Writing Standards

Mr. Richard McDonough uses standards in writing that are sometimes considered different or incorrect by others. The intent of these standards is to meet the goals of Civic Journalism where “Truth Is A Series Of Facts Placed In Context”. A few examples of these standards are as follows:

Dates

When noting a date of publication, the full date is written out.

For example, “October 20, 2012” is used rather than “Oct. 20, 2012” or “10-20-2012” or “10/20/2012”.

When noting the time of an activity, an ordinal signifier (“nd”, “rd”, “st”, and “th”) is used to signify the date.

For example, “October 20th” is used rather than “October 20”.

Honorifics

An honorific with a first name and a surname are typically used together to identify a person initially.  An honorific and a surname are then used to identify the same person in subsequent notations. 

When the person is a man, the honorific “Mr.” is used.

When the person is a woman, the honorific “Ms.” is used unless it is known by the writer that the individual prefers “Miss” or “Mrs.”.

In the cases when the person being named considers themselves not to be male or female or where the person being named considers themselves to be both male and female, the honorific “Mx.” is used unless it is known by the writer that the individual prefers “Mr.”, “Ms.”, “Miss”, “Mrs.”, “M.”, or no honorific at all.

When the gender of the person is unknown, the honorific “M.” is used.

In the cases of a person who has earned a specific type of higher education degree, the honorific “Dr.” is used when such designation is used with that specific type of degree.

In some cases, a title is used in the place of an honorific.  A title and surname are then used to identify the same person in subsequent notations. 

In other cases, both a title and honorific are used initially in place of an honorific only.  Subsequent notations of the same person may include the title and the surname;  the title, the honorific, and the surname;  and/or the honorific and the surname.

In select cases, it may be appropriate to include an honorific with only the first name.  This may be when quoting someone from a culture where this type of speech is acceptable.  The quote should reflect the actual wording of the person being quoted.

In select cases, it may be appropriate to include no honorific.  A few specific cases:

This may be when the person being named is known by one name.  This may apply to individuals considered celebrities that are identified solely by one name.

This may also be when the person being named makes it known that they believe such an honorific to be inappropriate and offensive.  An individual who studies civil rights in the eras before the American Civil War explained that he found the honorific “Mr.” to be offensive because it was based on the initial wording “Master” and reflected on slavery.  Thus, he preferred the use of just his first name and surname.

When no honorific is used, the full name of the person is used in all notations.

Examples:

“Mr. John Smith” is used initially to identify the person and then “Mr. Smith” is used in subsequent notations.

“Ms. Joan Smith” is used initially to identify the person and then “Ms. Smith” is used in subsequent notations.

“President Barack Obama” is used initially and “President Obama” is then used subsequently.

“The Rev. Dr. Joan Smith” may be used initially and then “Dr. Smith”, “Sister Smith”, “Sister Joan”, “Pastor Smith”, “The Pastor”, and/or “The Reverend” may be utilized subsequently.

“The Rev. Mr. John Smith” may be used initially and then “Mr. Smith”, “Father Smith”, “Brother John”, “Pastor Smith”, “The Pastor”, and/or “The Reverend” may be utilized subsequently.

Names Of People

The name of a person is spelled in the same manner as used by that the specific person.

For example, “St. John” as in “Mr. Paul St. John” is written as “St. John” rather than “Saint John”.

Names Of Places

The name of a place is spelled in full unless an abbreviation is used in the official name of a specific place.

For example, “the City of St. Paul” is written as “the City of Saint Paul”.

For example, “the City of St. Louis” is written as “the City of St. Louis” because the City’s official name is “St. Louis”, not “Saint Louis”.

Names Of Roadway Suffixes

The full name of the roadway suffix is spelled in full.

For example, “Blvd.” is written as “Boulevard”.

Quotations

Quotations include the actual words initially spoken or written by the individual being quoted so as to provide context to the quote.

When a direct quote is used, the quotation marks are placed around the direct quote.

A quote that has ending punctuation includes that ending punctuation - unchanged - within the quote when a direct quote is used.  The one exception is where a comma may be used to replace a period that was initially used in the quote or where the comma is used to identify specific information about the direct quote.

A quote that has no ending punctuation includes all punctuation outside of the quote.  No exceptions.

Other punctuation that is included in the original direct quote remain in the same place(s) as within the direct quote.

If pieces of a quote are used together that were initially separated by other words, then “...” is used to designate the text not quoted.

If wording is added to make the quote more readable to its use, then the additional wording is placed in [brackets].

If the tense of a word is changed to make the quote more readable to its use, then “...” is used to designate the word removed and the proper tense word is placed in [brackets].

When quoting someone or an entity, full details should be provided as to the source of the quote.  If the quote is from a person, the full name - honorific, first name, and surname - of the person should be included.  If appropriate, the title of the person, the occasion for the quote, the location of where the quote was made, or other descriptive wording can also be added to put the quote in context.  If a quote is from a previous news article, the date or a description of the date of the quote should be listed, the news organization should be named in full, and the location of the news organization should be named if appropriate.

For example, a quote with ending punctuation:

“The sun is always shining here.” is the direct quote.  The quote is from Ms. Jane Jones. The quote was made on January 1, 1950.

When quoting the direct quote, it may be written as:

“The sun is always shining here,” stated Ms. Jane Jones in a document dated January 1, 1950.

Or, it may be written as:

In a document dated January 1, 1950, Ms. Jane Jones stated that “The sun is always shining here.”

Or, it may be written as:

Ms. Jane Jones, in a document dated January 1, 1950, stated:  “The sun is always shining here.”

For example, a quote without ending punctuation:

“Christmas: A time for Giving by Forgiving” is the direct quote.  The quote is from a headline in a newspaper, the Vatican News.  No punctuation - beyond the colon - was used in the headline.

When quoting the direct quote, it may be written as:

A news article in the Vatican News published on Christmas last year was entitled “Christmas: A time for Giving by Forgiving”.

Or, it may be written as:

“Christmas: A time for Giving by Forgiving” was the headline in a news article in the Vatican News published on Christmas last year.

Or, it may be written as:

A news article, entitled “Christmas: A time for Giving by Forgiving”, was published last Christmas in the Vatican News.

Spacing

A double-space is used to separate each sentence.

A double-space is used after a semicolon and after a colon.