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Guidelines
for Writing Announcement Texts
If you have decided
to compose your own text, we have some guidelines that may
help you.
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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.
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A common problem:
If you want to have your text followed by a space and
then the parent's names, 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 undue
attention to them. See the example below for a
suggestion on how to solve this problem.
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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."
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We
get a lot of questions about the punctuation and grammar of
announcements.
Here are answers to some of the most common
ones.
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It is general practice
on social announcements to write out the time, date
and year rather than using numerals. ("At four
o'clock in the afternoon on the twenty-seventh of May")
Where space is a problem, or where a distinctly informal
approach is desired, the numerals may be used
("at 4:00 p.m. on the 27th of May"). The main
thing is to be consistent - use either numerals
or words, but not both.
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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 Saturday, the tenth
of May, Two thousand and ten."
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Punctuation that falls
at the end of a line is usually omitted unless it is
essential for a correct understanding of the text.
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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.
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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.
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Is "Homeschool / Home
School" one word or two? That is your decision!
We see "home school" used more often as a
noun, and "homeschool" more commonly used
as a verb.
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Avoid
a space before and after the parents' names, since
it draws undue attention to that line.
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Solution:
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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
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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
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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 and
we will contact you if we have suggestions about how the announcement
verse may be improved.
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