PUB.

JULY 2018

STYLE GUIDE
Thank you for your interest in writing for BahaiTeachings.org! As you know this service focuses
outwardly, with seekers as its primary audience—including those who may have never heard of the
Baha’i Faith before. BahaiTeachings.org exists solely to teach the Faith.

We endeavor to address our audience in the same way we would speak to a first-time fireside
attendee in our homes—with love, warmth, respect, openness, consideration and kindness. This
means avoiding “Baha’i-speak” and a tone of religiosity or triumphalism. We refrain from usages
like “Baha’u’llah tells us,” or “Abdu’l-Baha commands,” or “The Guardian insists.” Instead, we try
to employ a humble posture of sharing thoughts, using softer, friendlier terminology, such as “The
Baha’i teachings say …”

This website allows us to write and publish essays that will have a long life and a wide reach on the
internet, teaching the Faith on our behalf for potentially many years to come. Therefore, we try to be
thorough in our editorial process and feedback, and we strive to publish the highest quality articles
possible. Our vision of quality is guided by these words of the Universal House of Justice:

… the friends must pay heed to their manner of communication which can do so
much to impact the community’s culture. They must aim to raise consciousness
without awakening the insistent self, to disseminate insight without cultivating
a sense of celebrity, to address issues profoundly but not court controversy, to
remain clear in expression but not descend to crassness prevalent in common
discourse …

-From a letter to a National Spiritual Assembly, April 4, 2018.

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What can I write about?

BahaiTeachings.org accepts essays on any subject that endeavors to teach the Baha’i Faith,
although we’re especially interested in those utilizing the overarching themes listed below. We
recommend reading through these themes thoroughly—but regardless of what inspires your writing,
please ensure your article is firmly grounded in the teachings of the Faith and refrain from submitting
an opinion piece. Attempt to be as comprehensive as you can, so we can provide a balanced and
more complete perspective to our seeker audience.

As you know, the teachings of our beloved Faith at times are in contrast with the trending societal
view of the issues. Accordingly, it’s essential that we not allow fads or pop culture preferences to
shape our content and style. While we don’t seek controversy, we will also not bend and yield to the
temporary preferences of society. We would rather attempt to show the world the transformative
effect of the Baha’i dispensation, and share what the Baha’i writings look like in action.

At BahaiTeachings.org, our experience has led us to believe that the following subjects best
lend themselves to sharing the teachings of the Faith and their impact on our lives, professions,
communities and service efforts. Our goal involves showing how Baha’is humbly learn to apply
Baha’u’llah’s profound principles to the betterment of an ailing world.

Community Building

We prefer articles that describe the community building efforts you are personally engaged in,
including the transformative work and experiences of your devotional gatherings, children’s classes,
junior youth groups, and study circles.

Baha’is all over the world are engaged in a community building process to transform neighborhoods,
friendships, children and youth. This transformation can make a strong impression on our readers, and
attract many to serve alongside us. The global Plans of the Universal House of Justice have guided
the worldwide Baha’i community through our learning, reflecting, and acting, and BahaiTeachings.

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org can be a vehicle that allows us to share our rich experiences. Some ideas can include what
community building activity is, how it came about, why it came about, who is involved, or what has
been the impact of this activity on your life, the lives of others and the life of the community.

Discourses

While not seeking to inflame controversy, we encourage contributors to write about the prevailing
discourses of society.

The process of learning gained from our community building efforts has led the followers of
Baha’u’llah deeper into different elements of community life—including discourse about the issues
in our society. Reflect on the collective conversation happening in your area, region, or country
as a whole, and then ask: what questions arise that can help us learn about the application of
Baha’u’llah’s teachings in the context of that conversation? When we unpack dialogue, what root
Baha’i principles rest beneath the conversation?

Social Action

The discourses of society stem from the needs of a population. These discourses can result in
action steps—what the Universal House of Justice refers to as social action. It can be simple or
complex, but whatever its nature, BT’s seekers would love to hear about the social actions you’re
taking to alleviate humanity’s problems.

Social Teachings

Articles about the social teachings of the Baha’i Faith always attract seekers. We highly encourage
you to write about these, and when possible do so in the form of the personal action and learning
you’re involved in rather than purely academic discussions. Remember, we want to share the
transformative effects of this dispensation–how are they shaping your habits of thought and

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establishing new patterns of action in your personal, professional and community life?

Gender Equality, Economic Disparities, and the Most Vital and Challenging
Issue

Some clear guidance in recent messages from the Universal House of Justice and the U. S.
National Spiritual Assembly provide us with the framework that we should consider as we write
and contribute articles related to gender equality, economic disparities, racial prejudice and unity.
(Please see the list of suggested reading included at the end of this style guide)

A Special Consideration on Race

We encourage writing about racism, racial prejudice and unity—but in doing so we take extra editorial
measures. We formed a voluntary Advisory Council on Racial Unity for this purpose, created with
the intention of guiding BahaiTeachings.org on all efforts and content relating to issues of race. The
Advisory Council recognizes that too often, people of color are overlooked and misrepresented,
which impacts everyone negatively, regardless of race.

It is difficult for the friends to always remember that in matter[s] where race enters, a
hundred times more consideration and wisdom in handling situations is necessary
than when an issue is not complicated by this factor.

-On behalf of Shoghi Effendi to individual believers, March 25, 1949, National
Bahá’í Archives, Wilmette, IL.

In the spirit of this greater consideration, please take no offense to any feedback we provide as we
all wish to convey the most accurate information, sensitive to the seeker, reflective of the experience
of our African American brothers and sisters, and befitting our Faith’s perspective.

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These prompts may help you explore writing about racial issues:

• How have the Baha’i writings catalyzed you to take action towards race unity?

• What are you doing personally to advance the elimination of racial prejudice in your
community?

• How are you investigating the reality of racial prejudice in this country?

• How are you engaged in promoting race unity on a personal level?

• What steps are you taking to ensure that you are “thoroughly cleansed” of the defilement
of racial prejudice?

• How does your article relate to your community service and involvement in the core
activities?

• Why do you think people are not doing the work to end racism?

• How are the Baha’i teachings relevant to the specific problems that black people face?

• How do these help to practically make black people safer?

Formatting Requirements

Length

Each article should span between 750-1500 words—although longer articles are welcome and
some can be serialized into multi-part essays.

Quotes

Articles should be firmly grounded in the Baha’i teachings and the holy writings. To help serve this

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purpose, please include quotations relevant to your article from the Central Figures of the Faith or
the Universal House of Justice as early on in your piece as possible, and as appropriate throughout
the article. All BahaiTeachings.org articles include at least one quote from the Central Figures or the
Universal House of Justice.

All direct quotations cited in articles, whether from the Baha’i writings or other sources, must be
identified with a citation that includes the author, the source document and the page number.
Example: “The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.” - Baha’u’llah, Tablets of
Baha’u’llah, p. 167.

Transliteration

We do not use the common Baha’i transliteration conventions such as capitalizing pronouns referring
to the Central Figures, or including pronunciation-related diacriticals (Baha’i rather than Bahá’í, for
example). We find that this increasingly common, simplified usage results in a less foreign-looking
and more readily understandable experience for most seekers.

AP Style

We utilize AP Style (www.apstylebook.com), the standard for print and online journalism. We
encourage active voice rather than passive. We do not use footnotes, appendices, headers or
footers, but present our published articles in an accessible, non-scholarly, conversational style
designed to appeal to the widest possible audience.

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How do I submit my article?

Email

Please submit your contribution to articles@bahaiteachings.org. From there, our engagement

and editorial team will be in touch with you throughout the whole process.

Time to Publication

Your article, if accepted for publication, will be edited by our editorial staff and then returned to you
for review, consultation and approval prior to publication. The editing and publication process takes
an average of 2-4 weeks. Those articles related to race may take extra time as they go through an
additional editorial step by BT’s Advisory Council on Racial Unity.

Suggested Readings

For further guidance, we suggest carefully perusing and studying the following:

• Shoghi Effendi’s books The Advent of Divine Justice and The World Order of Baha’u’llah,
both highly recommended for anyone interested in submitting an essay related to racial
issues in the United States.

• Recent letters to the Baha’i World from the Universal House of Justice, including:

• the 2018 Ridvan Message, 2018,

• the March 1, 2017 letter Regarding Economic Life;
• the April 27, 2017 letter to an individual believer on Guidance in Social Action and

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 Public Discourse;
• the November 26, 2012 letter which includes Social Action, a document prepared
by the Office of Social and Economic Development at the Baha’i World Centre;
• and of course both the Letter to the World’s Religious Leaders and The Promise
of World Peace.

All of these messages are available at www.Bahai.org, in the Baha’i Reference Library. Also, please
refer to the three major letters recently released by the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly: America
and the Five Year Plan, on February 25, 2017; The Spirit of Teaching, on December 8, 2017; and
Teaching and the Quest for Justice on January 31 of 2018―all focused on the current state of
society and our appropriate response as Baha’is. These letters are available at www.Bahai.us, in
the Community section.

Thank you! BahaiTeachings.org could not exist without the selfless, inspiring contributions from
Baha’is like you. Please join us as we try to fulfill the beloved Guardian’s instructions:

The individual alone must assess its [the individual’s duty] character, consult his
conscience, prayerfully consider all its aspects, manfully struggle against the natural
inertia that weighs him down in his effort to arise, shed, heroically and irrevocably,
the trivial and superfluous attachments which hold him back, empty himself of every
thought that may tend to obstruct his path, mix, in obedience to the counsels of the
Author of His Faith, and in imitation of the One Who is its true Exemplar, with men and
women, in all walks of life, seek to touch their hearts, through the distinction which
characterizes his thoughts, his words and acts, and win them over tactfully, lovingly,
prayerfully and persistently, to the Faith he himself has espoused.

– Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, p. 148.

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