Blog Guidelines and Style Sheet for Guest Authors

Are you working on an innovative topic in digital teaching in higher education? If so, our editorial team would be happy to hear from you so that you can share your work with the wider HFD-community. 

1 - Organizational details

1.1 What does the HFD need in addition to your article?

• Highly recommended: images for illustration (with image source/link)
• Photo and short profile (2-3 sentences) of the author/s
• If you have sent us a short description in the past, please check if it is still up-to-date and suits your contribution (especially regarding institutional affiliation).Sort and write. Picture: [https://unsplash.com/photos/0sBTrm726C8 Jason Leung]

1.2 When will the blog post be published?

As a rule, the editorial team will work with you to schedule the publication date. In most cases we are flexible and can schedule articles to coincide with relevant events or academic publications, for example. 

Please send us your blog post at least 3 working days before the planned publication to ensure sufficient time for  revisions and tasks such as image editing and search engine optimization.

1.3 What are the licensing terms?

Our blog articles are published in accordance with the CC BY-SA 4.0 license (attribution, distribution under the same conditions). Please inform us if you do not agree to these terms!

2 - Content 

The text should be written from the perspective of one or more persons involved, not from the perspective of the respective institution. Our community prefers reading a first-hand account from a peer rather than institutional boilerplate.

If there are relevant links to the described content (e.g. project websites), we recommend linking them directly in the text under the corresponding keywords as additional reading. In particular, we ask for links and references if assertions are made that do not follow logically from the previously written one. While the HFD-Blog has no scientific claim to citations and proofs, it is aimed at an academic audience. As editors, we strive to ensure that claims are justified and properly necessary cited.

3 - Style 

3.1 What are the requirements for gender-sensitive language and diversity?

We ask all authors to use gender-sensitive language and to choose a consistent form for the entire text. For German-language texts, the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung uses the gender star and recommends this for guest blog posts. Furthermore, all authors are asked to critically review their texts with regard to diversity. This is expressed, amongst other things, by choosing a variety of examples and by avoiding pejorative language.

3.2 What makes a text readable?

We use the Flesch Index to evaluate text readability. According to this index, short sentences and words (short words = few syllables) are preferable for readers and also help influence search engine rankings. We ask that all authors make their texts as readable as possible. You can check your text for readability here.

Tips to improve readability

• Use short sentences. Prefer full stops over commas. 

Instead of: "Keyword research can seem overwhelming, but adding a couple of the tools above to your marketing arsenal can help you make strategic decisions about the content that will be most effective to create for your business."

Try; "While keyword research can seem overwhelming, these tools can help you make strategic content decisions for business growth."

• Use active over passive voice.

Instead of: "The letter was mailed by Elizabeth."

Try: "Elizabeth mailed the letter."

• Avoid unnecessarily complicated terminology. 

Instead of:  "gradual"

Try: "step-by-step"

• Avoid filler words like very, really, highly, truly, certainly.

Instead of: "This finding was highly valuable for our research."

Try: "This finding enriched our research."

• Write to please the eye.

Avoid large blocks of text. Instead, keep paragraphs short and use subheadings and images whenever possible.