Guidelines for Letters to the Editor & Editorial Submissions

Letters to the Editor are welcomed as a good way to exchange views. They must include the writer’s name along with an address and daytime telephone number for verification purposes. All letters are subject to editing. Preference will be given to letters of fewer than 200 words.

Send to: southerncross@diosav.org

The Southern Cross welcomes news items, announcements and pictures sent in from parishes, missions, schools, communities and organizations in the Diocese of Savannah. By publishing your news, the paper can play an important part in keeping the Catholics of this widespread area in touch with each other.

Several years ago, the Communications Commission of the Diocese drew up the following guidelines for those who are responsible for sending news and/or pictures to the paper. These guidelines, updated by the editor, are suggested as one way of encouraging contributions. At the same time they will help to improve the quality of the copy and photographs that are submitted.

The editor, Father Douglas Clark, is dealing with limited space and must use it as effectively as possible to cover national news and features as well as the news of events in ninety counties here in South Georgia. We hope these suggestions will help:

1. Copy should be concise and factual. Please type (double-spaced) on plain white bond paper (use one side only), use a plain typeface, and avoid handwritten marks on the page as articles are scanned into a computer that cannot read handwriting, or send the story on disk or through the Internet (see below). Give the name, address and phone number of a person to contact for verification or questions. Stories may be edited for grammar (see the style sheet below) and length. Stories submitted in a timely fashion will be given priority.

2. Send in your news about important events or those you think would interest people in other parts of the Diocese. Your own bulletin or newsletter is the better way to reach your own members with news of events that concern them exclusively.

3. Copy must be sent in by Friday for the following Thursday’s issue. The address is: Southern Cross, 601 East Liberty Street, Savannah, GA 31401-5196, 912-201-4100, Fax: 912-234-5726. Mail is sometimes slow. If you are close to the deadline with something important, you might consider using UPS or Federal Express.
However, e-mail is preferred. Stories may be sent in MS Word for Windows format to the Editor or to his assistant. Permission to reprint must accompany articles that have previously appeared in other publications.

4. Photos should be timely. Christmas pageant pictures sent in February are too dated to be newsworthy. Pictures should be sharp and clear, well composed and well lit, with good contrast. Remember, a smaller group usually makes for a better photo! Use a sharp, close-up picture of one to three participants in an event to tell the story. Black and white photographs can be printed on any page, but color photos are restricted to pages 1,2, 5, 6, 7,8, 11 and 12. Please use a 35 mm camera with good film. Natural light is best. Digital Photographs should be 150 to 200 dpi at size - 4" x 6" minimum.
Have the film processed by a good developer. Avoid having the date and time stamped on the prints, if possible, and identify each picture with the date and place and first and last names of the people in the picture, as well as the name of the photographer. Photographs will not be returned unless a stamped, self-addressed envelope is included with them.
Digital photos can be e-mailed, but they must meet certain qualifications: The file(s) must have a resolution of at least 150-200 dpi; the file(s) must be sized at least 4x6 inches; the file(s) must be saved as .jpg or .tif files. Include the caption in and photo credit in “File Info” (from the File menu in Photoshop), if possible.

5. Specific events:

a. Graduations: the names of graduates and pictures of salutatorians and valedictorians (high school) will be printed in the second June issue; graduating class pictures will not be published

b. Schools: group shots may be published together; it will not be possible to publish photographs of every school event in the diocese. Catholic Schools Week: one issue is generally selected for emphasizing schools’ week. Please watch for the suggested deadline for pictures or stories.

c. Anniversaries: The 25th, 50th, l00th anniversaries of parishes and/or missions etc. are events, which call for celebration. A picture at this time is helpful, too, as a matter of historical record.

d. Educational programs: Special programs of an educational nature are often open to people beyond the boundaries of the parish or school. Sometimes there are innovative programs, which might have a particular interest for others. Share these with us through the Southern Cross.

A Style Sheet

Here are a few points to keep in mind when preparing
articles for submission to the Southern Cross

1. Please look at a recent edition of the paper to become familiar with stylistic conventions.

2. Avoid abbreviating the words “Father,” “Sister,” “Saint” and the like, as well as the days of the week and the months of the year, as these are always spelled out in our style.

3. Dates are expressed as “January 1” (not January 1st).

4. Avoid split infinitives (“to serve you better” and not “to better serve you”), dangling participles and lack of agreement between nouns and verbs.

5. Avoid excessive capitalization. See recent editions, especially articles taken from the Catholic News Service, for an idea of what to capitalize: for example, “Pope John Paul,” but “the pope.”

6. Avoid contractions whenever possible.

7. Check your spelling.

Other suggestions will be made as experience shows what errors are common. But please do not be discouraged; a good article will be accepted even though it needs editing, while a poor article with excellent grammar will still not be worth printing.