If we approve your pitch, we will direct you to this page, among others. Read it before writing your draft. Then check out our Draft Submission Templates.
Style Guidelines
Rauch style is a slightly modified version of AP Style. If we have invited you to work with us long term, we will consider gifting you the latest iteration of the AP stylebook. Below are Rauch style’s key characteristics. We emphasize the ones people tend to miss.
Quotation Marks: When and How to Use Them, and When to Use Double or Single
- When in the body of a piece: Double quotation marks around titles of books, TV shows, podcast series, articles, etc. Example: “The Last of the Mentally Ill” by Joseph Rauch. No italics, underline or bold.
- When in the title or headings of a piece: Single quotation marks around titles of books, TV shows, podcast series, articles, etc. Example: ‘The Last of the Mentally Ill’ by Joseph Rauch. No italics, underline or bold.
- No quotes or italics for names of media outlets. Example: The Rauch Review
- When a sentence ends with quotation marks, place the period inside, “Like this.”
- For rare instances when you write a question that ends with quotation marks, place the question mark outside. Example: Do you like “The Last of the Mentally Ill”? Because a question mark inside the quotes would change the reading of the title — or at least risk confusion — we treat these question cases differently than sentences that end with quotes and a period.
- Place commas inside of quotes. For example: “The Last of the Mentally Ill,” a novel by Joseph Rauch, tells the story of Chester Owens.
Headlines and Headings
- Use title casing for headlines and all headings: Capitalize the first and last word of every headline, as well as key nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs
- In headlines and headings: Capitalize the second element of hyphenated terms.
- Keep brainstormed additional headlines under 70 total characters, including spaces
- Headings should follow a hierarchy. Start with H2, then H3. If there are more headings within H3, our SEO specialist will determine if you should use H4 or switch to bold.
Commas, Dashes and Semicolons
- Oxford/serial commas are allowed, but discouraged in cases where they don’t change the meaning of the sentence. For example, we discourage people from writing serial commas at the end of lists, especially if there is a conjunction after the end of that list.
- For asides within or at the end of sentences, use an em dash with spaces between it — like this. Let us know if you want help programming your Google doc interface to automatically replace two hyphens with an em dash.
- We discourage frequent use of semicolons. Writers often use semicolons as part of an attempt to get away with run-on sentences. So far there is only one effective semicolon usage we’ve seen: Joining two short sentences where a comma would be grammatically incorrect and where two typical sentences might not provide the desired rhythm. Example: Leaders aren’t born; they are made.
- When a sentence ends with a quote or when a clause ends with quotes and a comma, keep periods and commas inside the quotes. Don’t leave them outside.
Numbers and Symbols
- Numbers under 10 should be spelled out. Example: Nine. For creative writing pieces, you are welcome to disregard this guideline.
- Use the percentage symbol, %, for percentages. For creative writing pieces, you are welcome to disregard this guideline.
- For money, use the dollar sign, $, and numerals. Example: $40, not forty dollars.
Names of Publications
No italics, quotes or underlining necessary. Write it straight. For example: The New York Times has disseminated propaganda.
Bullets
Improper sentences don’t need to start with a capital letter.
A Short Note on Using AI Tools in Your Writing: Don’t Do It
We don’t want contributors using AI tools to write their work. We also discourage contributors from relying on AI tools for their research.
If you want to use AI tools to save time because you feel like we’re not paying you enough, we would prefer to have a conversation about your rate. If you want to understand why Joseph and the team are staunchly opposed to AI, read this article.
