Historic Site Style Guide

It’s very useful for us to have a style guide to make sure we’re formatting our essays consistently. This is IN ADDITION to the general rubric.

Headings

• The first thing on your page should be your site title in H1, like # title in Markdown.
• All subsequent headings should be in H2, like ## subheading
• If you want to use a sub sub heading, great! (### subsubheading)
• All headings should use TITLE CASE, like “Mary had a Little Lamb”

Image Captions

• Sorry this didn’t work as expected. Instead of the footnote code, just use a regular link like source at the end of your caption, where someurl will be the page where you got the image.
• You can also, instead of “source” as the linked text, use the name of the source like “Wikipedia” of “Library of Congress”

Horizontal Rules

• These should be kept to a minimum, within your essay but you can use them where you really want them
• BUT, do not use them around the heading or the top of the page
• DO put one at the very end of the body of your essay, and between all subsequent sections (directions for visiting, address, etc)

Related People, Places, Articles

• Headings should be in H5 (#####)
• Make sure your references are formatted as a list

Bibliography

• Your bibliography should be the last thing on the pages and have a horizontal rule right above it
• Use title (in H2) of “Bibliography” (not works cited, nor works consulted, nor anything else)
• Make sure your references are formatted as a list or are separate paragraphs and looks nice
• We decided on CHICAGO style
• Make sure the references are unambiguous and as precise as possible
• Minimize ugly URLS on the page; make sure they are hyperlinked

HOW TO FORMAT Registration Forms Citations

As taken from NPS.gov. Choose whichever is easier for your particular form.

EITHER

National Register of Historic Places, property name, town, county, state, reference number.

National Register of Historic Places, Lamesa Farm Workers Community Historic District, Los Ybanez, Dawson County, Texas, National Register #93000771.

OR

Straw, Elizabeth A. “Cumberland Homesteads Historic District.” National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination Form. Tennessee Historic Commission, Nashville, September 20, 1988.

(Elizabeth A. Straw wrote the nomination; she worked for the Tennessee Historical Commission; and the date is the date the property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.)

Unsure or confused?

• Look at other essays to get ideas of what other people are doing
• Decide how much you should do something similar or if you really need to do something else (and it’s OK if you do)
• Essays don’t have to match perfectly, but we should keep stylistic deviations to a minimum and for specific reasons other than laziness or ignorance.