Difference between revisions of "Performing arts review submission"

Revision as of 20:24, 28 September 2010

The Next KDHX.org website seeks to present theatre, film and music reviews in a beautiful manner that is also friendly to readers.

We are striving for clean, consistent text and formating.

To achieve this, we are using AP style as much as possible.

Please review the KDHX AP Style Guide for proper capitalization and other conventions. You should do your best to prep your text according to these conventions:

http://wiki.kdhx.org/wiki/Ap_style

For best results, we recommend using Firefox or Chrome as your browser.

If you do not know your user name or password, contact roy at kdhx dot org.

Log in to KDHX.org

1. Log in using the My Account button along the top right side of the homepage, just under the donate now button.
2. Look at the top main menu on the site. Click on the section your review will be going in -- either Film (for movies) or Arts (for Theatre).
3. Beneath the Arts news slider, click Add a new item to this category. The Page editor will then pop up.
4. Select your category; make sure to select either Film Review or Theatre Arts Review not just the general category.

Enter a good headline in the Title field

The next KDHX website tries to use AP style headlines whenever possible.

Your headline should be approximately 6-14 words. If you can write a clever headline in less than 6 words, that's fine, but try not to go over 14 words.

Examples:

See it at the Rep, but You Can't Take It With You Dozens of plays, freshly drawn and quartered Surprising testimony from Theatre Guild's Witness for the Prosecution Contrived script sinks Flood Stage's Coupla White Chicks Young Frankenstein stalks and stumbles at the Fox Masters of puppets: Avenue Q entertains at the Fox Theatre

A good headline will be unique to the review itself. It should be snappy and clever, witty and intriguing. Ideally it should hint at a positive or negative review. Puns are good, so long as they aren't groan inducing.

Strong verbs make for excellent headlines.

Compose your headline before you begin the submission process. That way you can just copy and paste it in to the Title field.

Use standard AP style for headlines. Only capitalize the first word, unless the word is part of the title to the film or play or piece of music you are reviewing, or is part of a proper noun. For instance:

See it at the Rep, but You Can't Take It With You

Rep is capitalized because it is a proper noun (the name of the theatre). You Can't Take It With You is capitalized as such because it is the title of the play.

Leave the Title Alias blank

Tags

Add a few tags (keywords). Title of the play/film/music piece, name of the theatre company, name of the director, genre, playwright, lead actor, etc. 4-6 tags are adequate.

Publishing state

For now, click No for published state. Leave "Featured" unchecked. Make sure you have the correct category (Film Reviews, Theatre Review, etc) selected from the drop down.

Pasting your text in the editor windows

A few notes before we get started on this step.

Online publishing is tricky. If it were as simple as cutting and pasting from a formatted Word document, all of our lives would be easier. However, it quite simply is not that simple.

People have different browsers, different versions of Word, different operating systems, etc., all of which impact the way text behaves on the Web.

So, we have simplified the process as much as possible. Following these steps carefully will result in cleaner and more consistent copy in all articles, fewer headaches for you and far fewer headaches for your tireless editors.

The steps are not difficult, but it is vital that you do your best to follow them.

Tip: Format your Word document as single space text without indented paragraphs. Instead, just enter an extra return between paragraphs. If possible, turn off "curly quotes" or "smart quotes" in Word. Search your Word help for how to do this. There is no need to add italics to your Word document. You will add italics in the editor window.

Another tip: The easiest and cleanest way to make a dash is to type the word, then a space, then two hyphens, then a space, then the next word. That will give you a nice clean dash.

The first window is the intro paragraph or lede. The lede should be a snappy, engaging teaser to the rest of the article. It should make the reader want to read more. Lede should be short: approximately 30-50 words.

Click on the Show/Hide Editor button. This will hide the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) toolbar. You must hide the WYSIWYG for this process to work.

Copy the lede paragraph from your document. Paste it in this first window with the WYSIWYG hidden.

Go down to the second window. Copy the rest of your review and paste in with the WYSIWYG hidden.

The reason you are pasting in this way is to strip out all unnecessary code or artifacts from your text.

Now, to format your paragraphs properly copy this bit of code:

</p><p> 

These are the html tags for paragraphs. Paste after the END of each paragraph. When you get to the final paragraph, remove the last

<p>

only.

Now click on show/hide again, and you will see the beautiful and clean preview of your text!

You may now add italics for play/film/symphony titles. Simply highlight the words you want to italicize and click the I button in the tool bar.

Do not add bold or other formatting.

Do the same for links, if you want to add them. Just highlight the linked word or phrase, click on the link icon in the toolbar, and add a URL.

That should be all the formatting you need.

We are no longer including "run dates" or theatre information at the end of the article. This information will be in the Extra Fields.

Fill out Extra Fields.

Click on the Extra Fields tab above the first editor window.

Add the name of the theatre. If it is a movie, and is playing at various theatres in St. Louis, simply put Various.

Add the URL for the theatre whenever possible. If Various, leave blank. Make sure you use http:// in your URL.

Leave all Open in Same Window menus as they are.

Add the Director name. Double check the spelling.

Add the Running Through date if you have it. If not, leave blank.

Ignore Website and Event Link for now.

Review your article

Click on Content tab above the editor windows and take some time to double check and proofread your article. If it all looks good, you may click Save at the top. Your editor will review, add an image and publish on KDHX.org.

You're done! You may now log out.

Important: E-mail Chuck Lavazzi that you have submitted a review; he will then review and publish.