College Writing Standards

Our content must always be up-to-date and accurate. Even if your dates are correct and your information is well-ordered, the way you write a web page, article, brochure, etc. can significantly influence accuracy. We must achieve the highest possible accuracy for all College of Design content, therefore the following standards must be met.

Resources for Better Writing

Writing Standards for Web Pages

  • Avoid at all costs:
    • Passive voice 
    • Nominalizations
    • Starting sentences with prepositional phrases
    • Using several prepositional phrases in a row
    • Verbosity/circumlocution/run on sentences
  • Use frequently:
    • Active verbs or past tense verbs
    • Simple sentence structure
    • Correct grammar and punctuation
    • Brief, to-the-point explanations
  • Double check all spellings of names and other proper nouns.
  • Double check all job titles, degree descriptions, and Georgia Tech related words with the GT Style Guide.
  • Have the Director of Communications and unit leadership read new web pages or significantly updated pages before you publish them.

Writing Standards for Articles

  • Avoid at all costs:
    • Passive voice 
    • Nominalizations
    • Starting sentences with prepositional phrases
    • Using several prepositional phrases in a row
    • Verbosity/circumlocution/run-on sentences
  • Use frequently:
    • Active verbs or past tense verbs
    • Simple sentence structure
    • Correct grammar and punctuation
    • Brief, to-the-point explanations
  • Do not cook the lede. Address the article’s thesis quickly. It should be interesting and relevant to your Unit, Institute goals, current events, or zeitgeist.
  • Balance descriptive headlines with SEO and click-worthiness.
  • Include captions and photo credit for all images other than the page top module.
  • Limit your articles to around 800 words. Q&A articles can be less but should be more than 400 words. Anything less than 400 words is a news brief and likely not relevant to the campus.
  • Hyperlink all references to the College, School, Research Center, faculty, and academic programs.
  • Keep a symmetrical rhythm of paragraph length. Determine UX by mobile screens.
  • Align your voice to one or more audience personas. Make sure to include information that we know those personas want in every article.
  • Double-check all job titles, degree descriptions, and Georgia Tech related words with the GT Style Guide.
  • The Director of Communications should read all articles and Q&A articles before they are published, for copy editing and quality assurance. 

The Life-Cycle of an Article

Phase I: Assignment 

  • Can happen in production meetings, can happen on the 12-month editorial calendar, or a breaking news/driveby situation 
  • Establish expectations for what scale of article it is: 1200 word major feature (once every couple of months), Q&A expert profile, 600 word quick news, etc. (this may change after the interview) 
  • First step is to secure interviews with the relevant experts/principal subjects 
  • Schedule them for for a teams meeting, or 
  • They commit to sending you answers to questions by a certain day 
  • Copy Ellen for quick response, and school chair or center director 
  • Also useful to immediately request background material 
  • Write interview questions appropriate to relevant strategic goals 
  • Institute goals 
  • Soon TBD College 
  • Also Marketing strategic plans for each unit to cross-reference 
  • Most critical question is: why is this important? 
  • If lacking experience or just a little unsure, get the DirCom to look over your questions. 
  • Based on the answers to one or multiple interviews, create an outline for the article. 
  • Write section headers, if applicable 
  • Figure out what visual assets will be incorporated into the article, and put that in the outline 
  • If they don’t exist, and you have a clear idea what you need, try to schedule a photoshoot ASAP. 

Phase II: Writing the article 

  • Writing the article can be done in Word, in Notepad, or in the CMS. In all cases, save early and often. 
  • Follow Georgia Tech writing style [LINK]. Pay special attention to sections about references, job titles, degree titles, abbreviations, serial comma, states & cardinal directions, and numbers. 
  • Double-check spelling of all names and proper nouns. Also look for full extended names [examples] 
  • Do not use passive voice. 
  • If you have three or more prepositional phrases in a row, consider simplifying. 
  • Exhibit good editorial judgement: don’t get the Institute sued. 
  • Hand the article in by the deadline. 
  • Send article out for quote & photo review. 
  • Ledes should be direct and enticing to the relevant audience personae. 
  • Use simple sentence structure. 

Phase III: Publishing 

  • The article should be published the deadline. End-of-day is acceptable. The next day is not acceptable, unless you have made previous arrangements with the DirCom. 
  • Use of a variety of modules is acceptable, but articles should all have white backgrounds. 
  • Do not always rely on auto-URL. Particularly if article is part of a series, you may want to curate a set of URLs. 
  • Articles should have the media relations safety net. 
  • When cropping photos for articles, anticipate the promotion phase: crop all three sizes (top, feature, and cards) 
  • Headline should go on top 

Phase IV: Promotion 

  • The business day after the article is published, promote it on the main page of the relevant unit’s website as well as the main page of the College website. 
  • Acceptable modules include feature module, feature video, background and text, inclusion in a cards module, or a text-only module. 
  • Sometimes, other units on campus will promote our work. 
  • Common promoters: 
    • The Daily Digest - Contact: Kristen Bailey 
    • The Provost & EVPR newsletter - Contact: Susie Ivey 
    • The President’s newsletter - Contact: Susie Ivey
    • Research Horizons - Contact: Georgia Parmalee (keyword: go-researchnews) 
    • The Alumni Association/magazine - Contact: Jenn Hersheimer 
    • Our State - Contact: Doug Goodwin 
    • Other colleges or research centers 
  • Reach out the appropriate point person to negotiate relevant asset needs: photos, descriptive blurbs, and possibly a mercury article 
    • For mercury, replicate the entire article in mercury, even though it will look differently than it does on our websites. 
    • Additionally, write this sentence at the top of the body copy: “This article was first published on the [UNIT].gatech.edu website.” Link the whole sentence to the article on our website. 
    • Optionally, create a 1:1 crop image for mercury thumbnails 
    • Close the loop and send the mercury URL to the person requesting it. Copy Ann Hoevel. 
  • Create a social media post that promotes the article on your unit’s social channels. 
  • Tag the college account on applicable platforms 

Phase V: Cycling through the website 

  • When an article is no longer appropriate for the home page, it should migrate to the news & events page. 
  • News & events pages should have module diversity. (Not everything can be a feature module.)
    • Curate the transition appropriately:
      • have you grouped articles by topic in a cards module?
      • Are there videos you can use instead of heroes?  
  • If a photo is especially illegible, as in the case of a map or a chart, are there others photos to use? 
  • News & events pages should have thorough overhauls once a semester. 
  • Once articles fall off the news & events page, consider possible places within the rest of the website to link the article. 
  • If the article is an example of some type of work, perhaps put it on the academics page for the program. 
  • Is the article about a momentous event, maybe link it on the history page 
  • Is the article an example of student life/culture? Perhaps link it on the current students page