WRITING FOR REAL WORLD.

NOTES FOR AUTHORS .

Real World is a publication of the Auckland University Chaplaincy Network. It contains articles of interest to Christians, and is intended as part of the Network's ministry to the university community.

Real World is not a theological journal. We try to publish thoughtful articles about, or related to, Christian topics, but they should be reasonably accessible to students inquiring into Christianity but without formal theological background.

Real World has no official doctrinal or denominational stance. Articles from any part of the Christian spectrum are welcome, as are views of Christian matters from outside the Christian faith. We will consider articles critical of Christian or denominational matters, but expect that such criticism will be reasoned and supported by sound argument; we may seek articles in rebuttal if we think it appropriate.

Articles which conform to the spirit of these notes are welcome at all times and from any source. The Editor may request revisions or amendments; the Author may defend the existing style or content. The Editor's decision on publication is final.

The notice below has appeared on this page since January 2003 :

This document is in a ( very slow ) process of change. To hint at possible future alterations, which are in any case present preferences, old bits which might disappear are displayed in blue, while new bits which are not strictly present but might be some day are displayed in green.

It stayed there because I could not get the Editor to agree or disagree. Now that all the real Editors have gone away, and Real World is on the verge of closing down, the only Editor left is me, and I shall assert the green bits if necessary. This is, of course, still subject to a civilised process of discussion between Editor and Author.

Ignore all that. Real World is about to die; nothing is going to change. Some final comments recently added to keep the page sort of honest appear in blue italic.

STYLE OF ARTICLES.

Articles in Real World are intended for general readership; unduly technical language should therefore be avoided. Any essential technical terms should be defined. Close familiarity with Christian ( or any other ) doctrine or scriptures should not be assumed.

Reference Citation lists may be appended to articles if necessary. References should be identified within the text by superscript numbers in increasing order of appearance, with the full citation identified by the appropriate number in the final list. World-Wide Web citations ( URLs ) are acceptable, but should be carefully checked, and ephemeral pages should be avoided. I try to check URLs before printing, and if they don't exist I use common sense, which might be wrong.

We can handle footnotes if we must, but prefer not to; our argument is that the distraction of a footnote is inappropriate in a non-technical article. Footnote material can often be included as parenthetical remarks; the Editor may decide to bring footnotes into the text by using such parentheses, or otherwise.

We will accept text or pictorial material. Reproduction of pictures is at the mercy of our necessarily inexpensive printing services, so line drawings should be well done but half-tones are not guaranteed.

PREPARING COPY FOR REAL WORLD.

General :

Most of Real World is set in 11-point Palatino type. If you MUST have something else, you have to say so. ( For example, you might want an equally-spaced font to get things in particular relative positions. ) If there's anything really complicated, it's best to come and talk to me about it.

The line boundaries and hyphenation are automatic, so the less of that there is in your copy the better - I only have to take it out.

I prefer to begin with a computer file, because it's much more reliable, but I can read printed material into the computer system fairly reliably if I have to. The original must be clearly typed or printed ( by machine, not by hand ) if this is to work well.

A computer file can come on a disc, or by electronic mail ( simple text or as an attachment ), or by ftp ( ask me ). I use 3.5" discs on a Macintosh. I can read ordinary and high-density Macintosh discs, and ordinary and high-density PC discs. ( NO LONGER TRUE - "Progress" decrees that I no longer have a disc drive. )

I can accept simple Word files, but note that not much survives my automatic preprocessing except the text itself and type styles.

If you can't give me a Word file ( or something sufficiently close that Word will read it ), then the ideal form for me is unformatted text, without returns at the ends of lines, and with a double return to mark paragraphs. Many Macintosh and PC packages let you save text files as "text only, without line breaks"; that suits me very well ( provided that you haven't inserted any spurious returns ).

Type styles ( italic, etc. ) will probably not survive the "text-only" transformation. If you need them, use as simple a paragraph format as you can get away with. ( In Word, use all Normal paragraph style. )

If that isn't enough ( perhaps you want to preserve special layouts ), I can probably manage if you give me a Word file. I'll try to preserve what you sent, but no guarantees.

Please do not :

• insert your own hyphens at the ends of lines, or
• use spaces or tabulation to achieve clever layouts, or
• use em or en dashes ( long dashes ) ( just use ordinary hyphens ), or
• use backwards apostrophes ( ` );

I have to take out your formatting, and put in the sort that Real World uses. "Smart quotes" are acceptable, but on the whole I prefer stupid ones; I'll smarten them.

( Generally, if there is detail in your file which mustn't be lost - type style, font, layout, etc. - give me a paper copy as well so that I can see what to do if anything goes wrong. )

On paper :

Good clear well-defined typescript is best; then I can read it with a scanner, and it doesn't have to be retyped. If you want to mark special requirements, give me an unmarked copy too.

Pictures :

Pictures or other similar material will normally not be handled by computer, as there isn't much point. The computer will make sure that spaces of appropriate sizes are left in the text, but the pictures will be pasted in. Any editing - trimming, expansion, reduction - will be done by guillotine and photocopier. ( Mostly false, but it's too late to worry now. Ask me if you want to know. )

Conventions :

Names of journals, magazines : ordinary font, underlined.

Titles of books, articles, films, television programmes, newspapers, poems, parts of the Bible : italic. ( But 'the Bible', not 'the Bible'. )

Bible references : 2 John 1.10-15; to identify individual verses, v5.

Quotations from other works, peculiar usages : ' '

Direct speech only : " "

Numbers : 3 three, 33 thirty three ( unless qualified by %, $, etc. ); , 2nd second. Start digits at about 100.

Centuries : 3C AD, etc.

Words in foreign languages : normal typeface.

Headings : uppercase letters; subheadings : lowercase, bold.

For emphasis, use italic type.

In people's names, initials should lead surnames, and have fullstops : G.A. Creak.

References Citations : adapt these patterns to suit the example -

• Author : Book title ( publisher, date ).
• Author : Article title in Book title ( A. Editor ( ed ), publisher, date ).
• Author : Article title in Journal title vvv, ppp ( year ).
• Author : Page title at URL.

Reference lists : ordered by first appearance in the text; each line should be of the form -

     referencenumber <tab>citation.

Instances of identical citations should be given the same reference number. If reference A is a whole book, refer to parts of the book as

     reference number :<tab>Reference A, ppp.

If reference B is part of a book, refer to other parts of the book as

     reference number :<tab>Document of Reference B, ppp.

( I try to check the conventions anyway, but if they're observed it makes my life that bit easier. )

Alan Creak,
2000 November 2003 January 2005 September 2005 November.