Everything you need to know about the Bleacher Report editing process, served up in bite-sized portions...
Contents
- 1. Prose Style
2. Grammatical Style
3. Formatting and Presentation
4. Headlines
5. Pictures
6. Tags
7. Spell Check
8. Scoring Protocol
9. Editor Feedback
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1. Prose Style
Emphasize short paragraphs and short sentences wherever possible. Anything we can do to trim excess verbiage will improve reader experience on Bleacher Report. Long blocks of text make readers lose interest. Short paragraphs keep them engaged.
Like this.
As a general rule, every article should be able to pass the "Look Test"—you should be able to visually scan through it without running into any oversized text chunks. Any block longer than five or six lines should sound alarm bells in your head.
For an in-depth discussion of "Why Prose Style Matters," visit the Bleacher Report Blog.
For a clinic in proper sentence and paragraph length, see "Dear Alex Rodriguez...Don't Blame Derek Jeter," by Dave Metrick.
For a detailed analysis of Bleacher Report's stylistic approach, refer to the Methodology section of the Editor's Tips.
For a sense of how to turn principle into practice, take a tour through the Editing Case Study.
For further reading, check out "The 10 Commandments of Internet Writing" from WebProNews.com.
2. Grammatical Style
As laid out in the Bleacher Report Style Guide...
In general, we want to spell out zero through nine and use digits for 10 and above. We also want to use the construction "No. 1" instead of of "#1" or "number one." See the Style Guide for details and exceptions.
We want to use em-dashes (—) instead of double-hyphens (--), en-dashes (–), or any other form of dash. The em-dash is the longest type of dash, and is created by typing SHIFT-OPTION-(dash) on a Mac keyboard and ALT-0151 on a PC (hold down ALT while typing 0151 on the numeric keypad).
(NB: If you're working on a PC without a numeric keypad, you'll have to copy and paste em-dashes as necessary. Here's one to get you started: —)
There should be no spaces on either side of the em-dash. Proper formatting looks like—this.
We want to spell out “percent” instead of using the percent symbol (%).
We want to use double quotation marks (" ") instead of single quotation marks (' ').
3. Formatting and Presentation
All paragraphs should be flush with the left-hand margin, never indented.
All page breaks should occur at logical points within the text. If a page break occurs in an inappropriate location—e.g. in the middle of a list or game capsule—it should be repositioned accordingly.
In articles with a number of game, team, or player capsules, it's important to include double line breaks between individual entries, and to BOLD capsule subheadlines while deleting line-ending colons or hyphens.
The proper formatting for subheadlines in articles with multiple sections is as follows:
Text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text.
[DOUBLE LINE BREAK]
Subheadline 1 (BOLDed, No trailing colon or hyphen)
[SINGLE LINE BREAK]
Text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text.
[DOUBLE LINE BREAK]
Subheadline 2 (BOLDed, No trailing colon or hyphen)
[SINGLE LINE BREAK]
Text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text.
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Beyond that, there are no hard and fast standards...but keep in mind that presentation does matter, and that you should take care to make articles look as professional as possible. Also, always be sure to review an article on the live Article Page after you've submitted revisions to ensure that all formatting changes translate correctly from the editing module.
NB: Some formatting problems occur because of errors in an article's underlying HTML code. These problems generally cannot be fixed through conventional textual editing. If you ever encounter an "unfixable" formatting problem, select the problematic text and then use the Formatting Removal Tool on the right-hand side of the Editing Toolbar. The Formatting Removal Tool will reset the HTML code for the selected text, and should resolve any stubborn formatting issues.
For an example of ideal formatting, see "Week 14 NFL Runaround," by Kevan Lee.
There are two distinct features of a “good” Bleacher Report headline: proper style and compelling substance. It’s important to cultivate each of them in every article we edit.
Style
All words in a headline should be capitalized, with the exception of articles (“a,” “an,” “the”), coordinating conjunctions (“and,” “but,” “or”), and prepositions. Note that short nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs (“is,” “it,” etc.) SHOULD be capitalized.
Improper Headline: “This is Not how You Capitalize A Headline”
Proper Headline: “This Is How You Capitalize a Headline”
Use colons—not hyphens or dashes—to separate different parts of the headline. Also note that headlines should never end in periods, although question marks are acceptable.
Improper Headline: “Headline Formatting — This Is Not How You Do It.”
Proper Headline: “Headline Formatting: This Is More Like It” or “Headline Formatting: How Hard Is It?”
Limit headlines to, at most, the length of the headline field in the editing module. Doing so enhances their compatibility with search engine displays and puts a check on excessive verbosity. The ideal maximum length is roughly three-quarters of the headline field. As a general rule, emphasize concision wherever possible.
All game preview and recap headlines should begin with the two team names separated by a hyphen and followed by a colon. The subsequent text should describe what follows in the article. To wit:
“Canadiens-Maple Leafs: New-Look Habs Snap Home Skid”
“Tennessee-Alabama: What To Look For”
When a satirical article reports a piece of false information as if it were true, add a parenthetical “(Satire)” note at the end of the headline. An example:
“Brett Favre To Be Traded to Tampa Bay (Satire)”
Substance
A descriptive, keyword-rich headline will help an article reach the broadest possible audience. With that in mind, it’s important that all titles cater both to search engine algorithms and to the actual human beings who do the searching.
Impressing the Search Engines
Search engine optimization begins and ends with keywords. The best keywords generally come from the following three categories, ranked here according to their effectiveness in generating search engine traffic:
1. Personal Names (first AND last names wherever possible)
2. Team Names (city/school AND mascot) and Events
3. Divisions, Conferences, and Leagues
To put those principles into practice...
Poor choice of keywords: “Irish Eyes Are Weeping”
Better choice of keywords: “Notre Dame Football Drops the Ball”
Best choice of keywords: “Charlie Weis, Notre Dame Football Drop the Ball”
Because keywords at the beginning of a headline are weighted more heavily than those at the end, you should order keywords according to their effectiveness. So, personal names should come first, followed by team names and events and, finally, divisions, conferences, and leagues.
Poor use of keywords: “NBA: Boston Celtics Ride Kevin Garnett to Finals Win”
Better use of keywords: “Boston Celtics Ride Kevin Garnett to NBA Finals Win”
Best use of keywords: “Kevin Garnett Leads Boston Celtics to NBA Finals Win”
Attracting the Searchers
Even the most search-optimized headline will fall flat if it fails to impress potential readers. With that in mind, you should aim to inject Specificity, Readability, and “Clickability” into every title you edit.
Each of these criteria is explained at length in “The Art of the Headline 2.0” on the Bleacher Report blog. The following examples provide shorthand illustrations of the key points:
1. Specificity
Vague headline: “MLB Prospects: You Will Know Their Names Soon”
Specific headline: “Jay Bruce, Evan Longoria Top List of MLB Prospects”
2. Readability
Awkward Headline: “NBA Draft, No. 2 Pick: Miami Heat Sitting Pretty”
Readable Headline: “Miami Heat Sitting Pretty in NBA Draft with No. 2 Pick
3. “Clickability”
Bland headline: “NBA: Nets Acquire Yi Jianlin From Bucks”
Clickable headline: “With Yi Jianlin, Nets Primed for Great Leap Forward”
To see these principles in action, check out the sample headlines in the B/R Headline Revisions spreadsheet.
For a more in-depth discussion of headlines, see "The Art of the Headline 2.0" on the Bleacher Report Blog
For further reading, check out Copyblogger's "How to Write Magnetic Headlines" series.
5. Pictures
Always be sure that every article has a picture in the "primary" image position—i.e. the space filled by B/R's built-in photo module.
All nonessential pictures embedded within the body of the text should be deleted. A nonessential picture is one that is not explicitly referenced by the author in the article.
As a general rule, use actual images instead of team logos to maintain a "professional" look across all articles. Grainy, truncated, or otherwise distorted pictures should be removed and replaced.
6. Tags
Most B/R articles should have (a) a league tag (e.g. NFL, MLB, College Football, etc.); (b) tags that correspond to the players and teams on which the article is centrally focused; and (c) tags related to predefined broader categories (e.g. Sports & Society; College Football Polls; Humor).
If a player or team is mentioned only in passing, he/it doesn't merit a tag. Our goal is to keep tags as relevant as possible in order to allow Bleacher Report users to find the content they're looking for. If you were searching for articles about Derek Jeter, for example, you wouldn't want to read a piece that only discussed him briefly...and so that piece shouldn't have a Derek Jeter tag.
Bottom line: Less is more. Make sure every tag really deserves to be there. As a general rule, very few articles should have more than five tags.
The following administrative tags are added during the submission process and should be ignored by editors: Satire, Opinion, Preview/Prediction, Fantasy, Breaking News, Game Recap, Rankings/List, History, Stats.
For game previews and recaps written with a strict emphasis on one of the teams, only the emphasized team merits a tag. An example: Erick Blasco’s “Heat Breakdown: The Decline of Shaquille O’Neal,” which reviews a game between the Heat and the Knicks but focuses exclusively on the former, and thus should be tagged with "Miami Heat" but not "New York Knicks."
For a look at the minimalist approach in action, see David Williams' wide-ranging "The BCS Championship Game from Hell," which references a hundred-some players and teams but only merits three tags.
7. Spell Check
Always use the site's built-in spell-checker when you're done revising an article. It's vital that we be perfect on spelling issues.
The B/R spell-checker has been customized to include the first and last names of most high-profile athletes. Always check these names in the course of your routine spelling corrections.
When editing articles by non-American authors, always defer to variant spellings of English words. For example, an article from a British author about his “favourite” football club is acceptable; we shouldn’t revise the spelling to “favorite.”
If you’re ever in doubt about a variant spelling, visit Wikipedia’s extensive entry on “American and British English spelling differences.”
Also check out the Bleacher Report blog for a list of "Commonly Misspelled Sports Terms."
The best Bleacher Report articles display insightful analysis, original thought, and diligent craftsmanship. Let those criteria guide your thinking when assigning scores.
It's important to be a stickler in scoring articles. Four- and five-star ratings should be reserved for truly exceptional pieces; most submissions should get scored on a 1-3 scale. If you find yourself giving away more than a handful of 4's and 5's, it's a sign you need to tighten your standards.
As a general rule, never give a game recap more than two stars. Bleacher Report is first and foremost an editorial site, so we want to spotlight our editorial content as much as possible.
For a full review of scoring protocol, refer to the Bleacher Report Star-Rating Guide.
9. Editor Feedback
In communicating with writers, always use the Editor Feedback field.
Bleacher Report is a community project, and it's important that writers feel like there's a real person on the other end of the editing process. Anything we can do to personalize the exchange is a plus—and leaving positive, supportive Editor Feedback can make a crucial difference.
For an example of textbook Editor Feedback, check out the exchange on "Barton Fallout: Joey Barton, FA Shame the Nation," by Simon Martin.
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Other resources in Bleacher Report's Online Editor's Library:
- • Editing Tutorial
- • Editor's Tips
- • Editing Case Study
- • Bleacher Report Style Guide
- • Star-Rating Guide
