Performing arts review submission
The Next KDHX.org website seeks to present theatre, film and music reviews in a beautiful manner that is also friendly to readers.
Film reviews are located here: http://next.kdhx.org/film Theatre reviews are located here: http://next.kdhx.org/arts Music reviews are located here: http://next.kdhx.org/music/reviews
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
- Log in using the My Account button along the top right side of the homepage, just under the donate now button.
- 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 or music).
- Beneath the image slider, click Add a new item to this category. The Page editor will then pop up.
- Select your category; make sure to select either Film Review or Theatre Arts Review or Music - Reviews 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 6-12 words. If you can write a clever headline in less than 6 words, that's fine, but try not to go over 12 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
- St. Louis Shakespeare sails through The Tempest
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
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.
AP style reminders:
- Only 1 space between sentences.
- Commas and periods ALWAYS go inside quotation marks.
- Do not use the serial (Oxford) comma unless to avoid ambiguity. That's the final comma before the "and" in a series of items: Hamlet, Macbeth and The Tempest are my three favorite plays.
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.
Make sure you can see the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) toolbar above the editor windows.
Do not paste text directly into these windows. Do not paste text using the W (Word) button.
Copy the lede paragraph from your document. Click on the T (Paste as plain text) button in the toolbar.
A window will pop up and you can paste in your lede paragraph. Click insert.
Go down to the second window. Copy the rest of your review and again click the T (Paste as plain text) button, paste in your text into the pop up window and click insert.
The reason you are pasting in this way is to strip out all unnecessary code or artifacts from your text.
You should now see your text cleanly formatted. If there are any extra line breaks between paragraphs, just delete them.
You may now add italics for play, film, book and 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 (looks like a chain) in the toolbar, and add a URL.
Make sure you use http:// with your 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.
For Dates, follow these conventions to indicate opening and closing dates, whenever possible.
- If it is a theatre review, represent the opening and closing date like this: Oct. 1-10, 2010
- If it is a film review, and you only know the opening date, do this: Opens Sept. 15, 2010
- If you know when the film closes, follow the first example.
- If the performance or showing only takes place on 1 day, just include that 1 day.
Metadata Information
On the right, click the arrow by Metadata Information to reveal it. Copy your lede paragraph and paste it into the Description window. For Keywords, type in the same words you included in the tags, perhaps also adding "theatre review" or "film review." Separate keywords by commas.
Ignore Robots and Author at the bottom.
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.
If you run into any problems whatsoever with submitting the review, please contact roy at kdhx dot org and he will help you out.
