Highlights: Check-off List Part 2

Here are some more notes I made to myself on the Check-off List I printed out from the Contributors Guidelines for Highlights.

• Biographies of individuals who have made significant artistic, scientific or humanitarian contributions are strengthened by the inclusion of formative childhood experiences.

o I’m making a note to include one or more short anecdotes from this person’s childhood in my article.

• We prefer biographies that are rich in quotes and anecdotes and that place the subject in a historical and cultural context.

o I’m making a note to use lots of quotes from this person’s autobiographies and speeches. If you’re not sure whether you can quote something or not, check out what my buddies have to say about copyright issues at Writing According to Humphrey and Friends.

• Complete bibliographies as well as photocopies of key pages in references must be included.

o I’ll make a bibliography and keep track of references in footnotes as I write this. Plus I’ll photograph key pages as I go.

If you don’t know how to create a bibliography, just look in the back of any book that has a bibliography and copy the format they use.

There are various formats recommended by various style manuals such as the Chicago Manual of Style. But Highlights isn’t as concerned about which format you use as long as it’s one of them. This is because they don’t publish the bibliographies but simply use it to make sure your sources are reliable. Here is the format some of my publishers use, in case you want a point of reference here at your fingertips:

Books:

Nash, Gary B. Forging Freedom. Cambridge, Masschusetts: Harvard University PRess, 1988, page 24.

Internet Sites:

“Writing According to Humphrey and Friends.” http://writingaccordingtohumphrey.wordpress.com

(12 August 2013.)