CONTENT AND STYLE GUIDE
“Here's a good idea - have a POINT.
It makes it SO much more interesting for the [reader]!”
[Modified from] Steve Martin as Neal, Trains Planes and Automobiles
Writing Process Introduction
Ask Yourself these Questions Before Writing an Article
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Who’s my target audience?
What’s my point?
Why would someone want to share this with others?
Have I searched this topic for the most current information/news on the subject?
Do I have credible sources for my facts?
Have I checked my facts and cited my sources using links where possible?
Are there other PP articles I can link to, in order to drive traffic laterally?
Is my title snappy, catchy, memorable or intriguing, and do I use my keywords?
Have I proofread for punctuation and grammar?
Have I followed specific style guidelines?
Identify Your Target Audience
Write like you are talking directly to them, and do your best to identify with them. This will go a long
way towards making your writing more readable.
Have a Point
Without a point, your piece can’t possibly help us win. As much fun as it can be to vent your spleen
from time to time, the point of this site is to influence others. Make your point quickly and clearly,
using declarative statements in your first paragraph if possible.
Your Point Needs a Point
You might be making a great point about an issue, but it needs to be relevant to a practical and realistic
perspective and/or solution. That’s not to say you can’t write a great piece about—for example—the
cultural decline of the nation, but so what? Can you think of a way to tie it to a candidate, issue, or
policy position? If so, do, if not, consider tabling the topic until you can.
General opinion posts are welcome, but unless they reference political specifics in some way, they
don’t serve the mission of this site.
Example: “America is going to hell in a hand basket” –no point
“Senate Democrats are weaving the hand basket with XYZ policies” – has a point
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Make it Share-Worthy
We cannot be successful if we don’t get eyes on our content, so write for individuals who will share
with groups. The best way to do this is to make your piece easy to read, original, and as witty or
engaging as you possibly can. People share content because it contributes to their image in some way.
They want to feel smart, in the know, funny, or connected (like an insider, getting a “scoop”). Even
people who share political fare only with friends are doing it to start or continue a conversation.
Imagine your topic coming up at a party full of people in your target audience; do eyes glaze over or
people walk away? Or do they gather around and say “Go on! Seriously? Do-tell!” If you can’t be witty,
be direct, and straight to the point. Our site’s target audience is hungry for an alternative to straight
partisan rancor, they want thoughtful, insightful pieces, but there’s a reason sites like Breitbart.com
and the Blaze are popular—they write easy to read, accessible pieces that people can, and do share.
Keep it Current
The more current your topic is, the better. Even if it’s a recurring topic or issue, like immigration
reform, or income inequality, even if you already have a reference you’re reacting to from the current
day or week, double check by doing a quick search on the topic for any recent updates, retractions,
corrections, or points or other analysis to back up your point, or help you make it more clearly. No
need to spend a lot of time, just one time, basic due diligence, then start writing. This is especially
important if you’ve sat on your topic for a day or more.
Use Credible Sources
What are credible sources? Big name news sites, primary sources (the actual text of a law, the
Constitution itself, a candidate’s own website and press releases they have issued). Some blogs are
credible, but they too should be big name, reputable sites. If you find a topic or angle on another
opinion blog, that’s fine, but click through to their sources and read them to make sure you aren’t
citing opinion rather than fact. Better yet, search the same topic and find more credible sources rather
than citing the other blog.
An added bonus is, when you link to high traffic sites, your article is more likely to appear higher in
search engine results.
Use an Introduction
Start every blog post with a short introduction (100-150 words as a rule of thumb) that clearly states
what can be expected from reading the post. Use declarative sentences and include your keywords
from your title for SEO optimization. Tell them what you’re going to tell them, as a general rule.
Check Your Facts
This ought to go without saying, but you should check your facts, especially if you are citing another
blog or opinion piece. This will be less of an issue if you follow the above though, and always use
credible sources. It should also go without saying that you should never make things up or lie. It’s one
thing to draw conclusions, or speculate to fill in gaps between existing facts—in political journalism,
this can be a very effective way of crafting a “hit” piece—but it’s another entirely to create libelous
content that exposes all of us to legal liability. Be very clear if you are speculating, or voicing an
opinion, and never use quotation marks without a credible source for the statement.
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Cite your sources using links to the specific article where you got a quotation or quantifiable fact like a
statistic, dollar figure, poll result, voting record, etc.
Follow the K.I.S.S. Principle
Write using short words, short sentences and short paragraphs. Less is more. When editing, do your
best to remove as much as you can from each sentence, and paragraph. Check for overuse of the word
“that.” Keep it simple!
Use Hemingway Editor to check for long sentences, errors, and readability. It is free for online use, but
you can also buy the desktop version.
Use Emphasis Sparingly, and Appropriately:
Use italics to add emphasis to a particular word. Use exclamation marks sparingly (and only ever use
one, e.g. don’t do this: “I am so excited!!!!”). Never use ALL CAPS (it seems like you’re shouting) and do
not underline anything (it will look like a link).
Use Blockquotes
Blockquotes can add emphasis and credibility to a blog article, and they break up long monotonous
blocks of text, but they are best used for complete sentences, and should always be preceded or
followed by source links.
Thoughtfully consider the sentences immediately preceding and following a blockquote. They should
introduce or clearly tie to what you are about to quote, and sum up what the reader just read tying
back to the point you were trying to make by referencing that person’s quote.
Cross-link Within PP
This won’t always be possible, but do it when you can, even to your own pieces. Getting more eyes on
our own work is job one, even if you’re moving people laterally across the site. If they are interested in
your piece on a topic, they will probably be interested in another author’s piece too. Plus, if they find
there are more writers they like here, or writing about their chosen topics, they are more likely to
subscribe and follow us, which is what we want. Helps SEO too.
Use a Clear Conclusion
End every blog post with a conclusion that highlights the key point(s) made in the article. Make sure
your piece doesn’t trail off, or make a concluding point that doesn’t tie back to the title and
introductory paragraph or point.
Choose Your Title Last
Start with a working title, but don’t finalize it until you’re done writing and proofreading. Sometimes
the writing process itself will inspire you. When you do finalize a title, try to make it as short and catchy
as you can. Metaphors are good, alliteration too. Unless you have no other choice because your topic is
technical or strictly factual, steer clear of academic sounding titles. Try touching on one or more of the
following: urgency, intrigue, or controversy.
Example: An analysis of the Florida special election: Why Sink lost –not very compelling
What sank Sink? – Catchy, short, easy to tweet
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Also, try to use the words in your title in your first paragraph again, and at least once or twice in the
body of your article. Both steps will improve SEO, and also ensure you stay on topic from a structural
standpoint.
Proofread, then Proofread Again Out Loud
This too seems obvious, but we all make mistakes. Proofread a piece when you’re done with it, then
walk away for at least 15 minutes and do it again. It’s common to miss things if you do it too quickly
one time right after the other. Another technique is to read the piece ALOUD. You may feel silly, but
you will catch grammatical errors like run-on sentences, passive voice, homonym typos, and clunky
sentence structure more effectively this way.
When proofreading, also check that you have followed the Style and Grammar Rules.
Sleep on It
If you are able to, leave a post to “mature” overnight and come back to it the next day. You’re likely to
want to make some further changes.
Don’t use your spell check as a crutch and never assume it is always right (it isn’t).
Always check the definition of any word you’re not sure about, and use a thesaurus to find alternatives
instead of repeating the same word more than twice.
Consider these Bonus Tips for Writing Well
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Let your personality shine through — you’re writing a blog post, not a textbook.
Stuck for topic ideas? Consider the following: common questions, breaking news and current
events, pain points, desires, and personal experience. We will also make a list of concepts and
ideas available on the Teamwork Operations Center and may, in fact, assign some them to
specific writers.
Ernest Hemingway suggested: “Write drunk, edit sober.” Get your thoughts out first, format
and edit later.
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Style and Grammar Rules
The following is by no means an exhaustive guide. It is, however, a collection of the style, grammar,
and formatting rules you must follow when writing for this site, and the most common errors we see
when editing articles.
AP style provides consistent guidelines for such publications in terms of grammar, spelling, punctuation
and language usage. Some guiding principles behind AP style are:
Consistency
Clarity
Accuracy
Brevity
AP style also aims to avoid stereotypes and unintentionally offensive language.
What follows are summaries of some of the most common style rules.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Some widely known abbreviations are required in certain situations, while others are acceptable but
not required in some contexts. For example, Dr., Gov., Lt. Gov., Mr., Mrs., Rep., the Rev. and Sen. are
required before a person’s full name when they occur outside a direct quotation. Please note, that
medical and political titles only need to be used on first reference when they appear outside of a direct
quote. For courtesy titles, use these on second reference or when specifically requested. Other
acronyms and abbreviations are acceptable but not required (i.e. FBI, CIA, GOP). The context should
govern such decisions.
As a general rule, though, you should avoid what the Associated Press Stylebook calls “alphabet soup.”
Contact our Managing Editor for specific cases if you have questions.
Addresses
For numbered addresses, always use figures. Abbreviate Ave., Blvd., and St. and directional cues when
used with a numbered address. Always spell out other words such as alley, drive and road. If the street
name or directional cue is used without a numbered address, it should be capitalized and spelled out. If
a street name is a number, spell out First through Ninth and use figures for 10th and higher.
Examples: 101 N. Grant St., Northwestern Avenue, South Ninth Street, 102 S. 10th St., 605 Woodside
Drive.
Ages
For ages, always use figures. If the age is used as an adjective or as a substitute for a noun, then it
should be hyphenated. Don’t use apostrophes when describing an age range.
Examples: A 21-year-old student. The student is 21 years old. The girl, 8, has a brother, 11. The contest
is for 18-year-olds. He is in his 20s.
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Books, Periodicals, Etc.
Use quotation marks around the titles of books, songs, television shows, computer games, poems,
lectures, speeches and works of art.
Examples: Author Porter Shreve read from his new book, “When the White House Was Ours.” They
sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the game.
Do not use quotations around the names of magazine, newspapers, the Bible or books that are
catalogues of reference materials. Examples: The Washington Post first reported the story. He reads
the Bible every morning.
Do not underline or italicize any of the above.
Dates
For dates and years, use figures. Do not use st, nd, rd, or th with dates, and use Arabic figures. Always
capitalize months. Spell out the month unless it is used with a date. When used with a date, abbreviate
only the following months: Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec.; or spell out all months as you
may prefer.
Commas are not necessary if only a year and month are given, but commas should be used to set off a
year if the date, month and year are given. Use the letter s but not an apostrophe after the figures
when expressing decades or centuries. Do, however, use an apostrophe before figures expressing a
decade if numerals are left out.
Examples: Classes begin Aug. 25. Purdue University was founded May 6, 1869. The semester begins in
January. The 1800s. The ’90s.
If you refer to an event that occurred the day prior to when the article will appear, do not use the word
yesterday. Instead, use the day of the week. Capitalize days of the week, but do not abbreviate. If an
event occurs more than seven days before or after the current date, use the month and a figure.
Dimensions
When writing about height, weight or other dimensions, use figures and spell out words such as feet,
miles, etc. Examples: She is 5-foot-3. He wrote with a 2-inch pencil.
Member Tag
If you are writing about a member of Congress, and you want to identify them by their member tag,
name, space, paren. single capital letter (R, D or I), space, then two capital abbr. of the state they
represent, close paren. When referring to the US Congressional members, these are the rules for how
it should be done.
Examples: US Senate, Bob Casey (R PA); US House, Scott Perry (R PA04).
Miles
Use figures for any distances over 10. For any distances below 10, spell out the distance.
Examples: My flight covered 1,113 miles. The airport runway is five miles long.
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Names
Always use a person’s first and last name the first time they are mentioned in a story. Only use last
names on second reference. Do not use courtesy titles such as Mr., Mrs., Miss or Ms. unless they are
part of a direct quotation or are needed to differentiate between people who have the same last
name.
Numerals
Never begin a sentence with a figure, except for sentences that begin with a year.
Examples: Two hundred freshmen attended. 1776 was an important year.
Use roman numerals to describe wars and to show sequences for people. Examples: World War II,
Pope John Paul II, Elizabeth II.
For ordinal numbers, spell out first through ninth and use figures for 10th and above when describing
order in time or location.
Examples: second base, 10th in a row.
Some ordinal numbers, such as those indicating political or geographic order, should use figures in all
cases.
Examples: 3rd District Court, 9th ward.
For cardinal numbers, spell out numbers below 10 and use figures for numbers 10 and above.
Example: The man had five children and 11 grandchildren.
When referring to money, use numerals. For cents or amounts of $1 million or more, spell the words
cents, million, billion, trillion etc.
Examples: $26.52, $100,200, $8 million, 6 cents.
Punctuation
Use a single space after a period.
Do not use commas before a conjunction in a simple series.
Example: In art class, they learned that red, yellow and blue are primary colors. His brothers are Tom,
Joe, Frank and Pete.
However, a comma should be used before the terminal conjunction in a complex series, if part of that
series also contains a conjunction.
Example: Purdue University's English Department offers doctoral majors in Literature, Second
Language Studies, English Language and Linguistics, and Rhetoric and Composition.
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Commas and periods go within quotation marks. Example: “I did nothing wrong,” he said. She said,
“Let’s go to the Purdue game.”
States and Cities
When the name of a state stands alone in a sentence, spell it out. When the name of a city and state
are used together, the name of the state should be abbreviated. States should also be abbreviated
when used as part of a short-form political affiliation.
Examples: He came from Lafayette, IN. The peace accord was signed in Dayton, OH. The wildfire began
in California and moved east toward Carson City, NV.
AP style does not require the name of a state with the names of the following 30 cities:
Cities Not Requiring State Names
Atlanta
Milwaukee
Baltimore
Minneapolis
Boston
New Orleans
Chicago
New York
Cincinnati
Oklahoma City
Cleveland
Philadelphia
Dallas
Phoenix
Denver
Pittsburgh
Detroit
St. Louis
Honolulu
Salt Lake City
Houston
San Antonio
Indianapolis San Diego
Las Vegas
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Seattle
Miami
Washington
Times
The exact time when an event has occurred or will occur is unnecessary for most stories. Of course,
there are occasions when the time of day is important. In such cases, use figures, but spell
out noon and midnight. Use a colon to separate hours from minutes, but do not use :00.
Examples: 1 PM, 3:30 AM.
Titles
Generally, capitalize formal titles when they appear before a person’s name, but lowercase titles if
they are informal, appear without a person’s name, follow a person’s name or are set off before a
name by commas. Also, lowercase adjectives that designate the status of a title. If a title is long, place
it after the person’s name, or set it off with commas before the name.
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Examples: President Bush; President-elect Obama; Sen. Harry Reid; Evan Bayh, a senator from Indiana;
the senior senator from Indiana, Dick Lugar; former President George H.W. Bush; Paul Schneider,
deputy secretary of homeland security.
Technological Terms
Here are the correct spelling and capitalization rules for some common technological terms:
 BlackBerry, BlackBerrys
 download
 eBay Inc. (use EBay Inc. when the word begins a sentence)
 e-book
 e-book reader
 e-reader
 email
 cellphone
 Facebook
 Google, Googling, Googled
 hashtag
 IM (IMed, IMing; for first reference, use instant messenger)
 Internet (after first reference, the Net)
 iPad, iPhone, iPod (use IPad, IPhone, or IPod when the word begins a sentence)
 LinkedIn
 social media
 smartphone
 the Net
 Twitter, tweet, tweeted, retweet
 World Wide Web, website (see the AP's tweet about the change), web page
 webmaster
 YouTube
Common Grammar Mistakes
More than vs. Over
 Use more than when referring to numbers.
 Right: He had to walk more than 10 miles to find the nearest gas station.
 Wrong: He had to walk over 10 miles to find the nearest gas station.
Percent
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Write out the word “percent” instead of using the “%” sign, unless specifically citing a poll’s
results.
Months and Seasons
 Only abbreviate Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. when using it with a specific
date.
 Example: Jan. 1, 2012
 Spell out the months when they stand alone or are combined with a year.
 Example: January 2012 was a very cold month.
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Toward
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This word does not end in an “s”.
Neither does forward, backward, upward, etc.
That vs. Which
 Use “that” and “which” when referring to inanimate objects or animals without names. It
gets a little trickier when using with clauses. Use “that” for essential clauses that are
important to the meaning of the sentence.
 Example: I remember the day that I met my future wife.
 Use “which” for nonessential clauses where the pronoun is less necessary.
 Example: The team, which won the championship last year, begins their 2012 season next
month.
Farther vs. Further
 When referring to a physical distance, use “farther”.
 Example: I walked farther today than I did yesterday.
 When referring to an extension of time or degree, use “further”.
 Example: I promise to look further into this problem.
That vs. Who
 People who, things that
 Example: Most of the people who support ObamaCare... is correct.
 Most of that people that support ObamaCare... is not.
ObamaCare
 This word has a capital ‘C’ on ‘care.’
Formatting and Publication Rules for Submitting Articles
Use Microsoft Word
Write and save all your documents in MS Word. You may choose any font you like, any size you like,
but please use Word to minimize editorial effort preparing your articles for publication.
Format Hyperlinks Correctly
In Word, set your text formatting for hyperlinks to blue, and underlined. This way our editors will be
able to clearly see where the links are to avoid deleting them during the editing process.
Insert links to internal PP pages or external sites by highlighting the text you want to appear as a link in
the article, then select Insert > Hyperlink, and paste the URL in the appropriate space.
Be sure to create a title for the link that matches the title of the linked article.
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Format Blockquotes Correctly
Use blockquotes when quoting complete sentences, even short ones, and just use quotation marks
around sentence fragments or individual words when they appear as part of your own sentences or
paragraphs.
To indicate a blockquote in your document, select the section of text, tab once to indent it all one
space, and italicize the font. The quote will not show up in italics online, this is purely to help editors
know this is a quotation so they can proofread it, not edit it.
Do NOT add quotation marks when blockquoting as WordPress formatting does it for you.
Identify Where Images and Video Should Go
If you’ve got an image(s) that you want to insert into an article, note it in the article as follows:
[Insert image/video Name of Image/Video here]
Then submit the images with your finished article file.
Punctuate Properly
Always use apostrophes correctly – both in terms of indicating possession (e.g. “Tom’s blog”) and when
abbreviating words (e.g. “you’re”).
Never use ampersands (&) in place of “and” (unless it’s called for, such as in a company name
like Johnson & Johnson).
Use hyhens (-) to create compound words and space dash space ( - ) to create a break in a sentence.
Do not use a dash as a replacement for commas or parentheses — they are very different. If you are
unclear about why or how, read this: http://theweek.com/article/index/249329/youre-using-thatdash-wrong or this: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/dashes-parentheses-andcommas
Semicolons should only be used to separate two statements within a single sentence that are
grammatically complete and not joined by a conjunction (e.g. “I like KFC burgers; they’re really tasty.”).
An easy test is to ask yourself if the two phrases could be separated by a period (i.e. “I like KFC burgers.
They’re really tasty.”). If they could, use a semicolon.
Use Images Correctly and Legally
Make sure that your images aren’t too big (as a rule of thumb, they should be under 100kb and
preferably far smaller) if embedded in your article. If you have a suggested Feature Image it must be at
least 696 pixels wide and at least 464 pixels high. We have staff who will prep all you images.
Only use Creative Commons images from sources like Compfight, Google Advanced Image
Search, Stock.XCHNG and Icon Finder.
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