This page is primarily for my own use and notes. However, I figured I should make it public for transparency’s sake and for those curious about this type of stuff.
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In most situations, the latest AP Stylebook should be followed. If the AP Stylebook does not have an applicable rule, then the latest New York Times Manual of Style and Usage should be followed. For general spelling, follow the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
House style preferences are listed below. These supersede any rules in the aforementioned style guides or dictionaries:
Abbreviations and initials
- Abbreviations should include a single period at the end of the abbreviation (example: “Mr.”, “Jr.”, “inc.”, or “esq.”). This includes Latin abbreviations that commonly have one period like “etc.”, “et al.”, and “ibid.” However, it does not include Latin abbreviations that commonly have two periods (such as “am”, “eg”, or “ie”).
- Individuals known by initials in their name should be written with a single period after each initial and without spaces between initials (example: A.J. Foyt). However, if an individual is known to prefer a different format or is otherwise well-known under a different format, use the different format instead. This means that it is CC Sabathia, not C.C. Sabathia.
Accent marks
- Accent marks should be used for foreign words that use them or if a person was/is known to use them in their name. However, do not use accent marks if a person is not known to use them (for example, the former baseball catcher Al Lopez was born “López”; however, he was known without the accent over the “O” and so the accent shouldn’t be used). For English words, use accent marks if the Merriam-Webster Dictionary includes them.
Acronyms
- Acronyms should not include periods or spaces between the letters (example: “US” or “NFL”). This includes Latin abbreviations that commonly have two periods like “am”, “eg”, or “ie”.
Dates
- If a paragraph references multiple years from the same century, the second references can be abbreviated with an apostrophe and the last two numbers of the year (such as ’89).
Headlines
- Capitalize the first letter of headlines/headers, as well as letters after colons or semi-colons. The rest of the headline should use sentence case.
- When using copy that requires italicization in the title of an article, place <i> tags around the affected copy in the WordPress title field.
Names
- For individuals with nicknames and names originally spelled in a script other than Roman, follow the spelling and format used by the Sports-Reference.com family of websites. If an individual is not listed on one of those websites, try to find them in an official database of their sport. If one does not exist, use the most common spelling of contemporary newspaper reports of the time.
- For Olympic athletes, use Sports-Reference.com’s Olympic site when possible. However, this site is no longer maintained and some names have become corrupt. If an athlete’s name is corrupted, use the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to find an earlier version of the athlete’s page. If an archived version does not exist, use the spelling listed on Wikipedia.
- As mentioned above, initialed names use a period after each initial without spaces between each initial. This rule is trumped if an individual is known to prefer a different format or is otherwise well-known under a different format. In that case, use the different format instead. Note that this rule trumps both the above two rules if there is a difference.
- If an individual is well-known by a different name than one determined by the above rules, use their well-known name instead.
- If an individual or organization has changed their name since an event that is the subject of an article, use their name used during the time of the event. However, it is worth mentioning the name change somewhere in the article.
- Always follow the way a company/organization/team/etc. spells their products, services, or other names. This includes camel case spelling or unique use of hyphens. Trademarks symbols are not to be included.
Oxford comma
- The Oxford comma should be used for a list with three or more entries (example: Lions, Tigers, and Bears).
Quotation marks
- If quotation marks are used on text that precedes a period or comma, the punctuation should go outside of the quotation marks when the quoted text did not originally have a period or comma at the end (example: Let’s be “realistic”.). This rule includes quoting speech in part that did not originally precede a period.
- When quoting speech in full, periods and commas at the end of the text should go inside the quotation marks. Additionally, when quoting speech in part that originally preceded a period, include the period within the quotation marks if it makes sense for the rest of the sentence grammatically. This rule covers abbreviations that end with a period and are at the end of a quote phrase; the abbreviation’s period can stand for both its abbreviation and the end of the sentence (example of a quote: “They like dogs, cats, chinchillas, etc.”).
Titles
- Movies, television shows, books, album titles, plays, art exhibitions/collections, web series, podcasts, radio programs, video games should be italicized.
- Movie/play scenes/segments, television episodes, article titles, chapter titles, song titles, and art piece names should be surrounded by quotation marks.
- Scientific names and occasional non-English words or phrases should be italicized.
- Website, app, and publication names are capitalized and require no additional changes.
Citations
Citations under the source box at the end of the article are ordered by these categories:
- Print (book)
- Print (journal)
- Print (magazine)
- Print (newspaper)
- Online
Note that if a material was originally printed, but can freely accessed via the publication’s website as text on a webpage, it should be cited under the “Online” category. If the material has been scanned and reproduced as an image or other file format, it should be included under the publication’s respective category.
Citation formats
Because citations used by Sports of Yore should include a link to the source material, citation formats do not need to be detailed as scholarly style guides. However, these citations should still be descriptive enough that a reader will understand where a link will take them.
Books citations should follow this general format:
- [Title] by [author] via [link to online source]
For books, the online source can include an online store listing, such as an Amazon page.
Journal citations should follow this general format:
- “[Article title]” by [author], [journal title], volume [volume number], No. [issue number], [year] via [link to online source]
Magazine citations should follow this general format:
- [Magazine title], [month] [day], [year] via [link to online source]
If no online source is available to link, the range of page numbers should be added as follows:
- [Magazine title], [month] [day], [year], pages [first page number]-[last page number]
If the source is only from one page, then simply put “page [page number]”.
Newspaper citations should follow this general format:
- [Newspaper title], [month] [day], [year] via [link to online source]
If no online source is available to link, the range of page numbers should be added as follows:
- [Newspaper title], [month] [day], [year], pages [first page number]-[last page number]
If the source is only from one page, then simply put “page [page number]”. Numbering should follow the newspaper’s format, so include the section descriptor if necessary (such as “page B7”).
Online citations should follow this general format:
- “[Webpage title OR article title]”, [website title with link to source] via [link to online source (if webpage no longer exists and an archive must be used)]
Sorting citations
Books should be sorted within the category alphabetically by title.
Newspapers, magazines, and journals should be sorted within their respective categories alphabetically by publication name.
Online materials should be sorted within the category alphabetically by website name.
Core colors
Primary: #ce1e0e
Secondary / font: #2e2e2e
Light font: #858585
Background: #f5f5f5
Info box: #e8e8e8
Map land: #e8e8f0
Map sea: #64b5f6
When colors are mentioned elsewhere, “red” means #ce1e0e, “dark gray” means #2e2e2e, and “black” means #000000. Unless otherwise specified, “white” refers to any very light color.