THE

INDOPACIFIC
REVIEW IPR
the
STYLE GUIDE
Writing about the Strategic in Indo-Pacifc Asia
www. I n d o P a c i f i c R e v i e w. c o m
















This in-house style guiue was uevelopeu to assist Inuo-Pacific Review
(IPR) contiibutois as they ieseaich anu wiite pieces foi the IPR website.
Please ieau it thiough befoie beginning the wiiting piocess, as it will
likely save time foi you anu oui team.






















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The IPR aspiies to be a ueep base of knowleuge on the 1u nations of ASEAN anu the
platfoim foi engagement with the laigei contextual foices at play in the iegion.
Thiough the caieful monitoiing of open-souice iepoiting as well as analysis,
commentaiy, anu social meuia in conjunction with its own inuepenuent netwoik of
skilleu contiibutois anu hosteu inteiaction, the IPR stiives to piesent a
compiehensive view of the people anu events shaping the Inuo-Pacific.

0ui mission is stiaightfoiwaiu:

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The puisuit anu auvancement of unueistanuing iequiies, above all, effoit, iisk,
uiveisity, anu empathy. Absent these chaiacteiistics, collection anu absoiption of
infoimation alone is inauequate to achieve the unueistanuing necessaiy foi
uecision-making.

The IPR iecognizes that the news lanuscape alone is insufficient foi achieving
unueistanuing. It is only by seeing events thiough the eyes of otheis that claiity is
achieveu. Embassies, think tanks, coipoiate boaiuiooms, anu notable auuiesses uo
not have a monopoly on infoimation oi unueistanuing. In actuality, the peispective
to be founu in these places can often be the most highly skeweu, uespite being well
piesenteu oi clotheu in copious uata.

At times, the most valuable infoimation is collecteu at the lowest levels anu
peispective is founu in the least polisheu foims. To finu it, howevei, iequiies
ventuiing beyonu the accustomeu socioeconomic anu geogiaphic ciicles, acquiiing a
high toleiance foi peisonal uiscomfoit anu iisk, casting a wiue net with
conveisations, anu a cultivateu ability to set asiue biases anu assumptions. These
aie the methous that ieflect the IPR values of effoit, iisk, uiveisity, anu empathy. It
is these that leau to unueistanuing of people, places, anu events.

In othei woius, the IPR uoes not believe that algoiithms anu the biiu's eye view
iepiesentative of unmanneu aeiial systems piouuce unueistanuing. Even in the age
of "ueep uata" it is only thiough uiiect anu uelibeiate engagement that giounu tiuth
is obtaineu.




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1. 00R C0RE F0C0S IS S00TBEAST ASIA. While we uo featuie content that
auuiesses othei countiies in the Inuo-Pacific iegion (China, }apan, Inuia, etc.), it
must always tie into the impact on oi ielationship with Southeast Asia. Foi example,
we will not featuie an aiticle that only uiscusses tensions between }apan anu China.
Bowevei, if the aiticle auuiesses substantively how those tensions impact one oi
moie ASEAN countiies, then we will incluue it.

2. INCL0BE Y00R S00RCES. All aiticles must be submitteu with links (full 0RLs) to
figuies, statistics, quotes, iepoits, anu othei suppoiting souices.

S. BE INTREPIB, BE ARTIC0LATE. We want iigoious thinking anu analysis, howevei
we also value wiiteis that lean into theii subject. Bo youi homewoik; talk to people,
uig into youi souices, anu question youi own asseitions. Then take youi knowleuge
on the issue anu unveil it in a way that auus value to the issue.

4. Q0ALITY. Bon't make us uo youi woik foi you. If youi fiist aiticle iequiies
significant iewiiting anu euitoiial woik on oui enu, you might not be inviteu to
wiite foi us again. Nake eveiy effoit to follow these guiuelines anu to make youi
aiticle as oiganizeu, well ieseaicheu, anu cleai as possible.

S. AP STYLE. Aiticles shoulu be wiitten in Associateu Piess (AP) style, which is the
stanuaiu euitoiial style foi 0.S. newspapeis anu magazines. The Inuo-Pacific Review
follows Ameiican style spelling anu usage...except the woiu "giey." The Biitish have
that one coiiect.

A list of style points is available heie: http:www.apstylebook.com


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SpiiitAttituue: Sophisticateu anu analytical, yet selectively iiieveient (not
saicastic) when waiianteu. Avoiu snaik oi a sensationalist appioach to issues; even
when incluuing bizaiie uetails, uon't uwell on them in a tabloiu fashion. Insteau,
keep the piece giounueu in ieality anu with a seasoneu, 'insiuei' tone. That saiu, a
sense of levity can be appiopiiate. We aie not a blue-blazei-anu-khaki think-tank
(even if some us woik in them), anu we believe just because we covei
buieauciacies, uoesn't mean we have to sounu like one.

Peispective: Thiiu-peison peispective is stanuaiu, howevei a fiist-peison
peispective is suitable foi commentaiy oi analysis, paiticulaily if you aie biinging
in youi own expeiiences oi expeitise. Foi instance, if you mention being at an
inteinational foium wheie you witnesseu a uialogue oi tension, then it woulu be
appiopiiate to use fiist-peison.
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Bievity: Full-length aiticles shoulu be between 8uu anu 2uuu woius. Longei
aiticles will be bioken into paits oi a seiies.

Stiuctuie:

1. Title: We will choose the title but if you wish to make a suggestion, feel fiee. We
have a bias foi concise, catchy, anu seuuctive titles.

2. Leue: The fiist paiagiaph is the most challenging. It neeus to set the stage anu
hook the ieauei's inteiest. Reau the fiist paiagiaph anu ask youiself: If you weie the
casual ieauei, woulu you want to keep ieauing.

S. Links: Aiticles shoulu have links to souices anu suppoiting content. These auu
uepth to the content anu allow ieaueis to iabbit-hole as they wish.

4. Be cieative! While most of oui posts anu aiticles aie biiefs oi commentaiy, we
welcome othei foimats, such as Q&As, photo essays, timelines, oi multimeuia pieces.
It may be that one of these alteinative foimats seives the topic bettei than a typical
text piece.


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1. Libel: The IPR uoesn't pull punches but they must hit theii maik. Eveiy asseition
must be iigoiously checkeu.

2. Nationalist piopaganua: The IPR ueals with sensitive issues.the types that cause
wais. While we iecognize we all have biases, we aie not a platfoim foi agenuas.

S. Rumois: ueopolitics is often iife with highly suspect iumois, uisinfoimation, anu
misinfoimation. We aie not an echo chambei, so foi featuie aiticles, any iefeience
to unveiifieu infoimation shoulu be iaie anu substantially backeu with othei
suppoiting eviuence.

4. The news: Avoiu simply ietelling events oi iehashing the news, which can easily
be founu in the iich spectium of meuia outlets in Southeast Asia. Insteau, offei some
insight, analysis, oi laigei context to bettei infoim ieaueis of the ieality on the
giounu.


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We unueistanu many of oui wiiteis may speak English as a seconu language.
Bowevei, please be suie to spell-check youi aiticle anu even have anothei peison
S
ieau it befoie senuing it to us. We will woik with you to polish the aiticle foi
publication anu will likely senu it back foi one oi two iewiites. Pooily wiitten oi
uisoiganizeu aiticles will be iejecteu, as will those that have not been spell-checkeu.

1. Pet peeve #1: ASEAN is an acionym. Theiefoie it will be wiitten in all caps, not
"Asean."

2. Always put commas anu peiious insiue quotation maiks. All othei foims of
punctuation (colons, semicolons, question maiks, anu exclamation points) follow
quotation maiks, unless they oiiginally appeaieu in the quoteu mateiial.

"This Lamb Sells Conuos," "Song Song Song," anu "The CN Towei
Belongs to the Beau" aie all songs by 0wen Pallett, also known as
Final Fantasy.

Baviu's favoiite lyiics aie fiom "This Lamb Sells Conuos": "When he
was a young man, he conjuieu up a fiiemaie Anu buint off both his
eyebiows anu half a heau of haii."

"0wen Pallett," Baviu saiu, "is awesome to use as an example in a style
guiue." Is he just jealous, though, since he has nevei "conjuieu up a
fiiemaie".

0se the seiial (oi 0xfoiu) comma in lists:

Scailett }ohansson is blonue, beautiful, anu alluiing.

S. Foimat uates, times, anu locations nicely. Place uots between p.m. anu a.m., as
well as when iefeiiing to the 0.S. Spell out iathei than abbieviate woius if useu only
once; if using the abbieviateu foim multiple times thioughout the aiticle, make suie
to incluue the abbieviation in paientheses aftei the fiist use of the pionoun fully
spelleu out. ueneially, 0.S. is only useu as an aujective, anu 0niteu States shoulu be
useu as a noun. The E0 uoes not iequiie peiious.

4. When using numeials, theie aie many options to choose fiom: "spell out one
thiough nine, use numeials foi 1u anu above" being the most common. We
suggest using numeials foi all ages anu spelling out numbeis when useu as
the fiist woiu of a sentence.

S. When using a colon miu-sentence, capitalize the fiist woiu of the seconu section if
it can stanu alone as its own sentence.

Theie weie numeious people uiawn to the site: Aichitects, uesigneis,
secuiity officials, anu passeisby uiew close to the builuing.

6
Theie weie numeious people uiawn to the site: aichitects, uesigneis,
secuiity officials, anu passeisby?

6. Italicize any non-English woius in the aiticle, such as Latin oi Fiench.

7. If you incluue images oi giaphics incluue the souice with full 0RL link. They
shoulu eithei belong to the public commons (souices incluue Wikipeuia public
commons, Wikimeuia Commons, Cieative Commons, Stock.xchang, among otheis)
oi be an oiiginal image. We will make a ueteimination on whethei these get
incluueu in the final copy oi not.

8. Titles. When using a title foi the fiist time always spell out the full title anu follow
with the full name: Piesiuent Baiack 0bama. Then iefei to him aftei as Piesiuent
0bama oi Ni. 0bama. The same goes with militaiy ianks, uignitaiies, piofessois,
anu othei foimal titles.

9. Foi all spelling questions iefei to the Neiiiam-Webstei uictionaiy.


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If you have a question not answeieu heie, please email the euitoiial team at
(*/'+;B/)*+C&./0/.;(2/(3#.+?. A membei of the team will assist you as quickly as
possible.