Rational Island Style Sheet
RC WORDS
RC ORGANIZATIONAL WORDS
Area, Region
Citywide Coordinator
Community
fundamentals class
Information Coordinator
International (International workshops, International Community)
International Outreach Fund
workshop (a family workshop), but Midwest Teachers' and Leaders' Workshop
Wygelian
leaders' class (not leader's, leaders), parents' workshop, teachers' and leaders' workshop, men's workshop, women's leader. Exception: Jews and Allies Workshop
The RC Teacher, the Guidelines (not the RC Teacher, The Guidelines)
Regional Reference Persons (not People)
RC CONCEPTS
Re-evaluation Counseling, not Re-Evaluation
RC, RCers, not R.C., R.C.ers, or RC'ers
Co-Counselor, Co-Counseled, Co-Counseling, but counselor and counseling—all for U.S. writers. For British writers, two L's (Co-Counselling, counselled)
re-emergence
Reality Agreement, Understatement
the oppression of young people or young people's oppression instead of adultism
distress instead of stuff
Put "mental health," "crazy," and "mad" within quotation marks
Community-building
Hyphens in class (owning, middle, working): as adjective preceding noun: middle-class people, middle-class workshops; as adjective after noun, or as noun: I'm middle class; the middle class is small
wide-world change
young adult concerns without hyphen
family work ideas without hyphen
educational change work without hyphen
OTHER WORDS
African American, Asian American, Native American (generally no hyphen between two capitalized words)
Black people, Black folks, not Blacks
child, young person, not kid
okay, not OK, O.K.
e-mail, not email
a while, not awhile
all right, not alright
toward, not towards
white people, white folks, not whites
PLACES
East Coast, West Coast; Midwest, Midwesterners; Northerners; Southern and Southerners (from the South of the United States), but southern part of the country, south of the lake
on earth, the earth
Third World
Spell out states and provinces (Texas, not TX; Hampshire, not Hants.)
USA, but U.S.
Spell out United States as noun
Washington, D.C. (with comma)
the Netherlands (in text) (don't capitalize "the")
NUMBERS
Spell out numbers under 101
Spell out large round numbers
Spell out a number if it begins a sentence
the sixties or the 1960s
twenty-first century
Spell out percentages (forty percent)
Numbered lists in body of article: (1), (2), (3) . . .
CAPITALIZATION
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender
Black people; white people; Native, Native people, Indigenous, Indigenous people
Catholic, Catholic Church; the Church (referring to Catholic Church)
elders
heritage (Latino heritage)
Jews, Gentiles, Protestants
Latinos/as
liberation (Jewish liberation, young people's liberation)
For titles
Capitalize the first and last words, and all other major words—nouns, pronouns verbs, adjectives, adverbs
Lowercase the conjunctions and, but, for, or, and nor.
Lowercase the articles a, an, and the.
Lowercase prepositions, regardless of length, except when they are used adverbially or adjectivally (up as in look up, down as in turn down, on as in the on button, to as in come to).
Lowercase “to” even when it is part of an infinitive.
TYPESETTING
Only one space after any punctuation [a computer requirement]
Italics rather than underlining for published titles
Italics for emphasis, not all-caps
In transcribed demonstrations, "commentary" free-standing in lower-case italics, parentheses, no cap, no period: (cries hard)
Double quotation marks for U.S. articles, even if author used single. For outside-U.S. articles, whatever authors use, even if it's a mixture of single and double.
Long (or "em") dash, not two hyphens. Looks like this:—. No space before or after. (Holding down "shift" and "option," type "hyphen.")
To protect anonymity, an initial followed by an em-dash: C—. Use for: session confidentiality, including young people's session confidentiality; Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual people; those for whom anonymity is requested.
Mid-sentence ellipses, three dots with spaces between. End-sentence, four. No space before first.
E-mail accommodation: Our e-mail loses italics and bullets unless formatted. Small o can replace bullet. All-caps can replace italics. Better, send formatted.
FREQUENTLY INVOKED COPYEDITING PREFERENCES
GENERAL
Refrain from adding words or changing an author's words (except in rare circumstances). Instead, delete, rearrange, change grammatical forms of words.
Cut out as many extra words as possible [This is an important one.] Many authors qualify excessively out of timidity: Change One of the things I saw to I saw
Remove rhetorical-sounding conclusions that sound added only out of embarrassment.
Change the sequence of sentences (or paragraphs) to a more logical one.
Change the passive voice to the active voice.
Change X happened, to Y happened to Because X happened, Y happened. If not, put a semicolon after so.
Change X happened, but Y happened to Although X happened, Y happened.
Pretend headings and subheadings are not part of the text. Don't refer to them, but rather make the text read coherently as if they weren't there.
Change or footnote expressions puzzling to non-native English speakers.
Cut out passages with copied, unfresh language (the overworked delighted, relaxed confidence, deeply, huge contradiction) and passages duplicating the writing of Harvey, Tim, or others. Cut out whole articles if what they say has been printed before.
Cut out dull parts, such as In the opening circle, everyone introduced himself or herself.
PUNCTUATION
Minimize use of exclamation points. We mean it!
Comma before the final and in a series
Commas and periods go inside quotation marks. Semicolons go outside.
Use "old-fashioned" apostrophe (We promote the members' learning. She had ten years' experience.)
Commas after introductory words? Yes, if there's a subject and verb (this is called an introductory clause: After we ate, we sang). Yes, if there's a gerund (Knowing this, I acted). Yes, if the phrase ends in a verb or preposition. Otherwise, no, except to avoid confusion.
Set off between two commas: state, province, country; e.g. and i.e.; the year after a specific date (April 3, 1998,) but not when only a month and year are given (April 1998)
Comma before and, but, or in compound sentences. (They met, and they wept.)
Use periods, not commas, to divide complete sentences not connected by and, or, or but. Semicolons can be okay.
Comma usually before because, as, since if the phrase following them could stand as an independent sentence and have the meaning be roughly the same.
WORD USAGE
Let no sentence begin with an abbreviation, symbol, or numeral, not even with RC.
Rearrange sentences to avoid there is, it is
Replace this with its antecedent.
Cut out words that mark paragraphs in spoken language: Well. You see. Anyway.
Delete very, really, deeply, huge
Delete literally
Change key to important unless there really is only one key thing.
Change form from There's many to There are many
Change etc. to and so on. Change e.g. to for example. Change i.e. to that is.
Spell out most abbreviations ("Mental health" system survivors, not MHSS; Parent-Teacher Organization, not PTO)
Use between for two, among for more than two
Minimize slashes. Change support/counseling to support and counseling. Change and/or to and or or as appropriate.
Change due to to because of (unless after a form of to be)
Change that to who if people involved (People who think. . . rather than People that think. . . )
Change which to that if not preceded by a comma
Change one to a, an in expressions such as "It took a month" and "a hundred percent sure."
People often make mistakes of this "overcorrection" type: for Tom and I. If you would say for me, say for Tom and me.
REMINDERS
Make series and lists parallel. [This is an important one.]
My mother is here. Here comes Mom. My dad is here. Where's Daddy?
After a phrase that begins for example or such as, don't use etcetera.
not only needs but also. Both. . . and, not both . . . as well as.
me as object, not myself. I as subject, not myself.
Lie, lay, lain, lying when no direct object. Lay, laid, laid, laying when direct object.
Singular: criterion, phenomenon, medium. Plural: criteria, phenomena, media.
Distinguish bring from take, affect from effect, every day from everyday.
Use i.e. to mean that is; use e.g. to mean for example. Better: spell out.
a lot, not alot
under way, not underway
Change between 150-200 to between l50 and 200. Change from 150-200 to from 150 to 200. Change about 150-200 to about 150 or 200.
three hundred and fifty billion, not three-hundred-and-fifty billion; but three hundred and fifty-two billion, thirty-three billion
No comma where one subject, two verbs (They met and liked each other.)
Put punctuation of parenthetical matter inside the parentheses unless the parenthetical matter is embedded in another sentence.
A new paragraph for each change of speaker in dialogue
Match introductory words and subjects of sentences: Change Knowing three languages, speaking was easy for me to Knowing three languages, I found speaking easy. (“Speaking” is not the one who “knows.”)
USEFUL BOOKS
For authority, we refer to: Words into Type, Marjorie E. Skillin et al., and The Chicago Manual of Style.