Interested in writing a blog post? That’s great! Below is some guidance for writing a successful post.

Our blog posts are relatively short, written to a wider ‘popular science’ audience (i.e. not to much jargon or heavy statistics) and have plenty of room for creativity!

Posts tend to (but do not have to) include the following:

-A few sentences introducing yourself

-The background/story behind your article

-Any interesting stories from undertaking the research

-The key findings and future directions

You can format your blog post in a few ways based on what you’d like to focus on. Below are a few different styles and some potential things to think about:

General blog post ~700-1000

• Describing the context behind the article and the research that took place
• Does this article raise any new research questions? 
• Have you made any new discoveries using this method? 
• What are the future applications

Research and the researcher ~700-1000

• Informal post of how your article came to be
• Any anecdotes which led you to create the work in your article
• Future research directions

Application/ Practical tools blog ~500

• Where can be found/made?
• What led you to build/create this?
• What does your new tool contribute to the field? 

Gallery post

• Including any photographs taken during the research process with short descriptions (roughly 50-70 words per photo) of how they relate to your article

Please follow these guidelines: 

1. Think about your audience. Posts should be relevant and accessible to those working in the fields of ecology and evolution. When writing about your research, make sure you focus on the key findings and future implications.

2. Write in plain language. Try to avoid academic jargon. Remember to define acronyms and initialisms at their first use, unless they are commonly known, for example ‘UK’ or ‘DNA’. 

3. Be personable. Use the first person (I/we) and a friendly tone of voice. Your post should be less formal than a research article. Try to use the active voice instead of the passive (‘we did’ rather than ‘this was done’). 

4. Remember the evidence. Back up what you say by embedding links in the text instead of using citations and references. Make a clear distinction between fact and your own opinion. Linking out to other content also boosts Google rankings.

5. Visuals are key. Please remember to send photos, videos, illustrations or infographics with your text. Make sure you have permission from the image/video owner and anyone who appears in the photo/video. 

6. Headings and titles help. Remember to include a title with your text. Consider adding subheadings to break up the post and make it easier to read. Section headers improve search engine optimisation of the post if they include keywords or phrases.

7. Keep it simple. Try to stick to 500-750 words for your blog. Split your text into shorter sentences and paragraphs, again so it is easier to read. 

8. Use British English (-ise, -re, -our, ll, double vowels, -ence, -ogue) for English language posts. 

9. Translated blog posts. We are able to publish translated blog posts alongside an English version. If you’re interested in providing a copy in another language, please let us know when getting in touch with us about writing a post. 

10. Social media handles. Please provide any relevant Twitter handles we can tag when promoting your post on social media. You can also provide your website for us to link to from the blog.
    

Translated blog posts

We are able to publish translated blog posts. These can make it much easier for readers who are not fluent English speakers to understand your article. In this case, please wait until your post has been edited by our blog editors before you translate it into a second language.

Questions?

If you have any questions or would like to discuss your potential blog post in more detail, please email the Assistant Editor (coordinator@methodsinecologyandevolution.org). All posts will be edited by our Blog Associate Editors, who will make sure your post reads well, fits the brand of the blog and is accessible to a general audience before it is published.