Blogging tips

Format

Please submit your contributions as a Word file (doc). Attach all your images to the e-mail and, ideally, provide short keywords that give some explanation.

Structure and sequence

Keep it short and clear. You can take advantage of text elements to convey your ideas and messages.

• Title: Very often, the title allows readers to decide whether they continue reading or not. However, the text should be as catchy as the title.
• Teaser text: A short and captivating introduction makes readers curious about the contents.
• Sub-headings: Break your contribution into main sections and make the structure of the content more transparent to the users.
• Lists: Lists are popular elements to give structure to online texts. Thus enumerations and rankings can be easily displayed in a reader-friendly way.
• Conclusion: Sum up the gist of the blog post and emphasise messages, concerns, information, etc.

Readability

• We recommend to refrain from language for special purposes and technical terms. Not only your academic community but also a broader audience should be able to understand your blog entry. Optionally, you can link to pages that explain the technical terms mentioned in your contribution.
• Long and nested sentences put strain on the readers and chances soar that they cannot follow the contents any more. This holds also true for long paragraphs. Rule of thumb: 3-5 paragraphs should be separated by a sub-heading, and a paragraph should contain about 500-800 characters.

Images

Use images in your contribution to the blog. Include two or three images in high resolution. If you want to include more pictures, we will embed them in a slide show. Please submit captions as well.

You should hold the relevant rights for these pictures (e.g. your own pictures) or use material of the public domain and give source details (Creative Commons, Wikimedia, Flickr). Please note: Even photos (or other material) from the public domain require full source details.

Links and sources

Links are an ideal way to create cross-references to other pages, your blog entries or other internet sources. (You can either include the URL of the linked pages in the text or create a link directly in the Word file).

One last check

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Read your blog entry again, check if your text is easy to read, understandable and spelled correctly. There are useful online tools such as:

http://www.hemingwayapp.com/