashes), with a space on either side of the dash ― like this for separating interjections.
 
Hyphens
Hyphenate two-word modifiers (adjectives / adverbial clauses) before the noun.

Examples:
a long-term plan
a wide-open field
a well-known man
a work-at-home parent
a home-based business
 
Very common two-word terms do not have to be hyphenated (except for home-based).
 
Do not hyphenate two-word terms that are used as nouns or follow the noun they're modifying.

Acceptable examples:

In the long term;
The plan over the long term
The long-term plan
 
Do not hyphenate terms with percent or dollar sign:

Examples:
A 15 percent tip NOT a 15-percent tip
A $100 million deficit NOT a $100-million deficit.
   

Acronmyms and Abbreviations

M or MM  = Million
m  =  thousand
U.S. is only used as an abbreviation when it is being used as a modifier.

Examples:
The U.S. economy.
The economy in the United States. NOT The economy in the U.S.
(The same applies to the United Kingdom and European Union and U.K. and E.U. respectively if used.)
WAHM or WAHMs; never WAHM's (unless it's posessive.)
WAHD or WAHDs; never WAHD's (uness it's posessive.)

State abbreviations are the first three to four letters followed by a period for state names that are longer than five letters. The only exceptions are the states that are two words, which have periods between each letter. Two-letter abbreviations without any periods for states are postal codes not abbreviations.

Examples:
Detroit, Mich. NOT Detroit, MI
New York, N.Y. NOT New York, NY
Note: Washington, D.C. NOT Washington DC or Washington, DC
Include a space before the abbreviation (550 mpg, NOT 550mpg).
 
Define acronyms and abbreviations on first use, spelling out the term and then putting the abbreviation in parentheses.

Example:
Business-to-business (B2B)   
 
If the term is only used once in the article, do not give the abbreviation. Just spell it out.
 
Do not capitalize things that are not proper names and so should not be capitalized. 

Example:
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should be gross domestic product (GDP)


Images, figures and illustrations

Always include a proper credit line.

Examples:

Source: Department of Labor and Statistics (http://www.dol.gov).

OR

Image courtesy of iStockphoto: Copyright © 2005, A. Photographer,


Internet language and terms
"E" words
Note capitalization and hyphens. “E” words are short for electronic + some other word. In the United States, a hyphen is used. In Canada and the United Kingdom it is not. 

Examples:
We hyphenate the e-words where “e” stands for electronic:
e-mail, e-business, e-commerce, etc. (But “E-business” at beginning of sentence)
 
Capitalization

The “w” in Web should be capitalized when referring to the World Wide Web, except for when used in a URL address.

Examples:
Web site, the Web, the World Wide Web.

The Internet is always a proper noun as is its abbreviation “the Net.”
 
Online vs. on-line

Online (and offline) are used unless the term is being used as a modifier, as in on-line transactions; the same goes for b-to-b (business-to-business) transactions; but B2B transactions is acceptable. A good rule to remember is to consider what question the word answers. If word can answer the question, “where?” then use online (or offline).
If the word can answer the question “how?”  Then use on-line (or off-line).
 

Quotations and Citations

Block quotes

On a block quote (quoted passage that is longer than four lines), either set the long quotation as a regular paragraph and put quotation marks around it, OR (preferably) set the quotation as an indented paragraph.  DO NOT DO BOTH.  Be sure to attribute the quote with a proper citation.
 

Quotes and question marks

If the thing being quoted is itself a question, then the quotation mark comes after the question mark:  She asked him, “Are you all right?”
If the thing being quoted is not a question, then the quotation mark comes before the question mark:  Did he just say, “Yes, I am”?
 

Quotation marks and punctuation (general)

With the exception of the above examples, quotation marks go on the outside of periods, commas, semi-colons and other punctuation.

Comma or colon before a quoted item? Either is corect, however, we prefer the comma and we prefer consistency throughout an article if quotes are used.


Plagiarism

Any unique and original ideas, concepts, and/or interpretations that are not the author's must be attributed to the originator accurately and where possible, cited fully.
We do not condone plagiarism by intent or by omission. Please consult the AP Style Guide for acceptable citation methods.
 


Document specifications:

 Title and Byline

Articles should include a title, followed by a byline on the next line. Byline should have a lowercase “by.

Example:

The Best Article Ever Written
by Author Name
Freelance Writer 

Roles/professional titles

These should be treated as proper nouns, unless that role or title does not pertain to a specfic person.

Example:
President George H.W. Bush is the 43rd president of the United States.
The president's residence — the White House — is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.
 
Subheads

Use subheads to break up the text by topics or categories. Subheads should be unique and related to the text in that section; depending on the subject, they can be fun, too.
Subheads should be in bold and lowercase except for the first word and proper nouns.  All ords in the subhead with the exception of articles and conjunctions that do not start the subhead should be capitalized.
 
Sidebars
Place sidebars after the main body of the article and before author bio. 
 
Author Bios

A brief author bio should appear at the end of the article and after any sidebars that have been included. Bios should be written in the third person and highlight the most relevant credentials of the author that pertain to the article or their business experience. Bios are not mandatory, but if one is not supplied, we will not hunt you down for it.

 

Research Tips and Tools

Wikipedia is not a valid standard source because not all information at Wikipedia can be verified or validated. If you need to use it for a launch pad, please be sure to find a primary source that has validity.

We love blogs, but not all blogs are crated equal. Be very wary of using blogs as references/sources unless the blog is from a known and trusted source and is not a
spam-blog (splog) with scraped content that is in violation of copyright law for both printed and electronic materials and as per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA).
 
The following are some general helpful resources:

  
This document is subject to change.