HOW TO CONTRIBUTE
Read our frequently asked questions (FAQ) about submissions.
Keep these guidelines in mind when writing your post.
Email your completed post to submissions@powertopersuade.org.au
We publish under Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
That means your post may be shared or republished by another party under the conditions outlined under republishing guidelines set out below.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WHAT SHOULD I WRITE ABOUT?
Power to Persuade welcomes contributions on any aspect of social policy. You may write about a facet of the policy process, issues specific to your sector, or anything else that is important to you.
We are interested in:
Your own experiences – Whether you’re a policymaker, practitioner or researcher, we want to hear about your experiences, your successes and any challenges you face. What makes your work rewarding? What makes it difficult? How could it be improved?
Collaboration across sectors – Power to Persuade is all about working across sectors in social policy, so we’re keen to hear your thoughts and ideas on this topic. Have you worked with people in different sectors, or moved between different sectors in your career? What were the challenges involved? What did you learn? How can working across sector boundaries improve policy design, implementation and outcomes?
I HAVE AN IDEA FOR A POST BUT I’M NOT SURE IF IT’S RELEVANT. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Send us an email outlining your idea and we’ll let you know if it’s something of interest to our readers. We’re also happy to suggest what you could write about.
I HAVE SOME STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT SOCIAL POLICY. IS THAT OK?
Absolutely! We want to stimulate debate and conversation, so you are free to make your posts as opinionated as you like. (Of course, we won’t publish anything that is offensive, defamatory, discriminatory or otherwise not very nice.)
DO YOU HAVE TO PUBLISH MY REAL NAME?
Power to Persuade promotes open and honest discussion, so we encourage contributors to use their real name. However, we recognise that some people would prefer to remain anonymous for a variety of reasons. If that’s the case, please let us know – we will leave the name off your contribution or use a pseudonym.
HOW LONG SHOULD MY ARTICLE BE?
We like to keep our posts reasonably short. Many of our readers visit the blog on mobile devices and appreciate finely honed posts. 400–800 words is the ideal length but we will consider posts up to 1000 words addressing complex issues.
If you have a longer article to contribute, you could consider splitting it into two or more separate posts with links.
WHAT ELSE DO I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WRITING FOR POWER TO PERSUADE?
Here are a few tips on how to write for our blog:
Avoid overly formal or academic language – Please stick to plain, conversational language in your post. Power to Persuade is not an academic journal.
Minimise jargon – To make sure people from other sectors get the most out of your article, try to avoid using industry-specific jargon. If you have to use a term others might not be familiar with, please clearly define it.
Avoid long sentences and paragraphs – Short and punchy is preferable to dense and verbose.
Make use of subheadings, bulleted lists and links – We encourage you to break up long passages of text with subheadings, and to use bullet points rather than commas for long lists. Feel free to include links to any related pages or articles.
WILL YOU EDIT MY POST WITHOUT TELLING ME?
If we need to make any changes to your post, we will send the edited version back to you for approval before we publish it.
The only exception to this is if the fixes are purely cosmetic (spelling issues, typos, punctuation etc.). Please let us know if you would like to be consulted about these minor edits as well.
WILL I GET PAID?
Power to Persuade is a non-profit, volunteer-run operation, so we do not pay our contributors. However, you retain all rights to your submission, meaning you are free to publish it elsewhere as well.
what are your Republishing guidelines?
We publish blog posts under a Creative Commons license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. That means your post may be shared or republished by another party under the following conditions:
Attribution: Both you (as the author) and Power to Persuade (as the source) must be credited and a link to your original post must be included.
Non Commercial: No element of your post can be used for commercial purposes.
No Derivatives: Your post cannot be edited or modified in any way before republishing.
I’M IN! WHAT SHOULD I DO NEXT?
Please email submissions@powertopersuade.org.au with your submission or idea and we’ll be in touch.