Guidelines for Inputs or Contributions
The Soaring Diary, Soaring Tips and many other web pages on this site have been read by thousands of pilots and continue to be read on a daily basis. What makes many of these pages interesting is that they are created by more than one person. Send your inputs to peterkelly@dellepro.com any time you have something to be posted to our pages. This Guideline page will help you prepare a document for easy inclusion and assimilation to this web site. to the Soaring Diary, Soaring Tips, etc..
A web site as ambitious as Soaring involves the efforts of many people. It is of the utmost importance that your entries are written with pilots and potential pilots in mind, and, most important, that they are submitted regularly. General Instructions
Entry structure
For inputs to the Diary page, an email is very useable – it is quick and easy (but do follow the guidelines about typing that are shown below). However, if it is a story that could be used in the PASCO West Wind Journal, the Valley Soaring Association Journal – the Wind Sock, Soaring Magazine, or any other soaring publication, then also submit it a separate file and attach the document to your email. In either case, follow all of the guidelines herein; in both the email, and the document.Entry length
The length of the email or document may be as short as two lines or as long as five pages (anything longer than that should be broken down into separate documents). The size of the file is important in this land of cyberspace. Each file shoul be less than 100 kb if at all possible. If you have attached files linked with hypertext, then keep each attached file less than 100 k each also.Copyrights and the use of copyrighted material
Do not send in any copyrighted material. All material is considered to be original by the author. Your contribution will be assimilated into these web pages on this site, and integrated with other material received from various sources. Acknowledgement is normally made publicly on the diary page at the time the material is received. As a contributor to this web site you agree to allow your material to be reprinted in other publications without further permission, on the condition that proper credit is give to the author.Illustrations and Graphics
We encourage the use of graphics if they can be made compact and the file size is less than 100k. JPEG (files that have an extension of .jpg) seems to be the most versatile format to use on the web pages. Be sure to include a full, accurate, and informative caption. Please keep in mind that considerations of space may limit the number of images we can use.
Preparing Your Entry
You may use any software to compose and send your email inputs. If you are going to attach a document, we prefer to receive files prepared in recent versions of MS Word or WordPerfect for PC; Macintosh versions are also acceptable.Do not send your inputs in html format unless it will be a separate and independent web page.
If you are submitting more than one article, each entry should be in a separate electronic file, whether they are submitted as e-mail attachments, or on a disk. Title your files relative to the subject, possible using the first six letters of the entry head.
Please send your electronic files to peterkelly@dellepro.com
Dos and don’ts of word processing
Don’t use a hard return anywhere within a paragraph.
Use the tab key for paragraph indents. Never use the space bar to position text.
Don’t hyphenate words at the ends of lines.
Don’t right-justify the text.
Again, Don’t use a hard return anywhere within a paragraph;
use hard returns only at the ends of paragraphs, items in a list, titles, and all levels of headings.Don’t use centering or other formatting commands other than bold and italic in your word-processing software.
Do not include special characters or symbols.
Tables and Graphics
Tables and graphics should not appear in the text files; each should be in a separate file. Label your text file and the corresponding chart file with similar titles. Indicate the placement of the tables or graphics within the text with, “<Insert table X here.>”
Style Guidelines
Keep your audience in mind at all times. It’s ok to use some, but avoid excessive use of jargon, generalities, banter, in-group jokes, esoteric allusions, sexist language, unnecessary opinions, and digressions. Never include material that would be offensive or a poor model or example to children. Keep in mind that this is a family sport. Most pilots are sensitive and easily offended, given their high opinion of themselves as a pilot, but beneath that egotistical exterior of bravado, there is (sometimes) a fragile and sensitive person. Also mothers, wives, and children are also part of the audience of our readers.Spelling
Use a spell checker in all material that is to be published (posted for reading on the web pages).Numbers
Spell out whole numbers one through ten, but use figures for larger numbers, If similar numbers both large and small occur in a single paragraph or section, use figures for all of them (The flight ranged from 7 to 17 thousand feet).Some examples:1980s (no apostrophe); 1981-1987 (not 1981-87)
15 percent, 0.9 percent
27 acres, 452 kilograms
33 people
1,500 (comma with ordinary number)
Abbreviations and acronyms
Spell out the term or organization on the first use of it. Include the acronym in parentheses immediately after the first mention - e.g.: Department of Transportation (DOT), chief executive officer (CEO).
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