Do you have smart things to say about campus design or landscaping? About sustainability or other facilities issues? Buildings & Grounds is looking for a few good guest bloggers to bring fresh perspectives to our coverage in the year ahead.
Typically, our guest bloggers submit one item each week for a month. And so far our bloggers have all sent written posts. But we’d like to mix things up a little. In addition to prose contributors, we’re looking for bloggers who want to try out other media. Is sketching your strength? Photography? Podcasts? Slide shows or videos? We’d love to hear your ideas. And if you’re interested in a topic that’s not well suited to a one-month term, let us know what you think would work better.
Some guidelines:
Posts must be about college facilities, campuses, or related issues. You can be a little creative, sure, but this is a blog about buildings and grounds.
Posts should be short and conversational. This is not a venue for essays. Written posts should be no longer than a few paragraphs — in the first paragraph, just state plainly what you’re writing about, then follow that with a little background and a couple of examples, plus a conclusion. Three, four, maybe five paragraphs. Easy, right? You’ll probably want to stick to one idea per post, although you could do a series of posts that examined different aspects of an issue. But the key word here is short. That goes for podcasts and videos, too.
All are welcome as contributors, including students, faculty members, administrators, alumni, trustees, presidents, and architects and contractors who do a lot of work on campuses. But you have to do your own blogging. Please do not plan on having your marketing or PR people submit posts in your name.
Self-promotion is a no-no. That’s not to say you can’t mention a project you’ve worked on or a building on your campus, but we know self-promotion when we smell it.
All posts will be edited. We’re just like that. Some posts may end up in print. But you won’t get paid, except with our gratitude, and maybe with lunch if you come to Washington.
More guidelines are available online, if you’re interested.
A couple of ideas we’ve kicked around: Would you or someone you know be interested in contributing posts that follow construction of a new campus building, from the start of excavation to occupancy? How about blogging the growing season on a campus farm, in photos and words? Or a series of video posts that follow cleaning crews through various kinds of buildings on your campus — a residence hall, a gym, a science building? Sketches of design problems you’ve encountered on a campus, and ingenious solutions to them? Podcast interviews with students committed to making your campus more sustainable?
Or maybe you have other ideas. You can see what the past year’s guest bloggers have written about by going to our Guest Blogger Archive.
Interested? Or do you have a suggestion about someone we should approach to contribute? Shoot us an e-mail.
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