This brief has been written to ensure the overall coherence of the book. It is meant to guide your thinking and will apply to all articles. However, we realize exceptions to the standard organization may have to be made. If you feel it is necessary to amend the organizational style, please discuss the article with your editor to ensure the development will be acceptable.

1. READERSHIP.  The book is designed for upper-level high school and early college students as well as for the general public. Consider that the audience does not have exposure to the field of oceanography. You should write for this audience, explaining all specialized terminology used. Do not assume knowledge of individuals or concepts. Explain concepts in simple terms.

2.  STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK.  This is straightforward, A-Z Encyclopedia of Oceanography and Marine Sciences. For the purposes of assigning the articles, they will be organized in two ways: by field of oceanography and by length. There are 11 field categories:

• People – biographies of important figures, e.g., Jacques Cousteau.
• Places – geographical places, such as the Bering Strait or the Black Sea.
• Organizations – important marine labs and institutes, e.g., Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• Geology – geological features and concepts, such as Continental Terrace and Magnetism
• Chemical Oceanography – chemical concepts, such as Oxygen minimum zone and Nitrogen cycle
• Parts of the Ocean – parts such as the Gulf Stream, lagoon, tide pool
• Ships, navigation and instruments – equipment such as side-scan sonar and chronometer
• Physical oceanography – concepts such as buoyancy, Kelvin waves, La Nina
• Ecology – topics such as biodiversity and Red tide
• Marine Life – marine organisms from bacteria to sharks
• Economics – topics such as Deep sea mining, ecotourism, and whaling

Within these categories, there will be five article lengths used. These are:

• A length (2200-2600 words)
• B length (1100-1400 words)
• C+ length (1000-1100 words) 
• C length (400-600 words)
• D length (200-300 words)

3. GENERAL ORGANIZATION.  Each article's organization will depend first on its length. For the C and D length articles, subheads are not needed and you will probably need all of your words to say what you need to say. For the A and B length articles, however, subheads will be needed to break up the text. Each encyclopedia entry should cover its topic thoroughly. Each will also include suggestions for further research at the end. See details below in "Writing Your Article"

4.  WORD COUNT.  The text of each article should conform to the lengths specified above. When you are assigned your article/s, you will be told what length category it fits into.

5. STYLE.  Authors should write in a manner that is explanatory and without a point of view. The book's goal is to allow students or the layperson to understand oceanography and marine science concepts. Editorializing or side-taking is inappropriate. As previously stated, do not use jargon without explaining it.

6.  ILLUSTRATIONS AND PHOTOS.  When you are assigned your article, you will be told whether to supply an illustration or photo idea to accompany it. If you are asked to provide an illustration or photo, please provide a hard copy. If this copy is xeroxed or printed out from a source (print or World Wide Web source), please mark up the hard copy clearly with complete source information. For illustrations, keep in mind that this must be a clean copy that can go to an illustrator and that the illustrator will draw from. The book will be printed in black and white, so keep this in mind when selecting your photo or illustration.

7.  USAGE.  The book seeks to use a nonsexist language, although writers should not torture a sentence to achieve this.  Please follow these general rules:

a) Please give an individual's full name (including initials) on first usage.
Thereafter refer to both men and women by their last name.
b) Avoid sex-specific terminology–mankind–and the use of "man" or "men" as the generic for human being.
c) Avoid male pronouns to describe people in general.

8.  USE OF PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED MATERIAL.  Avoid quotations from copyrighted works whenever possible. This will enhance the freshness of the writing. If you do need to use quotations of more than a few words, please contact your editor to determine your need to secure a written permission for use. If you do indeed need permission, it will be your responsibility to secure it.