Discussion posts style guide

General

  • Purpose
    • To promote organic conversation, rather than a passive relay of information.
    • To give students extra engaging content.
  • Word count
    • Beginner = 100–150
    • Intermediate = 150–200
    • Advanced = 200–250

Level

Titles

  • Be descriptive—no clickbait, you-won't-believe-what-happened-next style titles and headlines, please.
  • The character limit is 35, so be concise.
  • Avoid using punctuation in titles.
    • Commonly used special characters (comma, ampersand, hyphen, colon, question mark, exclamation point) are fine.
    • If an em-dash is necessary, use a hyphen with a space on each side (otherwise verboten, but can be used in titles).
    • Do not put a full stop at the end of the title.
  • Following from the above point about special characters, use all caps (even though it is usually a sin) if you need to differentiate something in a title, e.g., “How to use the words MENU and SCHEDULE”.
  • Read more about how to write good headlines.

Punctuation

  • Don't use periods for acronyms.
  • Use "okay" instead of "OK".
  • Write time as "6am" (number, no space, lowercase), in the 12-hour clock mode.
  • Don't use spaces around em dashes (—) or slashes (/).
  • Don't use spaces to indent or for layout. You should only ever use one space (between words or after a period, etc.). All other spacing requirements will be taken care of with site styles/rules.
  • Quotation marks should only be used for:
    • direct quotes
    • irony, sarcasm, or skepticism

Formatting

  • Italics are used for titles within the text; and to differentiate a word or phrase, e.g.,
    • For emphasis:
      • “...over 100 acres of deforestation every day to keep up with demand.”
    • For referring to words as objects:
      • “The word worried has a different connotation than the word stressed.”
    • For idioms and set phrases:
      • “You have to walk the talk on climate change.”
    • For foreign words, the first time it’s used. (After that, it doesn’t need to be italicized.)
      • “...a physiological and psychological exercise called shinrin-yoku.”
  • Only make the word or phrase italic. Do not include the punctuation before or after it.
  • Don't use spaces to indent or for layout. You should only ever use one space (between words or after a period, etc.). All other spacing requirements will be taken care of with site styles/rules.
  • etc. has a period after it, not an ellipsis.
  • e.g. uses periods and is followed by a comma.
  • Quotations should be short and in line with the text. If absolutely necessary, put a quote that exceeds 25 words in the block quote format.
  • Don't leave random white space/extra lines between paragraphs or at the end of sections or posts.

Units of measurement

  • There should be a space between any unit of measurement and the number, e.g, 8 oz.

Teaching notes

  • Include answers to any listening comprehension questions.
  • Add a brief description of any unfamiliar content. Include a link to more info, if possible, so the teacher can read up on the topic beforehand.
  • If you use a visual, provide a short explanation (e.g., what the graph shows).

Discussion questions

  • Order of questions should be from simple to complex:
    • Direct comprehension of the article.
    • Related to the student's personal experience or their country.
    • Abstract question relevant to the topic.
  • Use open-ended questions, rather than yes/no.

Images & media

  • Licensing
    • If you use images and media in posts or lessons, make sure the licensing is okay.
      • Anything with a Creative Commons license; in the Public Domain; or "Free to modify, share, and use commercially" is fine. A few good free sites:
      • Be sure to give the link to the image, and credit the creator in the “Title” box under “Image credit”
        on the Discussion topic form.
      • Image captions are not required but the “Alternate text” and “Title” fields are mandatory.

      • “Alternate text” is for screen readers, so it needs to be descriptive.

      • The “Title” can be any phrase that relates to the image. Take a look at this post for an example

  • Size
    • The main image will be automatically cropped to 1200 x 650 (width x height) pixels (which is not a standard size), at 72ppi resolution. In the event that the image doesn’t crop well, submit the post without an image and the copyediting team will take care of it for you.
    • Videos and other images embedded in the post will automatically resize to fit.
  • Videos
    • When adding a video to your post, your writing should just be long enough to give the reader context, this means, you can just write a short paragraph.
    • Videos shouldn't be more than five minutes long. 
      • You can set the video to start at a specific time if it's too long, here is an example, Ursula LeGuin and writers of hope.
        • It's just over six minutes long but the writer set it up to start playing at 1:24.
      • Due to copyright issues, please do not embed videos from TED Talks.
    • If possible, embed videos in the post rather than giving the link alone. It will be easier for teachers and students to stay on the same page. (If there is no embed code given, then make sure the link is descriptive.) E.g.,
  • Visuals

Tags

  • Tags are used for cross-reference and searches.
  • Aim for no more than three.
  • [Link to list of tags]