All writers for Cleveland Historical are expected to follow the guidance in this document when composing new stories and revising old ones. The editors reserve the right to modify stories that are out of compliance both before and after publication.
Stories consist of many different structural components – some optional and some required. Each component has its own set of rules and conventions that must be followed. Some of these are technical and related to the functionality of the site and app. Some are stylistic and related to the presentation of the content. We will begin by discussing the matter of presentation.
The title and subtitle are the most essential components for drawing in the reader. Along with the hero image, these two components are visible in every context in which your story will appear – on the homepage, browse pages, tour pages, and in search results (both internal and external) and social media previews. The lede is also an essential part of the presentation, though it appears only on the dedicated page for the story. Together, the title, subtitle, lede, and hero image drastically impact the readers' first impression of your story and the project as a whole. In fact, it is often the case that these components are the only part of the story a reader will consume and/or recall later. Thus, the editors may assert the most control over these aspects of the writing process.
Choosing a title sounds simple but that is not always the case.
Because each story on Cleveland Historical is placed on a map, the title should generally describe an object – for example, a place or structure that can be placed in geographic space – rather than a person, phenomena, event, era, or idea.
There are exceptions to this guidance. For example, a story about a natural disaster may be placed on the map in the location where its effect was most dramatic. A story about a political or cultural movement may be placed at the location of a headquarters or notable protest. A story about a person may be placed at their childhood home, grand estate, monument, memorial or grave, crime scene, or some other location where they have left a physical or cultural mark.
You may write about any relevant topic but always keep the map in mind when conceiving your story and crafting your title. Remember that the first place a reader encounters your story might be from clicking on a map location on the website or app.
See additional rules in Section III.
The subtitle sits just below the title of the story and can be used to refine the title, indicating the scope of the story and helping the reader better understand what the story is about and/or why it's important or interesting. It can be used to indicate the geographic or temporal characteristics of the story, to provide an alternate title or name for the subject as presented in the title, or simply to entice the reader with an interesting phrase. Below are some title:subtitle examples using common strategies.
Superlatives: What is special about the subject of the story? Is it the most [something] of them all?
- Kinney & Levan: The Nation's Largest Housewares Emporium
- Fridrich Bicycle: Cleveland's Oldest Bike Shop
Importance: Why should the reader care about the topic being presented? Does it have some importance beyond the obvious?
- Cleveland Trust Tower: Marcel Breuer's Only Skyscraper
- Dunbar Life Insurance Company: Championing Black Home Ownership
Quotes: Is there a quote in your story that might tell readers what (some) people thought or said about the topic being covered? Sometimes a single quote is the best way to get to the heart of the story and can also provoke the reader to ask themselves "who said this and why?"
- The 1913 Flood: "Ohio’s Greatest Weather Event"
- Gladstone (Area O): Urban Renewal and "The Worst Slum in Cleveland"
Taglines: Are you talking about a business venture or other entity that is associated with signature tagline, promotional phrase, or selling point?
- Lustron Homes: "A New Idea of Home"
- The Gay 90s: "Sometimes Serious, Sometimes Humorous, But Never Straight Talk"
Provocation / Enticement: What is the angle of the story? Let readers know that you will be presenting an interpretation beyond the bare facts of the matter.
- M. J. Lawrence House: When is it time to rename an historic house?
- Richfield Coliseum: Mileti's Folly
Alternate Names: Has the subject of your story been known by different names?
- Danny Greene: "The Irishman"
- E. A. Schellentrager House: Glenville’s Evergreen Manor
Scope Statement / Refinement: Does your story primarily cover a specific aspect of a broader topic? Or perhaps your story uses a specific example as a point of entry into a broader topic. What is the overall focus?
- Cedar-Central Apartments: Ernest Bohn's "Housing Laboratory" and the Legacy of Public Housing
- Jesse Owens: The Cleveland Years
Biographies / Personal Homes: Biographical stories are often presented through the lens of a specific location, such as a home that has (retroactively and officially or not) been named after that person. But who is that person?
- Max Ellis House: Home of Television’s Original Mr. Jingeling
- Robert P. Madison: An Architect Who Broke Down Walls
The most important characteristic of a good subtitle is that it is both interesting and informative. It should build on the title in a meaningful way that increases the readers' interest and reinforces the central theme of the story.
No subtitle at all is preferable to a subtitle that lacks meaning or intrinsic interest. But consider: if you cannot think of a suitable subtitle, it might be a clue that the arc of your story is not well-defined. Encyclopedic stories tend to be the hardest ones to subtitle because they are too broad or do not put forward any particular idea. What is it you are trying to say in your story? Make sure that this is clear in the main text and the subtitle will flow from that.
See additional rules in Section III.
The lede consists of a few sentences that introduce the reader to the story. It occupies the space between the subtitle and the main text, but is also a part of the main text. The lede is often the most difficult component of the presentation layer for writers to complete, but in some ways it should be the most intuitive.
A good lede will situate the user in the time, place, or culture of the story in much the same way that any good introductory paragraph might do. (In fact, you may find that your introductory paragraph would work perfectly as a lede with minor modification.)
The lede may be used to provide a useful framework for understanding the story, to assert the central theme(s), to layout the basic facts, or to provide the reader with an enticing preview of what is to come.
It may also leave the reader with between the lines questions like "how" or "why," seducing them to read on for the answers. (In which case, your main text must provide those answers.)
Alternately, you may think of the lede as a sort of abstract. A good abstract tells the reader what an article is about to help them decide if it is worth their reading. A good lede does the same but draws (subtly) on the readers' emotion and curiosity, using a more literary style.
You may also find it useful to consider the lede as an "elevator pitch," in which you provide a condensed version of the story that encapsulates the essential conflict or drama to a very busy executive. ("Quick! You have 60 seconds to tell me what your story is about and why I should care.")
Below are some examples of effective ledes, accompanied by their equally-effective titles and subtitles:
Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building
Federal Modernism Comes to Cleveland
When the federal government began planning its new building as part of the Erieview Plan, it departed from I. M. Pei’s original vision and chose a stunning new design that drew from the latest in Modernist thought. Forty years later, that building was showing its age and required a dramatic intervention. The solution was an innovative facade overclad system that changed the building’s appearance but maintained its original purpose and function.
Adele's Lounge Bar
A Home for Beatniks, Bikers, Co-eds, and Hippies
For a short time, a small and humble lounge served as a home for a diverse assortment of people to enjoy each other's company, write poetry, organize activism, and sometimes seek a higher level of consciousness. But surrounding institutions did all in their power to close it down.
The William F. Cody Lawsuit
Buffalo Bill's Failed Attempt to Recover His Grandfather's Euclid Avenue Property
He hunted buffalo on horseback. He was a top scout for the United States Army. He created and starred in his own magnificent Wild West Show which played to huge crowds all across America and before the crowned heads of Europe. However, in 1882, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody was simply no match for Cleveland's justice system.
Note in these examples how the three written components of the presentation layer work together to build interest. From the title to the subtitle to the lede, at each step the reader is provided with an increasing level of specificity and interest. While the reader collects more information they are also beginning to collect their own questions, which is exactly what you want. (Again, just make sure to provide the answers.) Remember, writing for the web – like all forms of publishing – is a contest of attention.
The hero image is the image that appears at the top of your story. Like the title and subtitle components of the presentation layer, it also appears in search results, social media previews, etc. It is the most viscerally attention-grabbing representation of your research.
The difference between a bad image and a good image and between a good image and a great image is beyond the scope of this guide. The important thing is to be thoughtful about which image you choose to feature at the top of the page. Before publishing your story, be sure to hit the preview button to look at the story page as it will appear to the public.
Is it a worthy representation of your work or is it off-topic? Does it look nice in the context of the website design or does it look awkward? Does it have a clean resolution or is it blurry and pixelated? Does the image reveal something the reader may not have known or have they seen this a million times. Would you send this picture to your friends and family and say "Check this out!" or is it just kind of ordinary? Will this image inspire curiosity or indifference? Is it well-cropped or does it have ugly, misaligned borders left over from an old scanner?
Below are a few considerations regarding hero images:
Text: Images in which the primary content is textual are not allowed to be used as the hero image. This includes newspaper clippings, advertisements, etc. as well as photographs of large-type signs and billboards, logos, etc.
Resolution: The image should have a clean, crisp appearance without visible pixelation when viewed on a high-quality display.
Focus: The image should be in focus and not excessively blurry or irritating to the eye.
Cropping: Remove all printers' borders and scanner artifacts before uploading by cropping them out of the image.
Alignment: Make sure your image is not unnaturally or unintentionally crooked or sideways.
Preview Your Work: Preview the appearance of the image on the website (and later, in the app) to make sure it looks good.
Cleveland Historical is a reference resource that bears some similarities to an encyclopedia but is emphatically not an encyclopedia. Cleveland Historical is an academic publication that bears some similarities to an historical journal but is just as emphatically not that either. Cleveland Historical writers have well-founded opinions on historical topics but Cleveland Historical does not publish opinion columns.
Cleveland Historical is written in a journalistic magazine style – or "feature style" – but with constraints relating to our broader mission as an historical resource. For example, unlike in a typical feature, writing in the first person is not allowed. Your story is based on your research and not on your personal experience. Likewise, while humor is an effective method for capturing reader attention – and even for bolstering persuasive argumentation – it is generally not appropriate in our context to write a story that can be described as "funny." We also want to avoid direct appeals to the readers' selective sentimentality for the past. If your story happens to evoke nostalgia in the reader, it should be as a natural by-product of excellent storytelling and not merely because you took them for an unchallenging stroll down memory lane. Slang and other colloquialisms should be used sparingly, if at all. Jargon should be avoided to the extent possible, but may be invoked to educate readers on ideas that are central to your narrative. As such, a building may be described as "a fine example of the Second Empire architectural style" but you probably should not go on to ponder "the liminality of francophile entablature design." In most other regards, our style is similar to a standard feature style. You should include rich detail and description, utilizing a variety of literary devices, and carefully structuring your argument around a well-considered interpretation of the available facts. Writers are encouraged to develop their own distinct voice within the guidelines provided herein.
Cleveland Historical stories should serve as a reliable and trustworthy resource for historians and other researchers. This means documenting your sources and writing with precision. Your work should serve as a credible citation in academic journals and other scholarship. See the section Citing Your Sources below. That said, authors must take care not to weigh down compelling stories with too much information.
Maintaining both authority and engagement sometimes means striking a balance between two goals. We want to hold people's attention, but we don't need to entertain them. We want to teach our readers something new without being didactic. We strive to be a serious publication and a valuable research resource while being enjoyable and useful even to those with shorter attention spans.
We celebrate our shared history but we do not celebrate the subjects of our research (e.g. rather than describing Terminal Tower as "beautiful," we describe it as "striking"). Likewise, though history contains many villains, we do not use excessively moralistic language (e.g. rather than describing Danny Greene as a "thug," we describe him as an "alleged mafia enforcer"). As such, it is also generally not appropriate to use explicitly religious language (e.g. rather than saying one was "blessed," we might instead say they were "fortunate") or an overtly political tone (e.g. rather than saying "the masses rose up against the capital class," we might instead say "the workers went on strike"). Finally, language that diminishes traditional cultural practices and beliefs and/or targets minorities and other groups as a whole is prohibited.
Obviously, Cleveland Historical is primarily concerned with documenting the past. That said, the narrative arc of many histories will conclude in the present day and often look toward the future. This can sometimes mean that a given story will become outdated shortly after publication. Periodically updating or amending existing content is a normal and essential part of maintaining a reference resource like ours. After all, history is a moving target. The facts – and what we make of them – evolve over time. Unlike a book or journal article, Cleveland Historical is a living resource. Thus, we must consider how our research will read in one year, five years, ten years, and beyond.
Think twice before using words like: currently, presently, and today.
For example, instead of saying that "Sherwin-Williams is currently building a new headquarters," say "In 2020, Sherwin-Williams revealed their plans for a new headquarters." The former is outdated as soon as construction is complete, whereas the latter is never outdated, conveys more information, and can be easily amended at a later date. The preferred language effectively situates the present day in the historical past.
Similarly, think twice before using a phrase like "100 years ago," which becomes factually incorrect in no more than 365 days.
Cleveland Historical authors are encouraged to use rich, detailed, descriptive language. However, excessive use of adjectives is discouraged. Words that are flowery, redundant, imprecise, or that do not add actual information should be eliminated.
Generally, each paragraph should represent a single coherent idea or theme (e.g. description of a time period, a piece of evidence, etc.). Paragraphs should flow naturally from one to the next in such a manner that the story can be easily outlined from introduction to conclusion. Final paragraphs should provide a sense of closure, even when leaving open questions.
Avoid the passive voice (e.g. do not say "the election was lost by the challenger" when it is clearer and more direct to say that "the challenger lost the election").
When using acronyms, the first abbreviated use should be offset in parentheses following the full use, e.g. "National Association of Colored People (NAACP)."
Long sentences are sometimes unavoidable and can even be preferable if they are used to build a rhythm. However, too many consecutive long sentences can be tiresome to read. Use sentences of varying lengths to create a flow that is enjoyable to read.
Always ask yourself if a given detail is actually required to successfully tell a story. It can be tempting to include everything that your research has uncovered, but this can often lead to a story that is scattershot or bogged down by asides. Sometimes the solution is to leave things out. Other times it may be best to move secondary information into a file caption or standalone factoid.
Look for inconsistencies in your writing. For example, when referring to numbered street names, choose between "East" and "E." and "Fourth" and "4th" and stick with that choice throughout.
Leave a single blank line between each paragraph.
Do not indent paragraphs.
Single space after sentences.
The period goes "inside the quotes."
Spell out Street, Boulevard, Avenue, etc. in the body of the main text.
Abbreviate common honorifics such as Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr., Fr., Sr., and Msgr. in the body of the main text. This also applies to the names of saints as used in Catholic church names (e.g. "St. Patrick"), which are abbreviated in the body of the main text – but not in the main title or subtitle (per Section III.B.).
Refer to Chicago Manual of Style as needed for additional rules.
In some cases you will need to click the "Use HTML" option to add special formatting to your story. Please keep in mind the following guidelines:
Formatting text for visual effect is not allowed. Do not attempt to change the font, color, or size of the text. Do not italicize text unless it is for a content-related reason (e.g. to cite a formal title or to add emphasis to a word or phrase). The use of bold text is prohibited.
Links may be added using HTML (<a>). The use of bare URLs is not allowed anywhere on the site. Links in the body of the text should flow naturally within the narrative and never use strategies like "Click Here" to indicate a link. Links to related content on clevelandhistorical.org are encouraged. Links to external sites should be limited to the Related Resources section. Never use the "Open in new window" option (target="_blank"). Do not link to content that requires a subscription. Alternate URLs such as those used for AMP pages, Facebook Instant Articles, Apple News, and other aggregation sites and apps are not allowed. You must determine the canonical URL.
Lists should be formatted using HTML (<ul> or <ol>) rather than dashes, etc.
Long standalone quotations should use the <blockquote> element, which must be added manually. If you are unsure how to do this, the editors will do it for you.
Embedded content (e.g. <iframe> and <object>) is not allowed.
Titles for building and place names should not begin with "The."
Do not use abbreviations in the title except where it improves comprehension or readability. For example, there is no functional need to abbreviate the word "Saint" as "St." in the title for "Saint Patrick Parish." But it might make sense to use an abbreviation in a story titled "The NAACP United Freedom Movement."
Titles and Subtitles follow the Chicago Manual of Style. The following guidelines apply to all titles and subtitles:
- Always capitalize "major" words (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and some conjunctions).
- Lowercase the conjunctions and, but, for, or, and nor.
- Lowercase the articles the, a, and an.
- Lowercase prepositions, regardless of length, except when they are stressed, are used adverbially or adjectivally, or are used as conjunctions.
- Lowercase the words to and as.
- Lowercase the second part of Latin species names.
- Lowercase the second word after a hyphenated prefix (e.g., Mid-, Anti-, Super-, etc.) in compound modifiers (e.g., Mid-year, Anti-hero, etc.).
- Always capitalize the first and last words of titles and subtitles (overrides the rules above).
- Exceptions will be made on the grounds of emphasis and prominence (e.g. A River Runs Through It).
Quotes and other assertions must be sourced in a natural voice inline with the text and documented in the Related Resources section at the end of the story. Instead of using a footnote, you can simply preface the information in the same way you might do verbally. For example, "According to a 1967 study..." or "The Plain Dealer called the plan..." Unsourced quotes and assertions will be challenged by the editors. Links in the Related Resources section must be clickable and lead to valid pages (see Using HTML To Format Text above for additional rules). All citations in the Related Resources section must use Chicago Manual of Style.
Related to citations, you should also fully document primary and secondary source evidence such as images and oral history files. Each file should have at minimum a Title, Description, Source, and Date (exact or circa) entered in the appropriate fields.
Original works that were first published on a social media website may be used with written consent and/or in compliance with a Creative Commons license, crediting both the user and the website (e.g. "John Doe on Flickr" or "User @johndoe on Flickr" if an IRL name is not available). This citation should link directly to the public page on which the file was first published (must not require login). If the terms of a Creative Commons license or other usage restrictions apply, they should be indicated in the Rights field.
Use the Street Address field to enter a single-line address, intersection, neighborhood, or city. Follow the examples below, ordered from most to least specific (more specifity is preferable in most cases):
- Full address: 2121 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH
- Intersection: E 9th St and Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH
- Street-only: Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH
- Place: Kauffman Park, Lakewood, OH
- Neighborhood-only: Tremont, Cleveland, OH
- Municipality: Shaker Heights, OH
Note that – in order to save space – we abbreviate street names and do not include periods or zip codes in this field. (These rules do not apply to the main story text). The address should fit on a single line within the map interface when possible.
Use the Access Information field to indicate additional information that may be of use to the reader. For example, if a mapped building no longer exists, enter "Demolished" or "Destroyed by fire in 1889," etc.
Maps that indicate the precise location of a private residence should always include "Private residence" in the Access Information field.