EdSource Style Guide

Welcome to the EdSource style guide. Find style guidelines for writing and formatting EdSource articles in the document below. Find a quick resource for online formatting further down the page.

Online formatting

Here’s a quick reference of the necessary or available fields when composing a story which will go into the EdSource WordPress site. You can use an online character counter for targeting the character lengths listed below.

Headline (required)

Up to three suggested headlines, at or below 70 characters each (about ten words). If longer, front-load the most critical information as search and social may truncate the end.

Subhed (optional)

Optional text supporting the headline to appear on the article webpage only, at or below 70 characters; for web presentation, headline and subhead should take up no more than three lines total.

Excerpt (required)

A short snippet about 140 characters or below (about the length of an average sentence) that appears along with the headline and thumbnail on social media, and on the homepage and other pages of the EdSource website.

Topics (required)

Up to five suggested EdSource topics identifying one as a primary topic (the “Public Topic” in WordPress), and including all that are relevant to the article. See EdSource website menus, and website dashboard for list of all topics.

Tags (optional but recommended)

Several suggested Tags – non-overlapping with Topics, a Tag is used for things or themes that will intersect stories in other silos. Proper nouns, VIPs, cities, and school districts are all good candidates. See website dashboard for common tags. Three to six is a good number of tags, more than a dozen is overkill.