Preferred stylistic conventions in Trail & Timberline magazine:

• Never use an exclamation point in articles being written for T&T.
• Avoid lists, bulleted points, or numbered points. Instead, write in complete paragraphs.
• No upper case words.
• First citation in article: write out “The Colorado Mountain Club…” (at the beginning of a sentence or “…the Colorado Mountain Club…” in the middle of a sentence. NEVER “Colorado Mountain Club” without the article. Subsequent citations can be “The CMC” (at the beginning of a sentence) or “the CMC” in other places, NEVER “CMC” without the article. It is also ok to write “the club” (lower case) when the reference is clear. Except at the beginning of a sentence, the article “the” is never capitalized.
• It is, however, permissible to write “CMC” without an article when “CMC” is used as an adjective, thus: “CMC staff” NOT “the CMC staff” though the latter is permissible. Either are preferable to “the staff of the CMC,” which is unnecessarily wordy.
• One space between sentences, not two
• “Coloradans” not “Coloradoans” unless part of a title or the name of something, such as the newspaper The Fort Collins Coloradoan.
• When listing phone numbers, parentheses around area codes.
• Underline e-mail addresses and URLs. Turn off the feature in Word that makes these into hyperlinks.
• Italicize names of books and other stand-alone publications. Put articles published as part of a larger collection inside quotation marks.
• Punctuation invariably goes inside quotation marks, never outside.
• “Western Slope” never “West Slope” unless it is a proper name. Similarly, “Eastern Slope” not “East Slope.”
• Bylines (and blurbs on article author) are necessary for all but the shortest news bit. This is particularly critical if the article is in anyway interpretive of facts or demonstrates a point of view.
• Trail & Timberline is always spelled with an ampersand. Type is set in Small Caps, NOT italics. Subsequent references can be to “T&T.”
• With the exception of the name of the magazine, DO NOT use ampersands in place of the word “and”
• All T&T conventions notwithstanding, DO NOT edit a direct quotation to conform to T&T style.
• “ORV” stands for “off-road vehicle.” “OHV” stands for “off-highway vehicle.” While the terms are virtually synonymous, be consistent in their use. Do not refer, for example, to an “off-highway vehicle” then use “ORV” for subsequent citations.
• All acronyms, when used as citations, should be preceded by an initial citation that spells out all words. “Bureau of Land Management (BLM)” is a good way to make an initial citation—particularly if the audience may not be aware of the jargon.
• Common sense would dictate that abbreviations such as “U.S.” for “United States” are acceptable in an initial citation because they are so common. It is acceptable to write “the U.S. Forest Service” for an initial citation. “Forest Service” is the preferred subsequent citation, NOT U.S.F.S. Note there is no space after the period in the middle of the abbreviation. It is “U.S.” not “U. S.”
• The abbreviations for the Latin words for morning and afternoon are always set in small caps, thus: a.m. and p.m. with no space after the first period.
• Series of three or more things ALWAYS take a comma before the conjunction. Thus: “..the red ball, the green rubber ducky, and the yellow hat…” NOT “…the red ball, the green rubber ducky and the yellow hat…” NOTE: this is different from the Associated Press Style Sheet, which recommends against the serial comma. Too bad. T&T uses it.
• When referring to a CMC school or section, write out the first citation. Thus: “High Altitude Mountaineering Section (HAMS)” or “Intermediate Rock Climbing School (IRCS).” This is particularly important because the Colorado Mountain Club employs so many acronyms and abbreviations. For those used to the culture of the club, the acronyms are self evident. But new members and people less integrated into the club can easily become confused.