OUR MISSION / VISION

MISSION: xxxxx
VISION: xxx

LOGO / IMAGES / FONT
The Communications Team will provide you with high-resolution Morning Star Church (MSC) logos. Please do
not copy the logo from the website, alter it’s shape, crop the logo or change it’s colors. Images for print media
must be at least 300 dpi.

Images for electronic media can be of a lower resolution, however must still be crisp and clear. (Right-clicking
and copying an image from a webpage is rarely a good idea.) Please let the Communications Team know if you
are seeking a specific graphic. Arial is the preferred font for the main body of print pieces for documents not
designed by the Communications Team. Please limit the number of fonts (maximum of three) used on any one
piece.

NUMBERS
• Monetary designations: Always lowercase the words “cents” and “dollars.” Spell out “cents.” Use
figures and the $ sign in all except casual references or the amounts without a figure.
For example: 5 cents; $25 million. My pet panda cost just $4. Pastor Jimmy, please give me a dollar.

• More than: Use “more than” rather than “over.”
For example: More than 2,000 pink penguins showed up for service at Morning Star Church.

• Numbers: Spell out numbers one through nine. Use figures for numbers 10 and above. Ages,
addresses and phone numbers are always numerals.
For example: Matthew witnessed five tornadoes before he turned 4 years old.

• Percent: Preferably spell out the word “percent.” Limit use of % sign. Always use numerals when
expressing percentages.
For example: The demand for dominos by donkeys is up by 5 percent.

• Phone numbers: Do not use parentheses around or slash after area code. Always use area code in
any telephone number. Use periods instead of dashes.
For example: 636.867.5309 (Jenny, I got it!)

Years / Months / Dates / Times
• Date: When writing a date, place comma after the date and the year. Do not place a comma between
month and year when the day is not mentioned.
For example: On July 1980, it was hot in Missouri. In June 8, 1980, it was really hot in Missouri.

• Decades: Never use an apostrophe after years to indicate a decade. Do use an apostrophe before the
year if only the decade is cited.
For example: Wardrobe from the 1980s should be banned. Music from the ‘70s is in its own league.

• Months: When a month is used with a specific date in text, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept.,

Oct., Nov. and Dec. Spell out months when using alone or with a year alone.
For example: January 1979 was an unforgettable month. Jan. 17 is the most unforgettable day!

• Ordinal: Dates in text should have a number rather than an ordinal.
For example: We wear pajamas to work on April 6. (Not April 6th)

• Time: Omit zeros if no minutes. Use figures except for noon and midnight. Avoid such redundancies as
10 a.m. this morning or 10 p.m. tonight. The construction 4 o’clock is acceptable, but time listings with
a.m. or p.m. are preferred.
For example: 1 p.m.; 11 a.m.; 3:30 p.m.; 9-11 a.m.; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Punctuation / Misc.

• Abbreviations: Do not use abbreviations or the ampersand (&) unless part of an official title.

• Acronyms: Always spell out the full name on first use with acronym in parenthesis.
For example: At Morning Star Church (MSC), they like their coffee. So please swing by Starbucks
before stopping at MSC.
• Capitalization: Always capitalize the following: God, Lord, Messiah, the Son, Holy Spirit, Bible,
Scripture, the Gospels and all holy days. When using personal pronouns (“he,” “him,” etc.) to refer to
Jesus or God, lowercase them in all instances.
• Commas: Do not put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series. Put a comma before the
conjunction if an element of the series requires a conjunction. Place a comma before the concluding
conjunction in a complex series of phrases.
For example:
o Please pass the grey poupon, a knife and crackers.
o I had orange juice, toast, and green eggs and ham for breakfast.
o The main points to consider are whether the athletes are skillful enough to complete, whether
they have the stamina to endure the training, and whether they have the proper mental attitude.

• Ellipsis: Use an ellipsis ( … ) like a three-letter word, constructed with three periods and two spaces.

• Email Address: Entire address should be lowercase, including the word “email” unless used at the
beginning of a sentence. Also, use “email” rather than “e-mail,” and “website” rather than “web site.”

• Em Dash: Use (sparingly) in place of comma, semicolon, colon or parenthesis.
For example: The youth group is meeting at Fritz’s this week—mark your calendar!

• En Dash: Used to express starting and ending times, and do not space before or after. (9 a.m.-10 p.m.)

• Italics: Place the following in italics: Magazine titles, books, newspapers, movies, poems, television
series, plays and computer game titles.

• Headlines: Use down-style capitalization, which means that only the first letter of the headline and any
proper nouns are capitalized.

• Hyphenate: Hyphenate a compound in which one is a number and the other is a noun or adjective.
For example: 3-mile run; 10-year-old (but 10 years old); 12,000-square-foot building

• Punctuation in Quotes: Commas and periods always go inside quotation marks. The dash, the
semicolon, the question mark and the exclamation point go within the quotation marks when they apply
to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.

• Quotation Marks: Use quotation marks for articles, chapter, television episodes, songs, lecture titles.

• Spaces: Use one space after periods and after semicolons. Use two after a colon.