Writing Guidelines
- Audience
- Length
- Elements of the Entry
- Contents of the Entry
- Points of Particular Relevance to the Encyclopedia Style
- Headings
- Cross References and Key Words
- Bibliographies
- Contributor Biographies
- Permissions
- Collaborators
- Questions
1. Audience
The Encyclopedia is gaited to the needs of undergraduate and graduate students and teachers as well as general readers and researchers. The style and the general vocabulary level of the articles should not therefore be those of monographs. Technical and high falutin words should be eschewed altogether. Write for a person who is not an expert in the field but has a strong interest in the subject. Aim for clarity of ideas and directness of expression.
2. Length
There will be three broad classes of entry:
A: 3000 words (Core);
B: 2000 (Denominational and Territorial);
C: 1000 (Interpretive Essays) and
D: 500 (Biographies and Breakout).
It is very important for the production of the Encyclopedia that authors stay within the limit assigned to their entry or entries. If the recommended length is exceeded, the Editor may excise portions of the manuscript. In some cases the Editor may offer contributors the right to exceed the word limit by 10-15% - please discuss any need for doing this with the Editor.
3. Elements of the Entry
Each entry will contain seven elements:
a) a headword/title,
b) the author's name, affiliation, and e-mail address (please ensure that you present your name in exactly the form you wish it to appear in the encyclopedia),
c) a word count for the total of the main text, the cross-reference list, and the bibliography section (do not add 250 words per visual to this),
d) the main text,
e) a list of cross references (listed as “SEE ALSO:”), and
f) a bibliography.
g) a contributor biography
Note that the headwords should have capital letters on main words; e.g. “Media Relations.”
Example:
Church Architecture
George Thomas Kurian
Encyclopedia Society
gtkurian@aol.com
Word Count: 2999
Main text
SEE ALSO: ......
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS ......
CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHY ......
4. Contents of the Entry
The contents should begin with a definition of a term or the scope of the entry.
- History (will include changes over time)
- Intellectual, theological and social context
- Current emphasis in research
- Methodological issues
- Relevance to Christian Church, culture and civilization
Do not conclude your encyclopedia article with a summary of the material that you have covered in your entry. Encyclopedia entries do not require formal conclusions.
Biographies: The planned biographies are critical evaluations of the subject's contributions to the field. It should include a discussion of the biographee's publications as well as books on or about him or her. Biographies should begin with a short identifier noting the subject's full name, birth (and death) dates, and nationality.
5. Points of Particular Relevance to the Encyclopedia Style
Entries in an encyclopedia are different in style from regular research articles in an academic journal. They do not represent specific research but give an introductory overview of a particular field for an audience that, at least some of it, has little prior knowledge of this field. Thus, they should be a repository of current knowledge in the respective field. It follows from this that the entries should be written in a simple and straightforward style, and contain very few references and no footnotes.
Objectivity: Encyclopedia articles are by definition objective discussions based on factual evidence. Do not use the pronoun “I” in any article. While your treatment should be consistent with your own understanding of the subject, you should present all significant sides of the issue, including alternative and controversial ones in a fair manner and try to strike a judicious balance. Your article should reflect the consensus of interpretation, or lack of it, in current scholarship and it should avoid partisanship or polemic. Where a debate or controversy exists, the reader should be so informed. Where additional resources or information exist, the reader should be directed to them.
And here are further style-related guidelines for authors:
- Avoid gendered language.
- Avoid use of the first person pronoun.
- Avoid constructions such as: “In this essay I will a) ... b) ... and c)...”
- Do not use rhetorical questions.
- Try to provide a translation of all non-English books, articles, and words used in your piece, or included in your “BIOGRAPHY” section.
- Encyclopedias do not have footnotes. Avoid them. If your article requires citations, include them within the text (see Text Formatting Guidelines for details).
6. Headings
Avoid using headings in shorter entries (500 words). For longer entries, include short, factual and objective subheadings to help organize the material, but do not use a heading, e.g. Introduction, for the overview in the first paragraph(s). To distinguish the levels of headings it will be necessary to include a code at the beginning of the heading. Do not exceed three levels of heading. See the Text Formatting Guidelines for details about headings.
7. Cross References and Key Words
Cross References: The publisher will insert suitable cross-references as part of the copy editing process.
Key words: Authors should submit a list of key words indicating the content of the entry (terms that do not represent a headword themselves). These will not appear at the end of an entry. The key words will be part of the overall index printed in the first volume and containing headwords and key words.
A list of all entries is available here. This is a CSV file which will open with Excel or similar.
8. Bibliographies
Bibliographies conclude each entry. Their purpose is twofold: To cite the sources of information on which the article is based, and then to lead the reader to further sources of information. Bibliographies are not designed to be exhaustive but rather representative. If there are bibliographic citations within the text, do not repeat them.
The number of items in a bibliography will vary with the extent of the literature on the subject but it should be proportional to the size of the entry. As a general guide, each article over 300 words will have a bibliography. Thereafter the number of items will rise according to the length.
- 300 to 500 words: 2 to 5 items
- 500 to 1000 words: 5 to 10 items
- 1000 to 2,500 words: 8 to 15 items
- 2,000 5,000 words: 10 to 20 items
- More than 5,000 words: 15 to 25 items
Journals may be cited but not works in foreign languages that require typesetting in foreign scripts.
Do not use subheads in bibliographies.
For bibliographic style, please refer to the Text Formatting Guidelines.
The reference list is not part of the total word count of the entry.
9. Contributor Biographies
The encyclopedia will include a section on contributors with short biographies. Include a brief biography of between 40 and 80 words along with the essay. The biography should be included at the end of the entry rather than submitting a separate document. An example of a biography is included in the sample article available on the home page of this site. Note that biographies will not be included in the wordcount of entries.
10. Permissions
Copyright law permits the use of up to 400 words from any text without the need for permissions. Contributors are encouraged to avail of this privilege which is known as “Fair Use”.
Text:
Avoid use of previously published written material, including especially lengthy quotations.
Illustrations:
For figures, we have two types of requirements, depending on the type of figure:
Previously published line drawings, tables, graphs, charts, and cartoons will need to have their permissions cleared and paid for by contributors themselves (on behalf of the Editor, or under agreement with the Editor), and the permission correspondence must be submitted with the material to Blackwell.
Halftones, however, will have their permissions cleared and paid for by Blackwell. For these Blackwell simply requires the photograph itself (in suitable condition), and full disclosure of the copyright holder of the material so we can process the permission request and grant.
If you do need to clear permission for anything you must always ask for World English language rights for both print and electronic versions
For more information about fair use and other permissions issues, and for correspondence templates for you to use when applying to copyright holders for permission, please visit this website:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/authors/permission.asp
11. Collaborators
If you find it necessary to enlist a collaborator at any stage, please inform the Editor accordingly, who will then add the additional author to the entry details within the website. NB. Only the main author will be able to login and use the submission website.
12. Questions
Contributors may clarify any issue by e-mailing the Editor.