Use left justification.

Do not indent paragraphs. Use spacing between paragraphs.

Use one space after the punctuation at the end of sentences and one space after a colon.

Do not capitalize pronouns referring to God.

Express times as h:mm, followed by AM or PM (for example, 9:45 AM). You can use the hour and AM or PM for times on the hour (for example, 9 AM). Small caps for AM and PM are OK.

Express dates as mmmm dd, yyyy, in most circumstances.

Use periods to separate the elements in a telephone or fax number: 215.735.7688.

Use commas after each item in a series, including the one before the conjunction. For example, “Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.”

Web addresses and email addresses in print publications will not appear at the end of a sentence.

• They will be put in bolder type to help them pop out of the sentence in the church bulletin.

• Examples: Visit tenth.org/mercyconference to register. Contact Helen at helens@tenth.org with any updates.

Web addresses should not appear in electronic communication, but rather should be live links under the relevant language. Personal email addresses (not at tenth.org) should not be published online.

Adhere to practices outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style. For example, spell out numbers or not, according to their rules.

Use complete sentences. Use correct punctuation at the end of a sentence.

Spell-check your document before submitting it or sending it out; double check name spellings, etc.

Avoid passive voice and too many prepositional phrases; eliminate unnecessary words: “All other flowers that come to the lobby for the memorial service are to be delivered to Fellowship Hall” can be reduced to: “Deliver memorial service flowers to Fellowship Hall.”

Spell out the names of ministries for at least the first instance in a report. Acronyms may be used subsequently.

Do not use spaces before or after dashes. Word usually puts in an em dash automatically if you type two hyphens in a row and continue typing—this is the long dash in this sentence. An en dash is needed in instances where you would say the word “to” when you read it, as in 7–9 PM or ages 4–6. To create an en dash in Word, you can type a space hyphen space and continue typing, but then you have to go back and delete the spaces. Don’t use a hyphen when an em or en dash is required. You can also find them under the insert symbol/special characters menu.

Do not use abbreviations for days and months, books of the Bible, or streets, states, or other location names (OK to use two-letter abbreviations for states and DC when part of an address. Use D.C. and U.S. (periods but no spaces) or spell out when not used as part of an address.

Do not capitalize the word church unless it is part of the name of a particular church (Tenth Presbyterian Church) or refers to the spiritual body of Christ that includes all believers in all times and all places. Capitalize “Bible” but not “biblical.” Capitalize “Word” when it means Jesus or the Bible. Capitalize gospel only when it is used with the name of one of the gospels: Gospel of John.

Follow standard rules for capitalization of job titles as outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style; err on the side of not capitalizing if you are not sure.

When they directly precede a name, honorifics, like job titles, should be capitalized. For example, when we write Judge Joseph Smith or Deacon Fred Rutherford, we capitalize “judge” and “deacon” because they are honorifics that come before the name. If you say someone is an elder, deacon, or deaconess, senator, or judge, you do not

When using words like Session and Diaconate as the name of the body, you would capitalize it, like Senate or House of Representatives.

Use commas in compound sentences, unless they are very simple: We carried forward our plans with some of those things during this trip, and we want to keep all of these things very much in prayer. OR: We carried out plans for the trip and we want to keep them in prayer.

Use commas before and after the names of states and countries: The team continued the work started in 2001 in the border communities of Harlingen, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico.

The day of the month is an ordinal number and is pronounced as such in speaking (April 18 would be read aloud as April eighteenth). However, days of the month are written as cardinal numbers: April 18 (not April 18th or April18th).