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Formatting and Formalities

It all starts here. Please commit the following styles to memory, as we do not employ WYSIWYG. There are also a few formalities that you should follow.

Format

Double quotes

Place song titles in "double quotes."

Italicizing text

Italicize album, film and book titles with the <em> tag. You can italicize an album title like this: <em>Kind of Blue</em>.

Internal Linking with {{ }}

When submitting an article, place the first instance of a musician's full name inside {{}} within the article text box. We also link to cities, fellow staff members, albums, venues and record labels. Linking is essential for many reasons, and you can learn how to do it, here.

You can also include a link to another All About Jazz article from your article by going to the other article's page and clicking the orange link icon to the left of the LIKE button. Paste the value back into your article.

Bolding text

Bold interview Q&A attribution with the <strong> tag like this: <strong>Bill Frisell</strong>.

Indenting text

You can indent text (e.g. lyrics) with the <blockquote> tag like this:

<blockquote>
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
</blockquote>

Section headers

Create section headers using the <h3> tag like this: <h3>The Early Years</h3>. A paragraph break should precede the h3 tag but no breaks should follow it as the h3 automatically adds the requisite space below it.

Formatting Your Article Title

The proper format for an interview or artist profile is: Artist Name: Title. Make your title punchy with the goal of grabbing the readers attention.

Formalities

Primary Musician Name

For articles, always add the primary musician's name to the "Primary musician or band name" box. This creates an association between the article page and musician page and helps drive readers to the musician's page to learn more. We'll also append an "About" (the musician) section as well as their upcoming calendar to the article page.

Contractions and Abbreviations

Avoid contractions (e.g. "It is," not "it's" and "they have," not "they've) and abbreviations (e.g. "featuring" not "feat."). Dates are presented as "Month Day, Year." Example: August 15, 2025.

First Person

Avoid first person references (or over personalization). All About Jazz is not a blog.

Feelings

Avoid telling a reader how the music will make them feel.

Spell Checking and AI

Always use spell and grammar checkers—and fact-check musician names and album info (label, release year)—before submitting your article. We recommend composing your articles using Google Drive Docs, so you have cloud backup. It includes a spellchecker. Also, install the Grammarly browser plug-in as a grammar checker. You can also use an AI tool as a front-line editor (learn how).

Future Proof

Do not refer to an album being reviewed as the artist’s "latest," "newest" or "most recent."

Pull Quotes

Pull quotes at the top of articles do not need to be placed in quotes, as the pullquote coding will automatically add quotation marks. Similarly, automatic coding will add a dash ahead of the name of the pullquote author, so no need not add it.