We send this friendly reminder about some of the nuts and bolts of writing for House to House/Heart to Heart. Your attention to these important details is appreciated. 

• To get a better insight, look at a copy to see how the finished product looks. Use it as an example for your style.
• The elders of the Jacksonville congregation have determined that only three translations will be used in the publication: King James Version, New King James Version, 1901 American Standard Version. There are not exceptions to this rule.
• Send any article you wish to use for the back page in one of two formats: Microsoft Word or a rich text editor. Do not send them as an e-mail message. Do not send them as PDF. Both of these formats create a lot of unnecessary work for our editors.
• Please do not italicize quotations. It makes the article busy and difficult to read. Text exceeding a set number of lines (usually 3) will be set off. Otherwise it will be in quotation marks. Do not use underline or boldface for emphasis in running text.
• All commas and periods go inside quotation marks if such are present, unless followed by a parenthesis. Question marks follow the question; they do not belong at the end of the parenthesis.
• Please spell the books of the Bible. Some who receive the paper may not be familiar with book abbreviations.
• Closely check your article. Write it, read it, lay it aside, and reread it later. Have someone else read it if possible. Be sure to check scripture references closely. Do not guess at punctuation when quoting.
• Put parentheses around scripture references. Be sure to quote partial passages in such a way that you do not break the flow of the sentence.
• Do not use a and b for partial scripture quotations.
• Separate chapter and verses with a colon, not a period. Use en dashes where there are two or more conjoined verses. Example: (Acts 17:30–31).
• All text needs to be to the right margin. There should be two spaces between paragraphs.
• Do not double space between end punctuation and the next sentence.
• Remember that your article space is limited. Articles should be from 375 words (1 column) to 800 words (2 columns). Obviously, if you have a picture this will vary. If the article is too short, we have to fill the white space. If it is too long, it must be edited for length. Please do not overwrite and then ask us to edit it. Take your time and write it as you want it presented.
• Be certain you have authorization from an author before you send his material to us. Copyrights on works created after January 1, 1978 are good for the lifetime of the author and 70 to 120 years thereafter! Works before that time are more complicated. You can read the information here: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ15a.pdf.
• Please remove all hyperlinks and smart tags. These can create problems in typesetting.
• Use typographers quotation marks. You can activate this in Word.
• We use Times New Roman font as a rule. Your assistance in this will be appreciated.