Article Guidelines

Encyclopedia entries should be approximately 500-1500 words (including title, sources, contributor information, etc). The first sentences of your entry should clearly describe the significance of the person, place, event, or organization you are writing about.
For example: Founded in 1882, the Schubert Club is one of the oldest existing arts organizations in the country. It has had a significant impact on the cultural life of Alton, supporting music education and hosting concerts featuring well-respected local, national, and international musicians.
Do not copy information from other websites such as Wikipedia. Feel free, however, to review Wikipedia and similar websites to see what has previously been written on your subject. Consult a variety of sources and please cite them in Turabian style as endnotes.
Please make sure that your entry synthesizes most or all major sources on the topic.
Avoid presenting editorial comments or debatable arguments as statements of fact. If there is a legitimate debate regarding a particular entry, give each side (or multiple interpretations) due space.
Since the encyclopedia is aimed at a general audience that includes students, aim to write at a tenth-grade reading level.
Each entry of an individual should have her/his birth date and death parenthetically in the title, e.g. John Smith (1868-1950).
Titles of organizations should appear with their founding dates (e.g. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909–).
Your paragraphs should not be indented. Instead there should be a single line separating each paragraph.
Always spell out the name of an organization/political entity when it is used for the first time in an entry.
You should italicize only the book title or journal title in your sources.

For Books: John Smith, Black History (New York: New Publishing Company, 1999).
For Articles: John Smith, “Article in Journal,” Journal Title 54:2 (Fall 2004)
For Websites: http://www.blackhistory.com.

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