Author Guidelines
From Global Voices Wiki
These guidelines are intended to give everyone a clear idea of the general expectations for Global Voices authors.
[edit] Editorial values
Our broad goals and values are outlined in the Global Voices Manifesto. This document was co-authored by Global Voices contributors and translated to many languages.
[edit] Impartiality & diversity of opinion
Global Voices strives to keep a neutral tone, so we ask Authors to keep personal opinion restricted to their own blogs, and be fair in quoting multiple voices on a story. As a community, we are very broadly committed to freedom of expression, peace, and human rights, but our inclusiveness of Authors from so many different backgrounds means we must be open-minded and refrain from making statements for or against different issues on behalf of the whole community.
[edit] Covering conflicts
We have an especially great responsibility to be fair and accurate in times of conflict, where either side is looking to prove they have been wronged. Scrutiny of unknown sources is extremely important, and we want to avoid using sensational language, or repeating numbers of dead or wounded early on in a conflict. Whether our sources are partisan groups, news reporters, or neutral observers such as the United Nations, we should be extremely cautious and never accept "facts" without question.
[edit] Who is Who on Global Voices
A lot of people are involved in making Global Voices tick day to day (including you!). Make sure you have at least one Editor who is your primary contact person. And at that you are subscribed to the appropriate Google Groups.
The easiest way to see who is who, is to visit:
- Lingua
[edit] Rights & Responsibilities of Editors & Authors
- It is the responsibility of both Authors and Editors to communicate with one another in a friendly and respectful manner. We are a community that is built upon trust and friendship across borders.
- It is the responsibility of Editors to respond to email from Authors expediently, but also for Authors to understand that Editors often travel or may be otherwise unavailable. Editors should communicate when they are offline.
- Authors submit drafts of their posts for review and editing by Editors. It is the responsibility of the Author to submit accurate and coherent reports that have been spell-checked and prepared to the Author's best ability.
- Editors are responsible for editing posts so they adhere to Global Voices quality standards for both content and format. Editors should allow Authors to review significant changes before publication, but ultimately Editors have authority to make changes for accuracy and appropriate presentation.
- Editors answer to Global Voices Managing Editor. If Authors feel wronged or concerned with any aspect of Global Voices work or management, they are welcome to email the Managing Editor directly for advice or mediation.
- Global Voices Volunteers have one elected representative on the Board of Global Voices who is also available to hear any queries or complaints, and bring them to the Board if necessary.
- In order to be considered "active", Authors must write regularly (or semi-regularly) for Global Voices and participate to their best ability on mailing lists. If they are "inactive" for more than a few months, they may be removed from mailing lists. But Authors are always welcome to return after any absence!
[edit] How to post on Global Voices
Authors should have receive login information to write posts on Global Voices from their Editor.
Before writing a first post, you should take a look at: Welcome to New Authors
The login page is: http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/wp-login
The software we use for Global Voices is called WordPress (WP). It is an open source blogging tool with lots of features. If you want to learn more about WordPress there's good documentation at their documentation wiki.
[edit] Publishing conventions
- Global Voices Authors cannot publish directly on the website. When you write and save a draft of a post, you should email your editor to let them know it is ready to be reviewed and published. Editors are never automatically notified.
- We have two kinds of posts on Global Voices: long and short. The long form posts appear on the left/center, and the short micro-blog posts appear in the right hand column (these are mostly written by Editors). The Managing Editor selects which posts are featured at the top of the homepage every day.
[edit] Using an offline blog editor
It is a great idea to prepare offline in a text editor before uploading them to Global Voices. This protects you from technical errors, or from losing a draft before you have saved it. Do avoid copying and pasting from Microsoft Word.
[GAP plans on doing a screencast showing how to use Scribefire]
[edit] Posting checklist
- If your post mentions public figures, past events or other terms that may not be familiar to the average reader, have you explained these in the text, or included an explanatory link (eg Wikipedia)?
- Have you checked the "Weblog" box under the "Type" category? (Note: Please do NOT check the “Feature” box. If you think your post is feature-worthy, let your editor know)
- Have you checked both the relevant region category box or boxes (eg South Asia, Americas) and the relevant country box (eg Nepal, Ecuador) have you checked the other categories relevant to your post in the “Topic” section (eg Education, Cyber-Activism, Politics, Environment)?
- If your post links to or quotes non-English language sources, have you included language tags (eg [zh], [es], [ar]) and formatted the non-English language block quotes appropriately?
- Have you checked the relevant Language categories (eg “English”, “Hindi”, “Polish” etc)? These indicate the languages utilised in your post?
- Have you considered preparing an enticing summary of your article and pasting it into the “Optional Excerpt” box? (Note that preparing an excerpt is optional. If you don’t paste anything into the “Optional Excerpt” box, an excerpt comprising the first 50 words of your article appears on the GV front page. Certainly an incentive to write unforgettable opening paragraphs!)
- Have you prepared a concise, compelling and descriptive (including country name) headline for your article?
- Have you notified your regional or language editor to let him/her know your post is ready for review?
[edit] Ideal length and style of post
All posts are different, but generally we prefer them to be shorter rather than longer. Maximum length is somewhere in the region of 1000 words in the interests of saving time for both readers, authors, editors, and translators. But there can be exceptions depending on the story and individual editor judgment. Another reason for brevity, is that we want to encourage readers to visit the blogs we are referencing in order to support them.
A good post will have a clear intro sentence that describes what story you plan to tell in the text below. Normally, they will not be written in the first person, nor will they express an authors personal opinion. Ideally, you'll be able to tell a story using links and quotes from blogs and citizen media.
[edit] Using multimedia elements (images, videos and audio) in your posts
Including photos, illustrations, videos and audio files brings a article to life and are attractive to readers. We encourage you to use them as frequently as possible in your Global Voices posts. An individual image, or a set of images, with a complementary caption can also be a very effective way of telling a story.
[edit] Things to consider when using multimedia elements
[edit] Images
- Is the image Creative Commons-licensed, or have you requested permission from the owner to use it?
- Did you upload a copy of the image to the GV server? (Please do! We’ve got lots of space, and our pages load faster when they don’t have to go searching for content that’s hosted externally)
- Is the image clearly captioned, and does it include a link to the original source?
- Have you inserted the URL for a thumbnail image in the post_thumbnail field? This causes a thumbnail image to appear next to your article excerpt on the GV front page, making it even more attractive.
- If a photo or photos are the focus of your post, have you checked the “Photo” box under the “Type” category?
[edit] Video
[edit] Audio
See Screencast How to embed an audio file into a Global Voices post
[edit] Copyright and use of multimedia elements in GV posts
[edit] Requesting permission to use multimedia content
If the multimedia content you wish to use in your post is not Creative Commons-licensed, you should first request permission from the owner. And even when the content is Creative Commons-licensed, it's nice to notify the person that the content has appeared on Global Voices.
Below is the text of a letter requesting permission to use multimedia content. Feel free to copy and modify as required:
Dear [owner of item you're requesting permission to use],
I am [your position at GV, e.g. Latin America editor, a volunteer contributor] at Global Voices (http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/), a non-profit a web site that aggregates, summarizes and amplifies the activity in the global blogosphere.
We also post multimedia content, and I would love to feature [item you're asking permission to use e.g. your photos of the Snake festival, your video of the Water riots in Port of Spain] in an article I am writing for the site.
May I have your permission to do so? Full credit and links to the original source of the images will of course be included.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
[Your name]
[your position]
Global Voices
www.globalvoicesonline.org
Simpler alternative version by Ayesha Saldanha:
Dear XXXXXXXX,
I am a volunteer contributor at Global Voices (http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/), a website that reports on blogs and online activity around the world.
We also post photos, and I would love to feature your photo of XXXXXXXXXXX in an article I am writing for the site.
May I have your permission to do so? I will of course include full credit to you and link to the original source. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
XXXXXXXXXXX
Global Voices
www.globalvoicesonline.org
[edit] How to post an image
The problem: When you put a photo in a post you always want to include a link to the blog post, flickr user or website you got the photo from. It's good for readers to find the source, its good to link to the person who did the work and its good for our reputation to cite sources. But when you use the 'Caption' feature of WordPress by adding caption text its not clear how you can include a link in the grey caption box where it obviously belongs.
The Solution: There are three ways you can link to the source in an image caption.
The first is to add it directly on the image itself, not the caption text. In the uploader window that pops up when you upload an image, before you click 'Insert into post' you can add the link that the photo leads to in the field called 'Link Url'. This is the link that people will go to if they click the image directly. By default it leads to a bigger version on our site, but its much better to have it lead directly to the individual photo page on flickr or to the place you found the photo. If you've already inserted a photo into your post you can look at it in HTML mode and change this link. Just look for the <a> tag around the <img> tag.
The second way is also using the upload popup, but adding the link inside the 'Caption' field. You can add links on the caption text around whatever words you want BUT IT WONT WORK UNLESS you use single quotes ( '...' ) around the url instead of double quotes ( "..." ). This is because what gets inserted in the post is a [caption] shortcode that uses double quotes for its parameters [caption title="the title"]. If you dont use single quotes it gets confused and breaks everything.
BAD CAPTION LINK
Beautiful photo of the protest by Flickr user <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jer">jer</a>.
GOOD CAPTION LINK
Beautiful photo of the protest by Flickr user <a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/jer'>jer</a>.
The third way to add a caption link is basically the same as the second one, but you can do it after you've inserted the image into a post if you want. Go to HTML mode while editing the post and look for the [caption] shortcode for the image you want to edit. It will have several settings in it like width="400" etc. You need to find the one called caption="", which contains the caption text you entered when inserting it originally. You can edit the text between the double-quotes and add links using single quotes (like i show above) and it should work. It's weird to do it like this but I'm pretty sure there won't be problems.
If you get stuck, you can just figure out the second method using the inserter and just remove the image and start over at inserting it.
By combining the two types of link, one on the photo, and one in the caption, we can make the photos on gv much more useful and give appropriate credit to the great photographers who make their photos creative commons (or give us permission to use them).
[edit] How to embed a video
[edit] How to embed an audio file
[edit] Places to look for multimedia
Flickr, Zoomr, SpinXpress
[edit] Translation
Everyone loves seeing their posts translated and featured on the Today on GV Lingua daily newsletter, which showcases the various posts made available into many languages and published on the Lingua Project sites. But do you know what it takes to make your writing appealing to translators?
In this section, you will see a few tips on how to write posts that are easier to translate – and therefore more attractive to the Lingua volunteers. The starting point is to bear in mind that clear writing is what makes good translations. By writing well, not only do you help to reduce the potential amount of translation errors, but you also make your original posts more understandable for the global community of GVO readers whose mother tongue is not necessarily English.
All of these tips are easier said than done, but the most important tip of all, however, is also the easiest to achieve: let yourself be reachable and make yourself available to promptly answer queries that a translator may have when working on your post.
The ultimate goal is to make the voices you are reporting on as heard as possible, in as many languages as we can provide. As of January 2009, there are 16 active and 7 Lingua sites! To see the amazing work they do, please check the latest translations page and the Lingua posting stats!
[edit] Making your posts easier to translate
Be succinct
This is not just about the length of your article – arguably the main source of motivation or discouragement when a translator chooses a post – but also about the way you organize your piece. Avoid long and complex sentences and adopt a uncluttered style. Use short, punchy, well punctuated phrases to make your text much easier to be understood. According to the Plain English Campaign, "clear writing should have an average sentence length of 15 to 20 words".
In order o write shorter articles, it is a good idea to pick the most relevant part of a blog post to quote, instead of quoting the whole paragraph, especially if it repeats information already provided by you in the introduction or mentioned by other bloggers you quoted.
On the other hand, don't confuse being succinct with being extremely economic with the language. The best way of writing in "telegraphic English" – and therefore making yourself misunderstood – is to omit words that help to clarify the meaning of a sentence: articles, prepositions and verbs used with gerunds. Don't [do it]!
In other words, KISS -> Keep It Short and Simple (also "translated" as Keep It Short and Sweet or Keep It Simple Stupid!, it all depends on context!)
Provide background information and context
Talking about context, never forget that when it comes to translation context is everything! The word table in Portuguese can be translated into two different words, if it is related to the piece of furniture (mesa) or the graphic with rows and columns, how would the translator know which one to choose? The answer is: trough context.
When writing, have this cultural diversity in mind. Never assume that every translator – in fact every reader – will know the context or background of the issue you are reporting. This doesn't mean that you need to write long, extensive posts: linking to further sources of information is an easy way to provide extra info for those who need it.
Whenever possible and appropriate, if you link to Wikipedia or other multilingual sources such as the BBC or Reuters websites, there is even a chance that the translator will find a same source article on the same subject in the language they are translating your post into, and linking to them, giving the Lingua reader the chance to delve further into the issue your are reporting on.
Follow a standard English word order
While we do want you to be creative when writing for Global Voices, instead of "dubbing" your English down unnecessarily, writing in a standard English word order is a good basic piece of advice: go for the subject + verb + object order.
You may need to use the passive voice, with the object + verb + (subject order), which is perfectly fine to use when the subject is unknown – or there is a need to make a situation sound less hostile.
However, in general and if you don't have a good reason to use the passive voice, it is clearer (and often shorter) to use active verbs, instead of passive ones.
Minimise ambiguity
English is a language already ambiguous enough, but there are ways to make clear what you want to say apart from keeping to everyday English. Please avoid:
– Homographs: those words that are spelled in the same way but have different meanings; Also, tryto use words with their primary dictionary meanings.
– Slang, technical jargon and neologisms: whenever possible, unless you are sure they are fairly established in English. Local slang is a no-no-please.
– Metaphors and culturally specific allusions: they might work fantastically in one language but make no sense whatsoever in another.
– Gibberish: this can be only understood, if at all, in English!
Having said that, if the blogs you quote have a colourful language and you want to reflect this, especially if you are translating them into English, it may suffice if you provide "Translator's/Author's Notes", or just offer a bracketed equivalent or explanation that a non-technical person should reasonably understand. This, in turn, would get translated too and everyone would happily understand.
Use acronyms but spell them out
"Mysterious acronyms are not recommended", twitters Leonard Chien. Truth to be said, it is perfectly fine to use acronyms, but the excess of them make the text less elegant. However, it is imperative that, when mentioning an acronym in a piece of writing for the first time, you also spell it out, for the benefit of your readers – and translators. Avoid unnecessary abbreviations.
Dates and time
It would be great if instead of stating "tomorrow", "the day before yesterday", "last week" you provide either day of the week or date (in your time zone) of the event you are describing. This would be useful also for late come readers!
Let us know the grammatical genders
Unlike English, many languages have grammatical genders. This means that, for example, the adjectives your write to describe bloggers will vary according to their gender. Sometimes, translators can make an informed guess by looking at the blogs and trying to retrieve their name, but that is time consuming and works only in a limited number of cases where the languages are close enough for the translator to make sense of the info available.
You don't need to provide a [f] for female or [m] for male after the blog/blogger's name. An easy way to sort this is using she/he/her/his/him at some point of the sentence. Here is an example:
In a recent post about a deadly chemical leak in a Brazilian river, Paula Góes said:
- Lawyer and environmentalist Luiz Felipe Muniz de Souza comments on the consequences of the leak to local communities. [...]
In the above example, the words lawyer and environmentalist would vary according to the blogger's gender. It would have been better if she had written in one of the following ways:
- Lawyer and environmentalist Luiz Felipe Muniz de Souza comments on the consequences of the leak to local communities. He says/According to him/In his mind: [...]
In other words
To sum up "write with a global audience in mind", because we are Global Voices (even if you don't want to be translated). That's again a translation-wise tweet by Leonard Chien!
References and further resources
Guidelines for writers when writing for translation. A quote: "Do not write thinking of only what you want to say, but what you want the reader to understand."
Plain English Campaign – learn about the fight against gobbledygook or gobbledegook (sometimes gobbledegoo, gobbledeegook
Fight the Fog, an informal campaign by European Commission's translators urging writers and speakers to be as clear as possible in their original language.
The Economist Style Guide and the Johnson columns for those who prefer a British accent.
