International Website
From 24-7Wiki
There are three kinds of content published on the international 24-7 website: static content, regularly updated blog articles and weekly updated features. This writing guide explains the parameters for writing within each category.
General Writing Principles Grammar & punctuation should be of the highest level and adhere to British English standards. Published content represents 24-7 Prayer and when grammar, spelling and punctuation are incorrect, this reflects badly on the movement and the author. All content must be proof-read before publication.
Content of Text Features and blog entries should be focused on the 24-7 Prayer movement and/or community. Generally, 24-7 news and short reports or stories would be blog items. Researched, high quality 24-7 testimonies or articles about our values/theology would be features. 24-7 Prayer is not obliged to publish general Christian news unless it relates to activity of the movement. If an author submits something that is not clear, concise or relevant, the editors may send it back (with clear reasons why it’s not relevant and a written critique on how to improve the article) and ask that they work on it further. Only final drafts should be sent to the editorial team.
Format of Text When submitting articles, please send them in a format that can be opened by Microsoft Word. When formatting articles on the back admin system text should always be in the pre-determined default font throughout the article. Proper Casing (uppercase/lowercase) should always be respected; TyPiNg LiKe ThIs iS nOt AcCePtAbLe. Titles should be cased as titles and articles as prose. Use section headings sparingly as they tend to distract people and actually stop them from reading whole articles. To create section headings, write the section heading, highlight it and then use the Format menu to change it to “Heading 3”. Articles do not need another title in their main body as either the title provided in the “Headline” box will give the article its title.
Content Streams 24-7 Prayer has switched to two content streams: 24-7 Blog and 24-7 Features. General interest Christian content is discouraged as it distracts and dilutes from our news and stories that people have come to 24-7prayer.com in search of.
The 24-7 Blog is contributed to by a group of authors and is a combination of 24-7 Prayer news and short stories. The feel of the blog is informal though the same high standard of spelling and grammar is expected. It is updated at least every other week day and there is no minimum word count required though blog articles should not exceed 800 words. Content can be brief and link to outside sources so long as the subject is demonstrated to be 24-7 Prayer related. Entries do not necessarily need photos within the body of the text (only a 60 x 60 px thumbnail image for the home page), but they do need a clear author and author bio with a headshot.
24-7 Features are high quality life stories from within the 24-7 movement that share a message, or well thought through and presented articles about 24-7’s values or theology. Each feature should have a title image (320 x 155 px) to accompany it and a clear author with an author bio and headshot. Submitted features should be around 800 words and every fact should be verified before publication.
Writing for the Internet The Internet is an instant publication medium and therefore has some peculiar rules. It is highly recommend that all new authors start with the following website to orient themselves to writing for the web: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/print-vs-online-content.html. Correct use of links within articles on the web is extremely important: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/nanocontent.html
Recommended articles that orient you toward writing for the web can be found at: • http://www.alistapart.com/articles/readerstayawhile/ • http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writebetter/ • http://www.alistapart.com/articles/why/
Images Thumbnail images: Every blog entry must have a thumbnail image. This image must be cropped to 60 pixels by 60 pixels and be relevant to the topic of the blog post. Ideally the thumbnail image should be of a persons face and should clearly show what they are meant to portray at this reduced size.
Title images: Every feature must have a title image measuring 320 pixels by 155 pixels. Title images should not have any text on them whatsoever as the title of the feature will be overlaid automatically by the CMS. The image must be of a high quality, relate to the topic of the feature and preferably feature a face.
Images within articles: images with articles must be no wider than 200 pixels and the length no longer than 350-400 pixels so that they do not occupy too much space and draw attention away from the text. A feature of 600 words or less should not need more than one image to illustrate it. An article over 1000 words should probably be split into two pages and could have two images (one per page), but no more. Unless the content of the image is readily apparent to even the most new user, all images require captions. For example we must assume that new users do not know who Pete Greig is or what a prayer room looks like, etc. Captions help them greatly and avoid confusion. At the moment, the CMS does not automate this process and therefore captions must be added in Photoshop on a black back ground, with type in regular, white Helvetica font, no larger than size 12.
Image authorship: We must have consent from all photographers for all photographs used on 24-7 websites. Photos cannot be taken off other sites without express written consent. Doing so is illegal and puts 24-7 at risk of lawsuit. There exists the possibility of using Creative Commons licensed photographs off of flickr.com as stock photography, or 24-7 Prayer has an iStock account where images can be purchased for use on the web. (When you search flickr for a certain subject, make sure you do an advanced search and search only Creative Commons licensed photographs. Then you may legally use the photo as you please as long as you give a link to the author’s flickr profile somewhere in the article.) If you are using an image under the CCL you must include a link at the end of the article in a smaller sized font as demonstrated below:
Photo for title image and thumbnail provided by <a href="http://mareenfischinger.de/">Mareen Fischinger</a> under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/" title="">Creative Commons License</a>.
Change the URL and name of the photographer to use the HTML. High quality photos taken by people within the movement may be used with consent. If you need stock photos, contact pete.ward@24-7prayer.com.
