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Guidelines for Writing the Announcement Text

Guidelines for Writing Your Announcement Text

If you have decided to compose your own text, we have some guidelines that may help you.

	Suggested number of lines and characters: 10 to 13 lines fit nicely on all announcement designs. The announcement you choose will tell the number of lines and spaces available on that design. If you've written a text that is too long for the card you've chosen, see this page for condensing suggestions.
	First person vs. third person: If your verse begins with "Mr and Mrs...." (in other words, written in the third person), then it would be correct to say "they invite you..." instead of "we invite you." This is the most common grammar problem we see. You must keep the "person" consistent throughout the text.
	A common problem: If you want to have your text written in such a way that the parent's names appear as "signatures" at the end, avoid following the names with more text. The reason for this is visual... a space before and after the parent's names make them appear to "float" on the page, drawing the eye immediately to that line. When the text is laid out in this way, the parent's names become the most prominent line, taking away from the emphasis that should be placed on the student!. See the example below for a suggestion on how to solve this problem.

Avoid this:
(parent's names "floating")

Solution:
(Parent's names at the end)

We are pleased to announce
the graduation of our daughter
Hannah Joy Williams
Class of 2005
Christian Liberty Academy

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Williams

"But seek first his kingdom, and his
righteousness, and all these things
will be given to you as well."
Matthew 6:33

We are pleased to announce
the graduation of our daughter
Hannah Joy Williams
Class of 2005
Christian Liberty Academy
"But seek first his kingdom, and his
righteousness, and all these things
will be given to you as well."
Matthew 6:33

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Williams

*We get a lot of questions about punctuation, capitalization and formatting. Here are answers to some of the most common ones.*
	It is general practice on social announcements to write out the time, date and year rather than using numerals. ("on Saturday, the twenty-seventh of May at four o'clock in the afternoon.") Where space is a problem, or where a distinctly informal approach is desired, the numerals may be used ("on Saturday, May 27th at 4:00 p.m."). The main thing is to be consistent - use either numerals or words, but not both. The phrase "in the afternoon / evening" is not used when the time and date is written in numerals.
	If you are spelling out the date, time, and year, do not capitalize the time or the date, but DO capitalize the year, month, and day. For example, "on Sunday, the tenth of June, Two thousand and ten."
	If you are using numerals, the ordinal "th" or "st" is not used if the year is also being stated. For example, "May 27th" is correct, but "May 27th, 2010" is not. The "th" or "st" is seen in corner copy text where the year is understood and not stated. It is also seen in an announcement wording that states the year before the date is given. In this case, the year is omitted. For example, if the announcement announces the "Graduation of the Class of Two Thousand Twelve" the year is not written again later in the announcement when the date is provided.
	Punctuation that falls at the end of a line is usually omitted unless it is essential for a correct understanding of the text.
	Prepositions should stay on the same line as their object. For example, instead of "Please join us for a celebration on/Saturday, the seventh of June", use this: "Please join us for a celebration/on Saturday, the seventh of June." This rule is broken when we want the name of the student or the name of the event on a line by itself.
	Capitalize the first word of each line only if it is the first word in a new sentence or section. The words "Graduation," Commencement," "Commencement Ceremony," and "High School Graduation" are also normally capitalized when they are the named "event" that the recipient is being invited to or informed of.
	Is "Homeschool / Home School" one word or two? That is your decision! Our experience is that "Home School" tends to be used more as a noun, whereas "Homeschool" seems to be more commonly used as a verb.

These suggestions may help you with the wording, but you are also free to ignore them! Remember, we proofread all announcements before submitting them to the printer. The order form will ask your permission to make minor changes, and it lists those changes. We contact you if we have suggestions or questions beyond what you have given us permission to make.

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