Blogging Guidelines

• Tip 1. Assume the reader knows nothing about the topic.

Put yourself in the position of someone who has no knowledge of worldwide development challenges, your institution and its activities. Therefore:

• Put all statements in context.
• Avoid scientific jargon or excessive “research or research-for-development talk”, which could alienate readers.
• Write out all acronyms the first time they appear on the page.
• Read text out loud to make sure it is clear and concise. After writing your first draft, put it away temporarily and then re-read and edit it if necessary.

• Tip 2. Assume the reader encounters the blog page for the first time.

Users rarely begin reading web content from the home page. Most readers will come to the page from a search engine or an external link. Therefore, make sure the information presented in your article can stand alone by:

• Addressing the topic cohesively.
• Giving your article a clear and concise heading and sub-headings.
• Provide context for all statements.
• Spell out acronyms the first time they appear.
• Providing link to further resources, materials and publications.

• Tip 3. Structure your thoughts and ideas.

Online readers generally scan text, looking for specific words or interesting points. To make sure your blog grabs the readers’ attention, you must structure your ideas and stick to the following suggestions, which are expanded upon in other tips below:

• Start with the conclusion and a short summary of the content: Put main ideas, conclusions and important points at the beginning. Few people read entire web pages – if you put the most important points at the end, most visitors may never see them. By all means, avoid a rambling first paragraph!
• Write captivating headlines and use subheadings.
• Make sure each paragraph contains one main idea, and limit paragraphs to no more than 100 words.
• Keep vocabulary simple and use non-discriminatory language.
• Use compelling visuals, photos and illustrations.
• Use bulleted and numbered lists to draw attention.
• Keep punctuation simple.
• Use relevant and working links.
• Use bold sparingly, only to highlight key information and concepts.

• Tip 4. Write captivating headlines.

Headlines or titles are critical – they determine whether or not readers decide to “invest” their time in reading your blog. Successful headlines tell the gist of the story in a few powerful words and catch the reader’s interest. When brainstorming for a great headline:

• Think about the most important point in the blog content and incorporate it into the headline.
• Think about your audience and what matters to them.
• Identify the tone of the blog piece and make the headline compatible with it. The tone should also be appropriate for the audience and true to your institution's identity, standards, value and voice.
• Pose a question or start your headline with a relevant number or statistic to help it standing out. Just as the human eye is drawn to contrasting colours, we’re also naturally drawn to the juxtaposition of digits resting beside text. This will reader a clearer idea of what to expect in your post, as well as promising a quick, scan-friendly read.
• Address readers in the 2nd person to grab their attention by calling them out.
• Break Conventions: Headlines that elicit controversy or critical thinking draw in curious readers.
• Use key words and keep the headline short, preferably fewer than 70 characters if you want your headline to look good in Google and prevent it from being cut off.

• Tip 5. Hook the reader in.

This should be a summary 1-2 line statement (Hook) that highlights the main point of your blog.It is the statement upon which your blog is firmly anchored and which helps establish a personal connection with the reader.

• Tip 6. Use subheadings.

By structuring the body of your blog article in different/distinctive parts with short subheadings, you enable the reader to scan and read your blog more easily, especially since many readers nowadays read on phones and tablets, or will have multiple tabs open on their laptops or desktops. Subheadings allow readers to quickly glance over the main topics/issues/messages discussed in your blog. Make subheadings bold so they are easily visible. Good subheadings:

• Give readers a glimpse of the content.
• Organize the content into readable chunks.
• Tell a story that makes it possible to grasp the gist of the blog quickly.

• Tip 7. Stick to a discursive and balanced tone.

Never write as if you are an expert in a subject, unless you are. Better still, write as an intelligent and informed reporter of someone else’s work.

• If you wish to express your opinions in a piece (and in the realm of research this is expected, as your role as a scientist is to help solve development challenges through research, not just write about it), make it very clear that these are your opinions.
• Never generalize beyond the evidence, and where possible use multiple sources. Note however that different sources should be weighted differently according to their authority – a blog post carries less authority (usually) than a peer review paper for instance.
• Read around your subject – never present a single paper/report as authoritative without cross-referencing it to other work in the field.
• Do a Google search of your subject to make sure you are not repeating what others have written before you, or you are not missing an important angle.
• If there are controversies or differences of opinion surrounding your subject, report these in a fair and balance way.
• Ask someone else to provide feedback on your draft to improve your argument, language or narrative structure.

• Tip 8. Use simple, concise and precise language.

Simple words are helpful to all readers, especially to those whose English is not their native language and to those who quickly scan the blog post. Convoluted writing and complex words are even harder to understand online. Choose words that are short, common and unlikely to be misread. You can read out your draft because sometime the spoken language is more direct than written language, and hearing your words spoken might reveal convoluted sentences.

• Use simple, short sentence structures and get to the point.
• Use plain language.
• Write short, declarative sentences in the active voice.
• Structure your sentences simply – subject-verb- object – and put the main information up front.
• Eliminate non-essential adjectives and adverbs.
• Do not repeat yourself. Reading the same thought twice is a waste of time and annoying to readers.
• Check all facts and figures.
• Check all links.
• Spellcheck the text.

• Tip 9. Use short paragraphs and sentences.

It is hard to read long, dense paragraphs on a computer monitor. Even a relatively short paragraph of 100 words looks like a lot of text on the screen. Short paragraphs help readers find what they are looking for and make writing easier to scan. A reader looking for a specific piece of information is likely to scan, but unlikely to fully read an entire article.

• Write paragraphs of two to five sentences. If the sentences are long, limit paragraphs further, to three sentences. Sometimes this will mean one thought straddles two paragraphs – that is okay.
• Have only one thought/idea/concept in each paragraph.
• Limit sentences to 25 words. Good sentences are concise and well formed, using logical order and solid grammar. They are easy for all readers to digest quickly, even those with limited literacy in English.

• Tip 10. Avoid scientific jargon.

Avoid scientific jargon and specialized or technical terms. Using common terminology makes the text easy for all your visitors to understand.

• Tip 11. Use acronyms sparingly.

Avoid the temptation to use acronyms as shorthand. If you must use acronyms:

• Make sure all terms are written out in full, followed by the acronym in parentheses, the first time they are mentioned in the text.
• Avoid acronyms in headings.
• Try using a synonym instead of an acronym. For example, say ‘the Goals’ instead of ‘SDGs’ on second reference to the Sustainable Development Goals.

• Tip 12. Keep punctuation simple.

• Uncluttered sentences are easier to read. If you find yourself using comma after comma,try making two (or even three) shorter sentences out of that long one.
• Avoid excessive use of exclamation marks or emoticons: if your words are clear and strong, they will not require extra emphasis.

• Tip 13. Use lists.

Remember that website readers are scanning for snippets of information. Lists are easy to scan and understand because they do not have to be read word by word.

• Use numbered lists when the sequence of reading web content from the home page. Most readers will come to the page from a search engine or an external link.
• Avoid lists of more than two levels: primary and secondary.
• Put no more than 5-6 items in a list.

• Tip 14. Use non-discriminatory language.

Your blog post should not discriminate, stereotype or demean people based on gender, ethnicity, religion or any other characteristic. Moreover, you should avoid the generic use of masculine pronouns, such as: “Every farmer needs access to market to sell his produce.” To avoid this problem, you may use plurals as appropriate to the story (“All farmers need access to needs access to market to sell their produce.”) or use the imperative, when the command form of a verb lets you use the second person (you and your) rather than the third (he and his or she and her).

• Tip 15. Use bold to highlight key concepts.

Use bold to highlight key concepts within paragraphs. But do not go overboard. Use it sparingly, for words and phrases, not sentences. Bold is more effective and easily scanned when arranged vertically, such as by bolding the first word or two in each item of a bullet list. Too much bold scattered throughout text can be confusing.

• Tip 16. Include links to relevant resources and reference sources.

Blog posts should be evidence-based with in text references or links to “Additional resources” at the end of the post. References may be links to published books, journal articles and other related publications. You may also include photos, power points, videos, or other material that can be embedded in the post.

• Place links in the body of the article where they are applicable – do not put them all at the end, where they might be missed. This will make it easier for visitors to find all the content you have on a particular topic.
• Hyperlink just a few words instead of putting the URL link in the text of your blog.
• Make links to text or resources that are valuable and directly relevant to the topic. Too many links may confuse, distract and overwhelm readers.
• Avoid having more than five links per topic.

• Tip 17. Include relevant photos and other visuals to illustrate your story.

An image or illustration is part of your narrative, and as such it should serve to enhance rather than detract from the narrative in your post.

• Illustrated you blogs with at least 1-2 photos/diagrams/cartoons.
• Write clear captions: All photographs, illustrations and tables need identifying captions.
• Please include appropriate credits and copyright symbols where appropriate.

• Tip 18. Use simple text alignment and typography.

• Never use all capitals, and use italics sparingly, as they are difficult to read on the screen.
• Left-align and single-space your text.
• Graphics and colours can reinforce text – but only when they have meaning and help guide the reader, such as in explaining statistical formation. Used pointlessly, graphics and colours are distracting and annoying.

• Tip 19. Acknowledge relevant research work and outputs appropriately.

If your blog is about research work that is allegedly funded or mapped to your institution and also other CGIAR Research Programs, please include an appropriate acknowledgment sentence as follows:

This research work is/was conducted by ... under the framework of the CGIAR Research Program on ... in partnership with ...and funded by... .

• Tip 20. Use key words to help optimize.
  

Finally, the use of key words in your blog content can help optimize the blog posts for search engine without necessary comprising with the content quality. Whenever you write blog post, always remember to add your key words in the first and last paragraphs of your draft, as well as your blog Headline and Image title and caption. These are all locations where search engines look for keywords in these to decide the ranking of our blog posts.