Guidelines for guest bloggers
We welcome submissions from researchers who have found something in our collections which you think our blog readers should know about. This document shares some suggestions as to how to write a compelling blog post.
Length
Keep it fairly short, please! Ideally, no more than 500 words. Better not to have to scroll down endless pages on one’s phone, if possible. Keep your paragraphs short (no more than 3 sentences) so that your article is easy to follow.
Style
While most of our blog readers have an interest in history, they will probably not be familiar with your topic. When writing about your research, please do so in a clear, succinct, accessible style. Avoid using jargon by explaining any concepts that you feel readers would need to understand to grasp your research.
Title
Please keep your title short, snappy, and relevant. The best titles are eye-catching or witty, enticing readers to want to read more. Make sure your first sentence uses some of the keywords relevant to your research so that it shows higher in search results.
Images
Images are always good, so a few photographs (no hard and fast rules on how many, but say up to about 4) will really help to lift your blog. If you’d like to supply your own snaps that you’ve taken in the reading room, then that’s fine (anything we use on the website will be fairly low-resolution jpgs in any case), but we do have a stock of images ourselves for most of our collections that we can add, so do ask. Please add in the image reference for the caption – nothing more frustrating for other researchers than to see a nice pic, and not know where it’s come from. It’s good to have a picture of the proud author in our guest blogs, too, but this is not compulsory!
Do have a think about copyright in any images you use, as the rights in most of the images in our collections will not be owned by the Archives Centre. Copyright is always a pain, but Archives staff will be happy to help on this one.
References and footnotes
The more links and references we can squeeze in to our catalogues, the better. In a short blog, lengthy footnotes probably won’t be needed, and they can be a bit of a distraction, but it will certainly be helpful to add in document or just collection references (a short reference, such as HNKY 1/1, will be fine), which can be linked to our catalogues. If you have a book or article which has come from your research here, we’ll be happy to add a link to that too.
Publication date
Is there a topical event, exhibition, or anniversary which coincides with the topic of your blog? If so, let us know and we can ensure we publish at the most relevant time.
Social media
If you’re on Twitter, do include your Twitter handle and other organisations and institutions who might be interested in your research. We can then use this when we publicise your blog.
And finally …
Don’t forget to add your name, job title, and affiliation.
Looking for inspiration?
Then these blogs might help:
Remembering Florence Horsbrugh on International Women’s Day
The Shadowed Advisor: The Role of Clementine Churchill
Copyright in the blog will be retained by the writer, but Churchill College will be licensed to use the content on our website and on all related social media channels in all formats in perpetuity.
While the blog reflects the writer’s own views and research, publication on the Churchill College website does not signify formal endorsement.
