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Writers' guidelines

Dear writers,

To help you write for Eyeway.org we have put together some guidelines to follow. We understand that every writer has a style unique to him/her. These guidelines will help you ensure that you are meeting some specific requirements of Eyeway.org.

1. Your story idea first needs to be approved by the editorial team at Eyeway.org.

2. Once you are given the go-ahead, please make sure that you adhere to our parameters and stylesheet. The style sheet has been developed keeping n mind screen reading softwares, and it is important for you to follow those guidelines.

3. You can also send us pictures relevant to the article. These should be in digital format. Please make sure that the pictures are in jpeg format, scanned at 72 dpi resolution, high quality, and 320 x 240 pixels in size (for horizontal pictures) or 240 x 320 pixels in size (for vertical pictures).

4. The story should not be more than 600 words. We reserve the right to edit your story.

5. Contributors are requested to take note of the following:

1. Language

UK English will be the language used for all communications. Examples : organise, realise, analyse; defence, licence
programme; colour, honour, neighbour; focussing, travelling, catalogue; centre, theatre, fibre.

2. Abbreviations

The first time you use an abbreviation (abbr), spell it out. The abbreviated form in parenthesis should immediately follow it. Use the abbr when the word crops up subsequently. Ensure that the abbreviation uses fullstops so that screen-reading software does not read it out. Example: E.C.G. (not ECG)

Use full forms for: and, that is, for example (instead of ' &', ie, eg, viz, respectively). Note that a comma should be put both before and after 'that is' and 'etc' (except when they are at the end of a sentence!).

3. Apostrophes

The single apostrophe (') indicates the possessive case of singular and plural nouns. Example: her aunt's house, their aunts' houses.

Joint possession when used with the last of two or more nouns in a series. Example: Anu and Ratna's report.

4. Capitals

For headlines, subheads, and column heads: Use the first letter of the first word caps; the rest in lower case. Capitalise proper nouns; do not capitalise common nouns. Examples: The Mercury Report, Bio-medical waste issues raised in Parliament.

5. Dates and Time

The format will be: Month, Day, Year

If there is a date at the beginning or in the middle of the sentence, put a comma after the Day and Year. Example: September 24, 2001, was...

Use this format for time: 9 a.m. 3:30 p.m. (Not 9 am , or 9.00 am ).

6. Italics

Titles of books, plays, and poems. Examples: Ramayana, Paradise Lost

Titles of magazines and newspapers. Examples: The India Magazine, Sunday magazine, The Statesman, The Ecologist Asia

7. Foreign words and phrases

Foreign / Indian words / phrases must be followed by their meaning in English, in parentheses. However, words that have passed into the general English lexicon are not treated in this way. Examples: The malba (rubble) accumulates in the dhalao (dumpster).

8. Tables

Keep tables simple and logical. Use a heading for each column that accurately identifies the content of the entire column. Do the same for rows.

9. Units of Measurement

Do not use the abbreviated forms: kg, cm, sec. (screen readers will not read it out right)

Units of measurement, which are also names of people, should have the initial letter caps. Example: Newton , Celsius, Watts , Kelvin, Hertz.

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