Blogging Tips for Students: Write, Edit, and Publish

Blogging Tips for Students

Most of the following instructions will apply to written blogs, but the principles apply to all formats.

• Adopt a conversational, chatty style. Avoid cliches, jargon, academic language, and acronyms.
• Put some serious work into your intro – is it intriguing, engaging, and different?
• Always use specific examples, perhaps based on personal experience. Don't generalize or waffle on about challenges and passion.
• Use common nouns as much as you can: "boots" and "apples" are much more evocative words than "footwear" and "produce".
• Try to find recent research or media coverage about your topic, and link to it in your blog.
• Check your facts. These pieces are going on the Guardian site, so they need to be factually accurate. There's no point in guessing, say, the number of students who drop out in the first year. You need to have an up-to-date statistic and a link to show where you found it.
• You can't break the law. You can't make unsubstantiated libelous claims against people. You can't change a quote to make it say what you want it to say. And if someone has said something they may later deny having said, it's good if you have it on tape or written down in your notebook word for word. Don't throw your records away.
• Avoid standing on a soapbox and banging on about something. Quoting a variety of people will help to bring other voices into your piece.
• Read what you've written aloud when you're finished. Is that how you talk?
• The reader should emerge clear about what you're saying, what other people have said on the subject, and what they are being asked to comment on.

Editing Your Work

Don't be taken aback by the fact that the final version of your piece may be quite different from what you submitted. Everything written for the news media is edited, sometimes quite heavily, to make the writing punchier, to cut repetition, and to accord with the style and tone of the publication.

Submitting Your Blog

If what you produce is suitable for publication, we will ask you for a headshot and a one-sentence bio for your contributor page. This can contain links to your own blog or Twitter feed.

Who is eligible to blog for Blogging Students?

• You need to be a member of Guardian Students to be eligible to blog. To become a member, go to this sign-up page and fill in the form. We'll be happy to welcome you into the fold, and your membership will also bring you a weekly newsletter and a free ebook.
• You have to be a current student for us to consider your blog (the series is called Blogging Students, after all). You might be in sixth form, or studying at an FE college, doing an apprenticeship, or attending university, either as an undergraduate or as a postgraduate student. There is no age restriction: we want Blogging Students to reflect the full range of student life in the UK and, indeed, much further afield.

Why You Should Contribute

We've uncovered some brilliant writing talent since we launched this blog in 2012. We're keen to hear from every kind of student – from science to law, business to art, journalism to medicine – about the issues that affect their lives.

So if you've got something to get off your chest, write to: [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.

The Shape and Size of Your Submission

Written blogs should be 500-600 words long, cartoons no more than eight frames done in the shape of a Guardian article (long not wide). As for photojournalism, we'd probably want to discuss that on a case-by-case basis.

Videos should be no longer than two minutes. We accept .avi, .mov, .wmv, .flv, and MPEG4 files. And while we're on video, here are a few more rules: don't include music (unless you've written and performed it yourself and hold all the rights to the material); don't include children (under 16s) unless you have permission from their parent; and credit anyone who has helped you make the film.