---
description: How things are writing and talked about. How things are formatted.
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# Writing Rules & Style

| **Principles to live by**                                                                                                                                                                                                              | **Do This…**                                                                     | **…Not That**                                                                                      |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Always include “Community” in our name  – it’s important to our culture (and our copyright)                                                                                                                                            | Watermark Community Church (or just Watermark)                                   | Watermark Church, WM                                                                               |
| We refer to them as our Plano Campus and our Fort Worth Campus. Bonus: Fort Worth is never abbreviated “Ft. Worth”                                                                                                                     | Fort Worth Campus, Plano Campus                                                  | Watermark FW, or simply “Plano”                                                                    |
| That big room where we gather on weekends in Dallas has a name…                                                                                                                                                                        | Call it The Auditorium                                                           | Do not call it the Worship Center (we should be worshipping all week!) or the R\&R (sorry Todd!)   |
| We’re unabashedly pro Oxford comma                                                                                                                                                                                                     | “I’d like to dedicate this Woscar to my best friends, Todd, and JP.”             | “I’d like to dedicate this Woscar to my best friends, Todd and JP.”                                |
| Don’t include “[http://www](http://www)” when referencing your web address. It’s is not 2002. When possible, use your designated ministry shortened URL.                                                                               | watermark.org/nerdalert                                                          | <p><a href="http://www.watermark.org/nerdalert">http://www.watermark.org/nerdalert</a><br><br></p> |
| When referencing scripture, put the reference in parentheses after the quotation and spell out the book name. When possible, use ESV.If scripture is referenced on digital content, but isn’t written out, hyperlink to Bible Gateway. | “Jesus Wept.” (John 11:35)                                                       | Jesus Wept – Jn 11:35                                                                              |
| <p>Times should be followed by a space and a lowercase “am” or “pm.” <br>Use an en dash (–) [Option + hyphen], rather than an em dash (—) or a hyphen (-) when listing beginning and end times and dates.<br></p>                      | 2 pm 2 – 4 pm  2:30 – 4:30 pm2:30 – 4:00 pm11 am – 1 pm September 23 – October 2 | 2pm, 2PM, or 2 p.m. 2:00 — 4:00 pm  2:30 pm - 4:30 pm2:30 pm — 4:00 pm11 - 1 pm                    |
| Include day of the week, month, and date, separated by commas. No abbreviations or th/st at end of dates.                                                                                                                              | <p>Thursday, January 26, 2017<br></p>                                            | Thurs, Jan. 26th                                                                                   |
| Life stages don’t need apostraphes                                                                                                                                                                                                     | 20s and 30s                                                                      | 20’s and 30’s                                                                                      |

## **Numbers**

* Spell out numbers lower than 10. Use figures for numbers 10 and above.\*
  * **Example:** This is a six-week class. Women’s Bible Study will meet for 10 weeks.
  * **Exception:** If you’re including a number in the title of a piece of digital content.
    * **Example:** a blog titled **“**&#x37; Ways to Lose a Farkle and Keep Your Dignity”
    * **Exception to the exception:** If the title of a piece of digital content begins with the number one, spell it out.&#x20;
      * **Example:** blog titled “One Thing I Learned in Ministry”

## Capitalization

### **Capitalize these…**

* Lord, God, His, Father when referring to the Lord
* Holy Spirit
* Son, Christ, Savior, Messiah, Him/His when referring to Jesus
* **The Word** when referring to scripture
* Ministry names: Shift, Shiloh, Crossroads45
  * **Exception:** re:generation and re|engage – which are lower cased
* Member or Membership
  * Example:
* “Ministry” when it is part of the name of the ministry.
  * **Example:** Women’s Ministry
* Authors, proper names, company, institutions, agencies, products, websites, periodicals, software or app, legal materials

### **Do not capitalize these…**&#x20;

* “community groups”
* “biblical”&#x20;
* Life stages: “Come meet other young adults in Dallas.”

### **Cases Where It Depends**

| <p><br></p>       | Capitalize it when …                                                                                                         | Don’t capitalize it when …                                                     |
| ----------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Gospel vs. gospel | Talking about a book of the Bible. Example: Gospel of John.                                                                  | Talking about the Good News. Example: I shared the gospel with a friend today. |
| Elders vs. elders | Referencing the men who keep watch over our souls. Example: The Elders take seriously the calling laid out in Hebrews 13:17. | Referencing a generic bunch of old guys.                                       |
| Employee Titles   | if it comes before a person’s name: Director of Being Wonderful, Jimmy Wimmy                                                 | if it comes after the name. Jimmy Wimmy, director of being wonderful           |
| Psalm vs. psalm   | Referencing a specific Psalm in scripture. Example: Psalm 91                                                                 | When talking about a generic psalm/song                                        |

\


## **When to make it title case**

Title case means the first letter of each word is capitalized, except for certain small words, such as articles and short prepositions. Prepositions four words or longer (from, then, than, this, around, about, because, etc.) are capitalized. Short verbs (is, are, was, be) should still be capitalized.&#x20;

* Ministries with more than one word in their name
  * Examples: Starting Blocks, Watermark’s Equipping Ministry, Children’s Ministry, Single Adults Ministry
* Content titles: RTRQ titles, blog titles, sermon titles, book titles, article titles, etc.
* Events
* Example: The Membership Class is a place where you can discover our vision and values.&#x20;
* Locations: The Loft, Town Center, Tree Fort, East Tower, West Tower, The Pond, The Chapel, The Tower

## **Misc.**

* “Kids’ Ministry is available with advance registration” … not advance**d** registration.
* The place where the Tree Fort is located is called the Kids Building (no apostrophe). The ministry that trains up the next generation of disciples is called Kids’ Ministry (with apostrophe). Yes. We know it’s a weird exception.
* Purpose to or effort to

## **How to up your writing chops**

* Use contractions sparingly. Do not overuse them.&#x20;
* Avoid passive voice at all costs.&#x20;
* Use a comma to separate the clauses of compound sentences, which are sentences containing two or more independent clauses joined by a conjunction. For example: “He was with God, and He was God.” BUT no comma is used in a simple sentence with a compound verb. For example: “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.”
* Use only one space between sentences

## **TBD**

* Calls-to-action (which to hyperlink?; how prescriptive?)
  * Core classes start soon. [Registration is required](http://www.watermark.org/events/1934).
  * Core classes start soon and registration is required. [Learn more](http://www.watermark.org/events/1934).&#x20;
  * Core classes start soon and registration is required. [Click here to learn more.](http://www.watermark.org/events/1934)&#x20;
* Heading & Title sizes – see below for two different examples
  * [http://www.watermark.org/blog/april-15-2018-sermon-application-guide](http://www.watermark.org/blog/april-15-2018-sermon-application-guide)
  * [http://www.watermark.org/blog/we-are-not-fools-easter-2018-sermon-application-guide](http://www.watermark.org/blog/we-are-not-fools-easter-2018-sermon-application-guide)&#x20;

## 📘Reference



* [MailChimp Styleguide](https://styleguide.mailchimp.com/)
* [MailChimp Voice & Tone](http://voiceandtone.com/)
