Style guide for Open House contributors

Length of articles
1,500 – 3,000 words.  Book reviews up to 1,500 words.

Text formatting
Articles should be typed in Times New Roman or Arial, font size 12, in a Word document.

Do not indent new paragraphs.

Use a single space after full stops.

Use single quotation marks (with double quotation marks for a quotation within a quotation).

Dates should be written as 6 April 2026.

Scripture references should be written using a period eg John 20.19-29

Headings
Left justified with text in lower case, except for the initial letter.

References, bibliographies and footnotes
Open House is not an academic journal so please keep references and footnotes to a minimum. Where possible, avoid using a bibliography.

Use numbered footnotes which will appear at the end of the article.

Hyperlinks in the body text should be formatted to open in a new window.

Note about the author
Please include a brief biography/job title (one or two sentences is fine).

Images
Please include a relevant image which illustrates your article if you have one which is copyright free. Please do not worry if you do not have one. Our website editor will select an image from a range of free-to-use sources.