AMS style guide Some things to highlight…

Overall 8.5” by 11” paper Double-spaced on one side only At least 1” margins on all sides 12 point font All pages numbered (starting with the title page)

Structure Abstract –250 words or less (short!) –No math symbols or formulae –No citations/references –No acronyms (with a tiny few exceptions)

Structure Main text –Use a logical heading & sub-heading structure, and keep it throughout –New paragraphs are indented Acknowledgments –OK if short

Structure Appendices –OK for extended math derivations –OK for detailed data information e.g., site locations & names –OK for a list of symbols

Structure References –More below Figure & table captions –Each figure must have a caption that “makes the figure understandable without the text” –Figure captions go BELOW the figure - Table captions go ABOVE the table –Figure captions are single spaced!

Structure Units –We use the SI system 99.9 % of the time –So instead of “500 mb”, we write “500 hPa” Write this as 500 hPa, not 500hPa (note the space) –Spell out the words “day” and “month” –Use “n mi” for nautical mile (used to be “nm”) –When writing “meters per second”, we write “m s -1 ”, NOT “m/s” and NOT “ms -1 ”. –Wind speeds can be given in knots as “kt”, but should give the equivalent speed in m/s too.

Style In terms of style, we remember: –Brevity & clarity (don’t use six words if two will do) –Must be well-written (else rejected, even if good science) –Avoid use of first person (“I”). –Rather, use the passive construction (“the data were measured”)

Style Remember the hyphen! –Some terms should be hyphenated! When writing numbers, don’t use commas (boo). Instead, insert spaces: –4000, , Acronyms –You FIRST introduce them in longhand (LH) –Only VERY common ones can be used w/o introduction (NCAR, NASA)

Style References/citations in the text: –Here are examples…single author: –“…according to Smith (1990)…” –“…after sunset (Smith 1990).” –Two authors…Smith and Wesson (1880) or (Smith and Wesson 1880) –Three or more authors…NOT “Smith and Jones and Tran (2001)” or “Smith, Jones and Tran (2001)”…rather, “Smith et al. 2001”

Extra things… No contractions, ever –(NOT “…the phenomenon wasn’t seen…”) The first figure you reference in the text MUST be figure 1, and the next figure 2 and so on. Ditto for tables. Numbers 0-9 are spelled out (“four”, rather than “4”), except at the start of a sentence. Write “May 23rd 2007” as “23 May 2007”

Extra things… Use the word “Figure” at the start of a sentence…otherwise, use “Fig.”, and note that it is capitalized. I don’t think “Table” is abbreviated! Be careful to keep tenses consistent!