Writer’s Guidelines

SHORT TITLE

by Your Name

Use this template to help get your article started—just substitute your content for what’s written here. Our standard format is 12-point Times New Roman Font with 1-inch margins, double-spaced. Keep paragraphs aligned to the left but put an extra line of space between each. Our articles are usually between 500 and 1,800 words. This first section is your Introduction.

Please review our Guidelines & Styles for more detailed information about what kind of stories we’re looking for and best practices for submitting images.

STORY STRUCTURE

Your article will have a clear beginning, middle and end. The beginning grabs the reader and lays out the issue in simple terms. That transitions naturally to the middle, where the reader learns how the issue came about, relevant details about the issue, and how the issue was solved.

SUBHEADS HELP BREAK UP TEXT

Each section should be marked with a short subhead, or title, relating to what you’re going to discuss. Can’t think of any right now? Add them after you’ve finished.

CITATIONS NEEDED

Introduce sources in a sentence to cite them—for example, “In Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War,’ we learn that…”. Do not use footnotes or endnotes. If there’s a link to the cited material, embed the link in the title of the material.

IMAGES AND CAPTIONS

Submit photos, charts, illustrations and graphics to help bring your article to life. Please ensure each image has a brief caption and credit. See the example below. Note: All images must be copyright free, releasable to the public, and appropriately credited to the photographer, creator or organization of origin to be published. We do not accept AI generated images.

CONCLUSION

Virtually every article ends with a definite conclusion, and it is labeled as such. Once you’ve written your conclusion, you’ll need to add two more things to the bottom of the article: the “for more information” paragraph and the author biographies. Use italic font to write both and write the author names at the beginning of the biographies in all capital letters.

For more information….here, include a link to a website or an individual contact so that readers can get more information on the subject you’re discussing.

BIOGRAPHY Here, you’ll provide a short biography of each author, with the same name as in the byline. Biographies should begin with rank or title, continue with education (highest degrees first), and any DAWIA certifications. And now you’re done!

SUBMITTING PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

Download our photo and video best practices tip sheet to master your DIY photo/video shoot for submission.