Style Guide

Thanks for your interest in writing for The Reply!

We’re always looking for engaging and meaningful stories about and for millennials on topics surrounding life, career, money, arts, technology and the world. Before you submit, read other posts on The Reply to get a feel for our voice. We’re personal, relaxed and honest, sharing stories our readers can relate to and learn from.

This is the style guide we’ll use when we edit your posts. Please feel free to follow this style guide to help us publish your post faster.

Formatting

Technical

Promoting Your Posts


Formatting

Length

  • 500 to 1,000 words
  • Our most effective posts fall in this range; and we find this is the best range for holding a reader’s attention.

Headers

  • When possible, please use headers and subheaders to help break up the text into “snackable” pieces and make it easier for the reader to follow.
  • You can use headings in a variety of ways, but be consistent throughout your article. Some examples include using headings for lists or as sub-titles. If you are using sentences in your headings, only capitalize the first word and add a period or other punctuation at the end of the heading. If you are using a sub-title approach, captialize just as you would in the title (see below) and do not include punctuation. See the examples below for reference, and when in doubt, just be consistent.
  • Example of headings as a list.
  • Example of headings used as sub-titles.

Title

  • This is a Sample Title for The Reply from the Editors
  • Capitalize the first letter of every word, except for articles and prepositions three letters or less (so “From” is capitalized, but “for” is not; “Is” always gets capitalized).
  • Clear, descriptive titles work better than cute or punny ones. What would you enter into Google if you were trying to find this article? That’s usually the best way to start your title.

Deck

  • We include a one to two sentence intro at the beginning of each post.

Italics vs. Quotes

Use italics:

  • Book titles
  • Movie titles
  • Newspaper titles (after “the”)
Magazine titles
  • Television show names
  • Play titles

Please put in quotes:

  • Book chapters
  • Newspaper articles
  • Magazine articles
  • TV episodes
  • Poems

Numbers, Symbols and Spelling

  • Use Canadian spelling.
  • Write out any number from one to nine, use the numerical symbol for numbers 10 and up (this includes titles).
  • Write out the following in words: dollar, percent.

Technical:

Images

  • Images must either be used under a Creative Commons license or submitted by the contributor in good faith, with express permission from the proprietor of the image. If you downloaded your images, please include a source link to the image in your submission.
  • Attach images separately in .jpeg or .png file formats in high resolution
  • Include a headshot image for your author bio

Author Bio

Include a two to three sentence author bio, with an external link to your blog/website if available and up to two social media links.

Promoting Your Posts:

Once your post has been published, one of the editors at The Reply will follow up with a link. We encourage contributors to promote their pieces and send them around. Many readers arrive at posts on The Reply via links passed on from friends and other sites – we appreciate your help in getting our name out there!

Here are some ways you can help:

  • Send to your network via email
  • Share your post on Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms (and feel free to reach out to us @reply_mag or facebook.com/thereplymagazine)
  • Respond to comments (check back often on your post to see if you have received any new comments at the bottom of the page)
  • Friends = fans. Help us reach your friends by suggesting they follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/thereplymagazine) and Twitter (@reply_mag). And we’ll return the favour!

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