The Ocean Breeze
Style Guide: 2009-2010
Follow these guidelines for all MSA articles unless specified otherwise.
For a complete set of AP style “rules,” please visit: http://www.apstylebook.com/
REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL ISSUES AND ARTICLES
Each issue must include the following topics:
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Student Feature – Pick an MSA student to feature each month (non-senior). This
student must “stand out” in some way, making him/her worthy of such a feature.
Environmental/Marine Life Article – This article must focus on a
significant/recent environmental or marine life topic. Discuss its impact on the
world.
Community Service List AND Fun Fact – You need to provide a list of AT LEAST
5 local community service events for MSA students to attend for the month in
which the newsletter will be published. (i.e. events for the April newsletter must
be events that take place in April). You must provide the name, contact
information, date, time, and location for each event. The Fun Fact must be an
interesting tidbit of information for people to learn. Be sure to site the fun fact.
Field Trips from the previous month – Check the MSA calendar for the previous
field trips and write an article on them.
Community News Reporter – This article focuses on significant community
events that impact Lawndale and MSA.
Announcements page – You need to ask EACH MSA 4SR teacher (Sherman, Mai,
Ichiroku) as well as Ms. Merritt if they have any announcements they would like
printed in the issue.
In addition to topics, each issue must include a parent sign-off sheet at the end of the
newsletter with a few lines for comments.
Each article must include the following:
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The Five Ws (Where, Why, When, Who, What) and How
Quotes from THREE MSA people (students, parents, teachers). Student quotes
cannot come from the senior class. All quotes must come from MSA-affiliated
people.
Names and grade levels for every person mentioned.
Contact information (name, phone and/or email address) for whoever the
photographer must contact to take pictures. Exceptions are community
service/fun fact, marine life articles (depends on article).
Be at least 300 words long. Include a word count at the end of the article/email.
Be broken up into paragraphs of no more than three sentences, unless otherwise
specified.
When sending the final copy of the article to the account, put your headline and
month in the subject line.
Your article must reflect all of the listed rules set forth in this stylebook.
MSA Captions
1. Must identify the people in the picture (first and last names) and their location in
the picture.
2. Must identify the location.
3. Must add additional information not obvious in the picture itself.
4. Can only be one sentence long – use concise language to summarize the
necessary information.
5. Avoid stating the obvious.
Examples:
Margaret Chan, left, director general of
the World Health Organization, and
Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, the deputy
director, announced a raising of the
swine flu alert level on Wednesday in
Geneva.
Joba Chamberlain’s fastballs reached 96
miles an hour against the Tigers on
Wednesday.
Mounted on the roof of Tufts
University's new Sophia Gordon Hall
will be a row of solar panels that will
help provide hot water.
Scientists find surprising evidence of
bacterial life beneath the Antarctic ice
near Blood Falls, seen here.
Quotation Marks in MSA Journalism
Every quote needs to have (at least):
1. Two quotation marks
2. Proper credit to the speaker
3. Title of the quoted person (with the exception of teachers in our newsletter)
**If you’ve mentioned the person once in your article, simple state their last name the next time you mention
them. You don’t have to restate their title.
TIPS:
Avoid using “said.” It gets booooring! Look in a thesaurus for synonyms such as (stated, declared, exclaimed,
observed, remarked, acknowledged, disclosed, revealed, insisted, whispered, shouted, retorted, admitted,
conceded, implied, emphasized… the list goes on!)
Your quote is the support for your statements. Don’t throw in random quotes for the sake of quoting someone.
There needs to be a meaningful point to each of them. Ask open ended questions to get the greatest amount of
original information to quote.
Understand your responsibility to CORRECTLY quote people. Writing false or incorrect quotes misrepresents
the person, which can damage their reputation and leave you liable for the consequences. You also damage
your own credibility to write accurate information.
HOW TO USE QUOTATION MARKS
At the beginning of the sentence: the comma goes INSIDE of the second quotation mark.
“I really enjoyed doing the assignment,” stated Junior Sasha Bear.
In the middle of a sentence: the comma goes INSIDE the second quotation mark (there isn’t a
comma for the first quotation mark. Don’t capitalize the first word of the quotation.
Bats are known to be “nocturnal animals which use sonar to locate their food,” said Biologist Rocio Zepeda.
When starting the sentence with a label and verb: the comma starts OUTSIDE of the first
quotation mark.
Associate Principal Jennifer Garcia agreed, “It is important to develop good study skills in high school to make
sure you are prepared in college.”
If the quotation has an (obvious) error in it, you can insert the correct information in its place,
but must use brackets to show where you have made the changes (but be careful NOT to
misrepresent their statement):
Original Quote: “Ms. Magana is my favorite teacher,” said Junior Matthew Mai.
Revised Quote: “[Ms. Yoshioka] is my favorite teacher,” said Junior Matthew Mai.
Quotation within a quotation – use single quotation marks:
“My favorite quote is, ‘Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today,’ by James Dean,” said Ms.
Yoshioka.
MSA Headlines
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Tips:
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Must discuss the main topic of the article.
Must include a subject and a verb.
Must grab the reader’s attention (to get them to want to read the article).
Must be short, concise, and clear.
Don’t need a period.
Simpler is better.
Use the active voice (no passive voice).
First word is capitalized, but not every word in the headline (only proper nouns).
Careful on subject and verb agreement.
Use normal language, no slang or “cutesy” phrases.
Don’t use a quote as a headline. It dulls the punch of the quote in the article.
Avoid “a,” “and,” or “the.” You don’t need them – substitute or omit.
Good and Bad Examples:
Bad Examples
“Police chase winds
through three towns”
“Clinic gives poor free legal
help”
“Teacher strikes idle kids”
What’s wrong with the
example?
Are “chase” and “winds” verbs
or nouns?
Correct Example
Did the poor get help? Or did
the clinic give out bad advice?
Did a teacher hit a kid for being
idle? Or is the article about
teacher strikes?
“Clinic offers free legal
help for the poor”
“Teacher strikes leaves
students with nothing to
do”
“Car chase leads police
through three towns”
How to Write and/or How Not to Write
By David McHam
University of Houston
In writing, bad habits are easy to form. Good habits are difficult to identify and hard to follow. Embrace good
habits. Eschew bad habits. If we only knew the difference....
The items in this list are arranged randomly. Read through them and follow what they say!
1. Never, never, never -- that is don't ever -- begin sentences with there and it.
2. Use that with dependent clauses and which with constructions in which (in which is an exception, of
course) commas are used. Leave the that out when you can.
3. Use said as the verb of attribution.
4. Set every story in time and place and use verb tenses that conform to that setting. This means that most
stories will be in past tense - including attribution.
5. Don't clutter up attribution with ... anything. Keep attribution simple. Don't say "... said the 29-year-old
mother of two who has red hair and drives a 1996 Toyota pickup truck with a bumper sticker that says
'Support Your Local Police' and was born in Wink."
6. Stay away from elegant variation. Don't use synonyms for a person's name on second and subsequent
references: the coach, the minister, etc......
7. A group, team or whatever is singular. A group of students is singular. The prepositional phrase (of
students) does not affect agreement.
8. Each is singular. Each of us is going. Neither is singular: Neither of us is going.
9. Use the apostrophe carefully: Parents' Weekend, Reader's Digest, New Year's Day... The Smiths' cat...
The Jones' cat...
10. It's it's and its. And who's and whose.
11. The shorter version of dates is '60s, or '68. No apostrophe is necessary in ages: He's in his 60s.
12. Master the hyphen. When two words work in unison to modify a noun they are often hyphenated: fiveyear plan, part-time job....
13. But sometimes they are not -- hyphenated, that is. It's Sunday school teacher or state high school debate
champion. But, it's a man-eating shark (unless, of course, it is a man eating shark).
14. ly words aren't hyphenated: slightly elevated driveway.
15. A wonderful construction involves the suspensive hyphen: The 6- and 7-year-olds......, full- and parttime faculty.
16. Be sure you have the pronouns down: It is I. This is between him and me. If I were he. She and I...
17. Don't use hopefully in speech or writing. While you are at it, stay away from other floating adverbs:
interestingly, fortunately ....
18. Do your best to avoid obvious transitions: however, on the other hand, in fact, etc.
19. If for some reason you are beginning a sentence with a participle, be absolutely certain that what's in the
participial phrase is in sync with the main part of the sentence. Here's an example of a phrase out of
sync: Believing that food plays a major part in health, animal studies .... P.S.: Don't begin sentences with
participles.
20. Don't use the not only construction. If you are editing someone who has used not only, be sure they have
a but also. Not only/but also is a parallel construction.
21. Use while only when two actions are occurring at the same time.
22. Some words aren't words and so, obviously, don't use them: momento, reoccur, reoccurrence.
23. Some words don't mean what you might think they mean: disinterested, anxious.
24. Watch especially oral and verbal. Here's the dumbest example, too often found on sports pages: verbal
commitment.
25. Don't put -wise ending on words, as in weather-wise.
26. Don't use following as a synonym for after.
27. Don't use over as a synonym for more than.
28. Don't use cliché words in speech or writing: prior to, due to, in order to, at that point in time ....
29. It's centers on, not around. It's revolves around. Avoid both when you can.
30. Don't even think about using continue on, even if your partner handles the mike on Southwest Airlines
flights.
31. New record is redundant.
32. Use miles an hour.
33. Be sure you know the difference in sit and set. Practice using them in your speech until you are
absolutely certain of the correct use: Sit is intransitive, meaning that it doesn't take an object. In the
construction sit down, down is an adverb. The principal parts of sit are sit, sat, sat, sitting. The principal
parts of set are set, set, set, setting.
34. Be sure you know the difference in lie and lay. Lie is intransitive. The principal parts of lie are lie, lay,
lain, lying. The principal parts of lay are lay, laid, laid, laying. When the transitive verb lay is used, it
will have an object: Lay the baby on the bed.
35. By the way, some uses of lie and lay are colloquialisms: lie of the ball, lay of the land.
36. Affect is a verb, effect a noun except to effect a settlement.
37. Principal is the adjective, principle the noun with the exception that can be recalled by this questionable
device: The principal is your pal.
38. Do not ever under in circumstances use allegedly. Of all the points in this treatise, this is the one that I'd
rate out and out stupid. Using this tells me everything about the person using it. You can allege all you
want. The point in all this: You need to have a source for what you say and you need to attribute what
you say to that source.
39. Don't use reportedly. If you are in a position of reporting, report. Don't say well I don't know this for
sure, but someone mentioned it to me and I'll just pass it along to you in the event it might be right.
40. Be careful with apparently, as in He apparently died ....
41. Write simply, clearly.
42. Write in such a way that your writing can be read aloud with ease.
43. Colloquialisms are okay. Use them when they are applicable. Don't shy away from them.
44. The same goes for unusual words. If a certain word is the best word, use it. Somebody is going to know
what you mean and is going to be appreciative of you.
45. Don't apologize for unusual words by putting quotes around them.
46. Almost never use partial quotes: He said he was "lucky" to be alive. The only time you'd want to do that
is when you need to emphasize that this was the exact word that was used.
47. On leads, don't start with quotes or questions.
48. On leads, don't say that when so and so was growing up she or he never dreamed of doing what they are
doing now.
49. On leads, don't say that so and so doesn't look like whatever they are or whatever they do.
50. People who know better judge others by the language they use. Practice using good language in speech.
You will find that good habits are formed that way. These good habits will translate to your writing.