Write For Presence

Another common reason articles are rejected is for poor writing style. The editors strongly recommend that you examine the suggestions found on the website: How to Write in Plain English. For more helpful guidelines on writing style see: How to Write More Clearly, Think More Clearly, and Learn Complex Material More Easily” by Michael A. Covington

Abbreviations

• Do not use periods in PhD, MD, or initials of religious orders (SJ, OP).
• Spell out USA state names and Canadian provinces. Do not use postal abbreviations except in full postal addresses. Include “USA” after a state name and “Canada” after a province name.
• Spell out Saint with the names of saints and in place names; with personal names, spell it out or abbreviate it according to the preference of the individual if that is known, or spell it out if the person’s preference is not known.
• Use abbreviations such as e.g., i.e., and etc. in parentheses.

Bias-free language

• Where necessary, alternate he or she and she or he by paragraph. Also generally alternate the gender in specific examples by paragraph.
• Generally prefer gender-neutral terms for God, but allow masculine pronouns to be used with Father, Son, Jesus, Christ, and Lord when those terms are necessary, and feminine pronouns to be used with Goddess, Mother, Sophia, Shekinah, etc. when those terms are necessary.

Documentation

• Use short cites in the running text, with full cites in a “References” section at the end of the article. If an article references more than one work by the same author, the short cite includes a shortened version of the title. Include interviews and audiovisual materials in the reference list, without subheads.

References

• Include author’s full name: Smith, Jane E., title of article or book, title of periodical where applicable, location of publisher, publisher, date of publication, volume, issue, and page numbers when the reference within the text is an article within a larger work or periodical. For example:

Scriptural Reference

• Christian writers should generally use the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.
• Other faith traditions will use the scripture translation commonly accepted in their tradition.
• When citing scripture from the Christian Bible, use the two-letter abbreviation for the book, followed by the chapter in numerical notation, a colon, and then the verse numbers. Consecutive verse numbers are separated by a “–” and non-consecutive verse numbers by a “,”: 1 Pt 2:10–14; Mt 5:3, 6, 8–9; Nm 12:3–10.

Callouts (aka pull quotes)

• Please include a list of three to six suggested callouts at the end of the article.

Capitalization

• Capitalize all proper nouns referring to God: God, Father, Mother, Goddess, Sophia, Shekinah, Creator, Son, Redeemer, Holy Spirit, Spirit, Jesus, Christ, Allah, Abba, Amma, etc. Pronouns referring to God remain in the lower case. 
• Bible is capitalized, and scripture is lowercased.
• Lowercase church unless it is part of a name of a denomination or an actual parish (Sacred Heart Church; The United Methodist Church; a Methodist church).
• Capitalize Internet.

Names and titles

• Do not use courtesy titles (Mr., Mrs., Ms.).
• On first reference, use first and last name of a person. On subsequent reference, use last name only.
  
  • Exception: Use last name alone even on first cites to a reference list;
  • Exception: Use first and last names on subsequent references if necessary for clarity or parallelism.
• Do not use the honorific title Saint.

Numbers and dates

• Do not abbreviate years (’96, the ’90s.) Instead, use the entire year (The class of 1996, the 1990s).
• Abbreviate a month when it is used in a specific date, such as Dec. 21, 2002, but spell out just a month and a year: December 2002.

Possessives

• Possessive forms of words ending in “s” get an apostrophe and an “s” (Jesus’s, Moses’s).

Punctuation

• Generally, do not use a slash (e.g., use “and” instead of “and/or” or “him and her” instead of “him/her”).

Quotations

• Run in short quotations (less than 100 words or 8 lines).

Spelling and distinctive treatment

• Prefer USA style spelling, but British, Canadian, and Australian spellings are accepted from authors in those countries. 
• Italicize Presencia when referring to the journal.
• Hyphenate e-mail.

Subheadings

• We encourage the use of subheadings, especially in articles that are medium length and longer (see above). Subheadings should be in capital and lowercase letters, bold, flush left.

Usage

• The Holy Spirit may be referred to as “it.”
• Allow “since” to be used as a synonym for because.
• Always use “spiritual director” in place of “director” and “spiritual directee” in place of “directee.”
• Always use “spiritual companion” in place of “companion” and “spiritual seeker” in place of “seeker.”

Copyright

Presencia: Una Publicación Internacional sobre la Dirección Espiritual maintains first rights only. This is also called Rights Reversal. This means that you guarantee that the article has not appeared in its present form elsewhere and we grant you fair use of the article in any way once we have published it. Should the article be reprinted elsewhere, we ask the author to acknowledge that the article was first published in Presencia: Una Publicación Internacional sobre la Dirección Espiritual along with the correct volume and issue number.