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Natural Awakenings Tucson

Style Guidelines

General Natural Awakenings writer's styling guidelines

  • Establish a strong lead paragraph and compelling close.
  • Remember the five Ws: who, what, where, when and why.
  • Write in third-person news style for briefs & most articles (them/they/those/people/attendees).
  • Alternatively, for articles, use we/our/us. Avoid the less formal second-person ‘you’.
  • Use a clear, logical order for content. (Samples at NaturalAwakeningsMag.com.)
  • Use action verbs (E.g., ABC offers; not ABC is offering).
  • Use plain language and briefly define technical terms.
  • Keep sentences and paragraphs short.
  • Include short anecdotes or case studies to illustrate key points–then expand the focus to a wider context.
  • Use strong, genuine quotes to aid in reader identification.
  • Add credibility with scientific studies, statistics and updates on trends.
  • Single space after periods.
  • Punctuation "inside" quotes.

What our readers expect:

  • We focus on hope, healing, practical tips and benefits. Every reader wants to know
  • how they can personally use and benefit from this information in their life journey.
  • Attribute all medical or health claims and scientific study results; cite credible, authoritative sources. List additional resources in an italicized endnote.

What our readers won't see:

  • A depressing lists of symptoms and technical details of treatment.
  • Extended, first-person (I/me/my) accounts of life journeys.
  • Marketing or sales copy heavy on blatant self-promotion disguised as an article (we have advertising and our Spotlights for that, which our readers enjoy as well).
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