2005 WRITERS GUIDELINES REQUIRED READING FOR ALL POTENTIAL AND CURRENT CITYZEN CONTRIBUTORS

Welcome to Cityzen.tv Culture + Industry. The following professional and stylistic guidelines have been provided to you, the Cityzen.tv contributors, in an effort to cut down on editing time and provide Cityzen with a cohesive stylistic voice. Before putting your idea to paper and submitting it for our consideration, please take a few minutes to read through this package. We also encourage you to look at examples of recent work in the archives that match your intended submission. We are in a period of fairly rapid change, and the better you understand who and what we are, the better chance your great piece has of reaching publication!

CITYZEN ENTERTAINMENT- AN OVERVIEW:
Cityzen is more than a management company, more than an online magazine, more than a marketing and promotions firm, more than a booking entity. The Cityzen ideal embodies a holistic, educated and experiential lifestyle balancing the needs of the artistic self with the realities of the industrial and technological world. We view the entertainment industry from an independent, communal perspective. Our partners, clients and friends are treated like family, and we are all in this together.

The cutthroat, disingenuous, manipulative entertainment industry is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Replacing the structure of corporate monopolies and tax write-off record contracts is a consumer market spurned by an independent media. We here at Cityzen believe that as leaders of the new media revolution, it is our duty to treat everyone with respect and dignity and to constantly account for the human side of business. It is our goal to highlight and support the best new talent that we can find and to offer opportunities for exposure not commonly available to young artists and creators.

FREELANCING FOR CITYZEN.TV:
We want to expand our coverage of new artists who might be of interest to our readers, so we are always looking for ideas. We also deal with cultural and lifestyle issues of concern to our audience. Remember, Cityzen is not just album reviews and live music reports. We cover an extensive range of topics from sex politics. Find your niche and keep those articles coming.

We are happy to welcome new contributors. If you have story ideas to pitch us, please send an email to editors@cityzen.tv. If we accept your submission we may; publish your work on a freelance basis, invite continued submissions on a freelance basis, or offer you the position and benefits of a staff writer.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR:
Behind-the-scenes stories: straight-ahead interviews and live show reviews are fantastic, but we'd like to see more intimate stories about the people who work out of sight—and the places in which they work. In addition to running features and interviews, Cityzen publishes regular columns.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
This Writer's Guide will help contributors understand our format, punctuation, and spelling consistencies. We urge you to adhere to these guidelines as they apply to ALL material that is submitted to Cityzen.tv Culture + Industry. You, as a writer, are an artist. We don't want to change your voice. Please use this guide to insure that changes to your work will be minimal once it reaches us.

Personal Style: Develop a voice. Don't be afraid to have an opinion, but be sure you make it clear that it is your own opinion. Speaking in your own unique, authoritative voice will connect you strongly with readers and convey your information more effectively.

Fact Checking: If you have any uncertainty as to the accuracy of certain facts (names, dates, etc…) in your piece, please note this at the beginning of your submission. Please write either, “After a thorough and exhausting search, I was unable to find out the correct names/spellings of the following:” OR “I was too lazy to do a simple Google search. Would you please do it for me?” Do not write the former if the latter is true; we would rather you be lazy than dishonest.

If it is an isolated fact that would be hard to prove, avoid using it at all. If an interviewee makes some outrageous statements in an interview, please supply us with a dubbed copy of the tape from which you transcribed your interview. This will protect us, and we can, in turn, stand by you in the event of any future problems. NEVER DO AN INTERVIEW WITHOUT A TAPE RECORDER...

Prior to submission, ALWAYS read your piece out loud, with full intonation; your ears will pick up the errors your eyes did not.

INVEST IN A STYLE BOOK OR WRITERS GUIDE; WE RECOMMEND:
	On Writing Well by William Zinsser List Price: $14.00 a well-written and witty work on writing words well
	The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage List Price: $15.95 can’t go wrong here
	The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. & E.B. White List Price: $7.95 a classic and invaluable resource; small enough to stick in your cargo-pocket

STYLE NOTES:
from your editors, with love

Words, words, words:
Any smart person would figure, “Hey, if I get paid per word, then the more words I stick into my article, the bigger my paycheck!” And since you are all fantastically brilliant, you will have the urge to stick in all of the flowery and superfluous GRE words you can remember. And since we are editors, we will pluck them right back out because they are simply not necessary. Words must have a function! “A sentence should have no unnecessary words for the same reason that a machine should have no unnecessary parts.” (Strunk & White, 23.) Be concise and succinct and remember that you will only be paid for every necessary, telling, functional word in each article.

Write verbs!
The verb is the most powerful and important part of a sentence. Pick interesting and varied words to describe actions. Try going back over what you have written and replacing all forms of the verb “to be” with something else. Of course you will not be able to replace all forms of “to be,” but by trying, you will give the reader a less monotonous and more dynamic experience.

Narration:
One type of narrative should be used throughout entire piece. “I” – first person singular, “You” – second person singular. We commonly use “I” and “you” interchangeably. This should be avoided. Either find a different way to say it, or, if necessary, substitute with impersonal construction – the pronoun “one.”

But be careful – overusing the impersonal construct causes the writer to seem pretentious. Sometimes it is necessary to use “you” when speaking to the readers. But try to avoid this as much as possible. Read a few New York Times reviews to find possible rephrasing techniques.

Qualifiers:
DO NOT use “really,” “pretty,” “a little bit,” or “kind of” EVER!!!
Avoid using “very,” or “somewhat,” or other ubiquitous qualifiers.

Quotations:
Quote marks are used to indicate song titles, chapters in a book, article titles and conversation. Punctuation goes INSIDE the quotation marks.

Italics:
Italics are used as album titles, names of television shows, book and magazine titles, etc. The punctuation at the end of the italicized item should be in regular type, unless part of the phrase.

Numbers:
Write out any number ten and under. For any number above ten, use numerals, but write out a number that begins a sentence. Try not to begin a sentence with a number.

Decades:
Do not write them out. Correct punctuation is 1980s. Not 1980's. Only write out the full decade the first time you mention it in an article. After that, it's ‘80s. The exception is when the decade is at the start of a sentence, in which case it should be written out.

Percentage:
The word “percent” is always spelled out, not given as “%.”

State Abbreviations:
In a sentence, don't abbreviate the name of a state unless you are giving an address. Use postal abbreviations (NY, NJ, OH, IA, etc.) only with the whole ZIP number. Otherwise, write the entire name of the state out in full.

Songs:
Try to write out the complete, accurate title of a song. In an article, a song title may be abbreviated after it's been written out in full. It is common usage to credit a songwriter rather than a given performer when referring to a song.

Sex & Drugs & Rock ‘n' Roll:
Try to avoid using vulgar language, either in your writing or in quotations from the subjects of your articles. True, it's the way people talk in our society, but the way we talk is not the way we should write. We have the task of trying to cover the entertainment scene and be responsive to its members, while also trying to appeal to a more general audience. Use discretion.

Cityzen is primarily concerned with music, art and culture. Though we tread the nightlife waters, where anything can and quite often does happen, we understand the dangers of playing on the slippery slope that lies between public and private information. Authors should avoid discussing their states of inebriation/stonedness in relation to their piece. If mentioning an alleged drug problem of a subject, make sure that it is relevant and provable before you mention it. Responsible journalism begins with respect.