Please make sure your article meets all the following technical requirements before submitting. It will make life a lot easier on our editors, and your article will be published much faster.
The reason for all these requirements is because we want all SixPrizes contributors to be portrayed in a professional manner. We need to have consistency between each article in terms or formatting to help achieve this.
1. Type Your Article in Microsoft Word
Please, please, please type your article in Microsoft Word (or some other word processing program) and make sure to use the spell check and grammar check!
This will help eliminate 90% of the errors within your article and make editing process go much smoother. There is no excuse for not doing this.
Even with the built in spell check, you should still manually spell check AND proofread your article THREE TIMES before submitting it.
Articles that have any spelling and/or grammatical mistakes may not be published.
2. Capitalization Rules
Here are the major rules as far as capitalization goes:
- Capitalize all of the following terms:
- The word “Pokemon”
- Pokemon names (ex: Pikachu)
- Trainer cards (ex: Professor Oak)
- Energy cards (ex: Water Energy)
- Attack names (ex: Leek Slap)
- Tournament Names (ex: Battle Roads, City Championships)
- Set Names (ex: Undaunted)
- The word “Prime” when referring to a Pokemon Prime
- The words Trainer, Supporter, Stadium, and Energy when referencing Pokemon cards
- Poke-Powers, Poke-Bodies, and Abilities (ex: Galactic Switch)
- The words Basic, Stage 1, and Stage 2 when referencing Pokemon cards
3. General Formatting Rules
All card names should be formatted as they are on the card. For example, “PlusPower” is the way it’s spelled out on the card, not “Pluspower,” “Plus Power,” or some other derivative. Just go with what the card says.
Deck list should be spelled “deck list,” and not “decklist.”
The point of all of this is to create consistency within the articles and to make them easy to follow and understand, even for new players.
Abbreviations are ok, but only if you spell out the term the first time you mention it. Again, the main point is to create consistency within the articles so they appear professional and they are easy for the readers to follow. Use your best judgment.
Using Quotes
The preferred methodology by English professors is to “quote like this,” with the punctuation inside the quote.
“This would be the incorrect way to quote”. You’ll notice the period is outside of the closing quotation mark. “This is the right way.”
1 or 2 Spaces Between Sentences?
Please use only 1 space between sentences. I know you may have been taught 2 is correct (like me), but on the internet only 1 space after each sentence is standard.
Thanks for understanding.
4. Paragraph Formatting
As far as breaking up paragraphs, here’s the general rule:
Create line breaks every 3 to 5 lines.
In order words, if your any of your paragraphs span more than 5 vertical lines, then you need to break it up into mini paragraphs (maybe 1 to 3 sentences max).
You won’t be able to judge the spacing until you paste your article into the post editor on the site (unless you type your article on the site), so don’t worry about it until you get to that point.
The idea behind this is that it makes the articles much easier to read when they are broken down into small chunks. Feel free to separate new paragraphs as you see fit and try to keep a flow going in the article if possible (where you start new paragraphs).
5. Deck List Formatting
Type your deck list straight down the page.
The editors will format it so that it appears in table form on the site, but you can put it in table form yourself once you copy it over to the “Add New Post” page.
Please list your deck in the following fashion:
Pokemon – 8
4 Pikachu HS
4 Raichu HS
T/S/S – 20
4 Bebe’s Search
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Professor Oak
4 Bill
4 Broken Time-Space
Energy – 14
10 Lightning
4 Call
Take note of the following:
- Spell out the entire card name, capitalization included, and include the set abbreviations for Pokemon only. Also include the set number if there is more than one of that Pokemon in the set. For example, Beartic EPO 47.
- Do not type the card count as “4x” or “x4″… just type “4″.
6. Images
You do not have to insert the images into your article; the SixPrizes editors will do it for you.
However, feel free to make note if there are any special images you’d like included and where to insert them. Also make note if there is any specific image you’d like to be used for the thumbnail image that will show on the front page.
We will do our best to accommodate you, though we can’t guarantee we will be able to fit all the images you want into your article.
But, if you are comfortable doing so, once you get to the “Add New Post” page, you can actually insert all the images yourself if want full control over how your article will be presented.
Instructions explaining the image insertion process are detailed on the submission instructions page.
Again though, the 6P editors can take care of all the images for you. We have a lot of experience making articles look spiffy, so focus on the writing and you can be assured your article will look great.
7. Length
Your article should be at the very least 750 words (unless it’s a Card of the Day article).
However, most of the better articles on the site are 2000 words or longer.
8. Miscellaneous
A. Give your article a catchy and/or detailed title that will entice somebody to read it. For example:
- Legend Box Bonanza
- Pokemon Opponents: Psychoanalysis and Strategies
- Decks to Look Out for in Battle Roads and Nationals
- Why You Shouldn’t Worry About The Rotation
B. The title nomenclature for Card of the Day articles is as follow:
“[Pokemon] ([Set] [Set Abbreviation] #[Set Number]) – Card of the Day”
C. Do not use tasteless slang or ambiguous abbreviations in your article. You must project yourself as being a professional.
D. Focus your discussion on the subjects within your article that you think are most interesting and relevant to our readers. Do not explain why you use staple cards in your deck or reiterate card text; no one wants to hear about that. Talk about the unique aspects of your subject matter.
E. Please refrain from discussing deck matchups extensively in your article unless you have actually tested them.
Thanks for taking all this into consideration when you write! Most of it is common sense, but I just want to make sure everyone is on the same page. If you have any questions, or would like clarification on anything, please ask!
