Quick editorial tips to ease the way

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1. Headlines should be clear, direct and in active voice.
   1. Multiple subjects should be separated by comma, not conjunction (Ex: McKnight Center, New York Philharmonic agree to new partnership).
   2. Headlines should have a verb.
   3. Headlines are written in the historical present tense. That means they are written in present tense but describe events that just happened. The exception to that is when you're writing about something that happened quite some time ago. (Example: OSU receives top grant, not OSU received top grant)
   4. To increase engagement, focus on the impact of the article. Who will this affect? Why is it important information for this audience? (Ex: Not … Mesonet publishes weather report on drought conditions. Instead … Farmers brace for Mesonet report as drought fears mount)
   5. Be specific but not too wordy. Still, you don’t want to mislead anyone by sacrificing clarity for brevity.
   6. Feature headlines can take a more heartfelt approach, but they should still tell readers what the story is about. (Instead of simply “Perfect match” … “Perfect match: OSU alumni couple strengthens future marriage with life-saving kidney donation”)
2. One space between sentences. We know your typing teacher told you two, but for the purposes of layout, one is enough.
3. One thought per paragraph. Longer paragraphs can be off putting for readers and appear to take up entire columns when dropped into a layout.
4. Numbers one through nine are spelled out. At 10, they turn into numerals. Except in regard to ages, those are always numerals.
5. When you use “that,” read the sentence again and imagine it without it. Chances are that you don’t need it. The same is true for many prepositional phrases, which can bog down your writing. When you start chaining together prepositional phrases at the end of sentences, make sure you really need them.
6. Don’t be afraid to use contractions. Again, we’re not formal. Contractions help your writing sound conversational, i.e. it makes your “voice” actually sound like one. Marketing writing isn’t academic writing, after all.
7. Space and attention are limited, so get right to it. And remember the Five W’s — Who, What, When, Where and Why.
8. End-of-the-sentence punctuation and commas go inside quotation marks.
9. Use commas with purpose — they really aren’t the punctuation for every situation. Sentences do not require several sprinkled about for effect. If you find your sentence has become unwieldy and long, consider breaking it into two sentences. You don’t have to do it all in one sentence. Make it easy on the reader.
10. Use the ellipsis and em-dash sparingly. Ellipsis (…) indicates omitted words. The em dash ( — ) indicates an abrupt change or sets off a phrase in a sentence already overpopulated with commas.
11. There are a variety of terms and phrases that we use in specific ways to create a brand standard in communications. These include:
    1. Hyphenate land-grant instead of capitalizing it.
    2. One Health is written as two words and capitalized.
    3. Use admitted when discussing students versus accepted.
    4. Reference student housing versus dorms.
    5. List times, dates and places in this sequence. (e.g. The event will be 2 p.m., Thursday, March 2, at the Student Union.)
    6. List day of the week, month, date in this sequence. (e.g. Thursday, March 2,...)