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Public Affairs Officer -
Article Submission Guidelines
Here's a simple checklist for preparing and submitting
articles.
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E-mail is the best way to submit a story.
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Always identify your unit as "part of Group III,
Texas Wing, Civil Air Patrol"
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Always end your story with the following
"boiler-plate" paragraph,
"CAP’s stated purpose is
to respond quickly and proactively whenever disaster strikes. In
Texas, during hurricanes Katrina and Rita, CAP flew numerous damage
assessment sorties, aided in evacuee processing, sent ground teams
to assess on-site damage, provided transportation for emergency
services personnel and helped minimize the effect and repercussions
of these events. More recently, during the Texas wildfire season
that spanned November 2005 to April 2006 and burned an area roughly
the size of the State of New Jersey, CAP’s firewatch missions were
credited with having prevented a disaster of catastrophic
proportions. CAP performs 95% of all search-and-rescue missions in
the United States, as tasked by the Air Force."
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Below the "boiler-plate" above, add your contact
information: Unit Name, Address, When you meet, Phone #, e-mail
address, and website URL.
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Do not attach a Word document to your e-mail. Many
spam filters strip .doc attachments because they mistakenly
detect a virus. Instead, insert the article right below your message
to the editor.
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Do not submit a story in PDF format. Editors may not
always be able to lift your text from the PDF file, and would need
to retype the whole thing to use it. Most of the time, they won't go
to the trouble.
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Unless that editor has asked for more images, attach
only two or three well-chosen images.
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Give the images meaningful names.
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Caption the images below your article, right on the
message, referring to them by image name, such as
flag-folding-ceremony.jpg
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Do not depend on the image to fill in information
that ought to be in the article. If the editor drops the picture,
that part of the story doesn't get told - so make sure the narrative
itself describes what the picture shows.
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If you want to send the same article to several
editors, create an e-mail directory entry named "Editor" that is
linked to your own e-mail address. Use the "Editor" address for the
message, then insert the e-mail address for each editor (separated
by semicolons) on the bcc: line, which will "blind copy" your
message to each of those editors, without anyone knowing that you
also sent it to others. Dry-run this method by using a friend's
e-mail address and make sure that you won't embarrass yourself.
As to the article itself, follow the guidelines in
CAPP 190-1,
Vol 1 and be sure not to save the best part of the story for the
last paragraph. Newspapers often have limited space available, and if
they need to cut down an article, they always trim off the bottom. Don't
let your best statement wind up on the cutting-room floor.
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