Blog Submissions Guidance

Interested in submitting a post to us, but unsure how to go about it? We’ve got some top tips for you!

Formatting advice:

Concerned about how to format your post before you submit to us? Please check out our four formatting tips below for guidance. Above all, don’t forget we’re a flexible project, so please send your post to us even if it doesn’t follow all of these criteria!

1. Post Length: Typical blog posts tend to be short-form, from anywhere about 300 words to 700 words. We advise that there is no upper word limits for blog posts (within reason), and are more than happy to share shorter pieces, provided they contain images!
2. Photos, Photos, Photos: The Cultural Calendar is happy to share your image content on both our blog and through our social media channels. More photos of events tends to make for more interesting posts, so we advise that you include images whenever possible. Please note that photos aren’t a requirement of posts, and we are more than happy to publish posts without photos or images. Two excellent examples of student submissions without photos are Priyal Desai’s piece on Diwali in India, and Josh Heathcote’s review and collaborative piece with the ACS Centre.
3. Images: If you fancy your hand when it comes to image editing and graphic design, we welcome images as much as we welcome photos. Just remember that the file size of any photos or images we share on the main blog cannot exceed 1MB.
4. Bold leading sentences or headings which trail each paragraph or section of your post. A great example of what we mean can be seen in the headings of our post on the Chongyang Festival.

Content Advice:

Want some advice on content? Check out the below points to see what we’re looking for:

1. Centre your post around a cultural event or month of celebration. For instance, you may choose to write about anything from Chinese New Year, Christmas, Hanukkah, American Thanksgiving, or UK Disability History Month.
2. Content can be as broad ranging as you like. Examples include: factual histories of the event, previous examples of personal celebration, details on the event’s significance to a particular region or area, an event attended or organised for a month long celebration or commemoration, and much much more.
3. Get Personal! There’s nothing that people like to hear more than a story about personal experience. Don’t be afraid to add personal anecdote to pieces, even if they’re about history. This isn’t an assignment, this is a chance to let your personal voice shine! Don’t forget there are other ways of getting personal too. For instance, you might know something about an event that others don’t. Get that information in there, and tell people the story about how you found it out.

Closing Advice:

With each post, please also send us two or three sentences about yourself, your aims, interests and/or experiences. We always love to share more about our contributers with the wider student community. However, if you’d rather not do this, that’s fine too!

If you’re interested in sharing your blog posts with us don’t hesitate to send them to n.f.gallen@bham.ac.uk. Remember, don’t panic! All posts are edited and proofread before being uploaded, and changes are confirmed with their writers. So please don’t worry too much about your spelling, structure or formatting!

We look forward to sharing your posts on our blog!

Cultural Calendar Project Team.