Episcopal Press and News
Your Parish Publication: How Does It Look? How Does It Sound?
Diocesan Press Service. August 10, 1972 [72114]
Isabel Baumgartner, Editor, The Tennessee Churchman
So you write a parish bulletin or newsletter. Who reads you?
The well-informed, the alert, the dutiful.
But who needs you?
Not primarily these people, who keep up with most of the action anyway by word of mouth and by reading other publications.
The people who need you -- Mr. and Mrs. Average Communicant and their offspring -- deserve the most inviting looking, most lively sounding paper you can produce. They feel they somehow " ought" to pay more attention to your publication; " it's from the church, after all . . ." Are they really saying ". . . but does it have to be so dull?"
These tips to preparers of mimeographed parish publications just might perk up the sight and sound of that on-paper effort you lug regularly to the post office.
First, consider the look of your publication.
Too much paper discourages; its very weight in the hand murmurs, "Don't read me now; put me aside until you have more time. " Use legal size paper only when letter size won't do; use two sheets of paper only when one won't do.
Too many words per line make the reader's job tougher. The smaller the type, the shorter the line, say readability experts. Usual typewriter type reads most easily in a line not longer than five or six inches. How to plan this? Try two columns, each a tad wider than three inches. Or, use a five-inch line and fill some of the resulting blankness, discreetly, with drawings. Or, fold your sheet in half and use it sideways with (for letter size paper) lines not longer than four and a half inches . . . not shorter, either, or you'll wear out your hyphen key and your welcome simultaneously.
Ouch !
Too many words per page look uncomfortable. You've stolen their elbow room. Some threaten to tumble off the side of the paper; others fairly shriek, you've shoved them so near the brink at the bottom. Optimum margins on letter size paper: at least an inch, all around. Double space between items; with necessarily long segments, double space between paragraphs and triple space between items. Re-design a page that resembles six minutes of conversation crammed into a three-minute phone call.
Gimmicks get in the reader's way. A shallow masthead on the front page needs space around it; one too deep looks like a mere space waster. Avoid column rules and horizontal lines wherever you can; blank space breaks up type effectively. Be sparing with boxes, underlines, all-capital-letter spelling, rows of asterisks, and exclamation points. Tricked-up printing confuses the eye. Besides, emphasis devices put off the reader when each item tries to outshout the others.
Well-spaced headlines lettered with a stylus and plastic guide improve page design. Choose not more than two harmonious styles of lettering; you can make them look like four, if you want to, by using all caps in some places and caps-and-lower in others.
Now, then -- how does your publication sound?
Do you use a stained glass voice? Do your words drone on, in a teacher-pupil tone? Do you finish what you have to say before you stop talking? Or -- forgive me, gals -- does your writing flutter its eyelashes and ooh and aah?
The oughts
One kind of printed "church talk" I consider extremely unhelpful, doomed to discourage all but the most determined reader. "Let's make a good showing for the guest speaker" -- "Every single one of our communicants ought . . " -- "You people who missed our midweek service/meeting/special speaker will never know . . . " Such pleadings come understandably into the mind of a frustrated clergyman or program planner, but when they come out of his or her typewriter, I think they kill rather than foster the desired effect.
My favorite handbook (Strunk-White: The Elements of Style) treats verbosity sharply. "Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. "
Word savers
Choose the active voice instead of the passive. Compare, for brevity and movement, the following. "Parishes and missions were asked by Diocesan Convention that their Lenten missionary offerings be designated for the Missionary Diocese of Puerto Rico, where a $26,000 conference center will be built by the Diocese of Tennessee." "Diocesan Convention asked parishes and missions to designate Lenten missionary offerings for the Missionary Diocese of Puerto Rico, where our Diocese will build a $26,000 conference center." Saving: eight words (nearly one-fourth) and lots of toing and froing.
Words with Latin roots rather than Anglo-Saxon build roadblocks, too. "It was voted by the vestry that a committee be appointed by the rector, to whom opinions can be expressed by communicants about the construction proposal now being considered. " "The vestry asked the rector to name a committee to gather communicants' views of the building plan now under study. " The second sentence, shorter by nearly one-third, comes through more clearly because verbs turn active and plain-sounding words replace fancy ones.
Spice up headlines with action verbs. Compare "Shrove Tuesday pancake supper " with any of these: " Pancakes top Tuesday menu" -- " Flapjacks flap Tuesday night" -- "Teens turn chefs Tuesday" -- or even " Tuesday night, batter's up as bacon sizzles. "
Hunt for and correct bad habits like the use of pairs of words. One says more than two. "Our father and creator who art and always will be in heaven and eternity; hallowed and revered be thy name and nature. Thy kingdom and domain come and endure; thy will and wishes be done and fulfilled ... "
Forget it -- but –
Feel free to disregard everything in the preceding paragraphs. You didn't ask me for this. But may I ask you for one favor? Unless Uncle Sam insists otherwise, please skip that extra staple. It's hard for me to concentrate on even a real humdinger of a parish bulletin when my thumbnail is throbbing.