Writers' Guidelines

I really hope that this blog can be a community effort. If you have an idea for a post about a current issue of any kind, please study the guidelines below and send me a query in which you describe the post you'd like to write. Explain its topic and thesis, tell me something about your sources, and describe the approach you'll take. I'll let you know if it sounds like it would be appropriate for Another Think.


Writers' Guidelines:

• Topics: The focus is on current issues of all kinds--political, social, medical, educational, family & parenting, etc. The scope of the topic may be local, regional, national, or global. Each blog post presents an individual writer's opinion on an issue. The blog posts are not meant to provide advice on how to cope with or treat problems; instead, they provide knowledge.
• Audience: I hope that readers who are interested in understanding current issues will read the blog. They may not agree with every post, but hopefully they are open-minded enough to consider a reasonable argument. With that in mind, you should make every effort to present yourself as a reasonable, thoughtful person who understands the issue well.
• Length: Each blog post should be approximately 1000-1250 words
• Research: The blog posts for Another Think are not meant to be reflections or musings on the writers' personal experiences (although writers might discuss their personal connections to their topics). Instead, they should be solid, well organized, well researched pieces. Please use high-quality sources to support each point that you make about your topic. Academic journals and serious magazine or newspaper articles are solid sources; random websites are not.
• Documentation: Please use APA format to document your sources. Put APA-style in-text citations after each use (quotation, paraphrase, or summary) of specifics from a source, and provide a references list in APA format at the end of your post.
• All of this sounds rather serious! However, blog posts for Another Think do not have to be dry academic pieces. Even though this is a serious blog, it is still a blog, so a degree of informality is acceptable.