How to write a blog for the ANH website
The ANH Academy was established to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, experiences and perspectives among diverse disciplines working on issues related to agriculture, food systems, nutrition and/or health.
As such, we welcome blogs relating to research, practice or policy in these areas. If your piece is suitable, our team will copy edit and post it on the ANH Academy website here. All blogs are shared on social media and circulated in the monthly newsletter among the ever-growing ANH community of over 9000+ researchers, practitioners and policymakers in 145+ countries.
Before writing your blog, check out our handy guide below, designed to help you produce suitable content for the ANH Academy community. Be sure to read our Ethics and Equity Guiding Principles, too. And if in doubt, get in touch with us directly at [email protected] - we're a friendly bunch!
1. Word count
We take a flexible approach to length. Anything from 100 to 1000 words is acceptable. But in our experience, less can sometimes be more. If you’re planning a longer blog, it needs to retain the reader’s attention throughout.
2. Plan the post
Think about what type of blog you will be writing. Here are a few types that tend to attract readers:
- Tutorials, how-tos, or sharing an experience: i.e. did you do something novel in your research that you’d like to share?
- Sharing research findings: Would you like to summarise a recent study in a less formal manner, in order to point people towards a more academic output?
- Reviewing an event that has taken place (forthcoming events can be added to the public ANH calendar)
- Announcing a new project: New projects can also be listed on the ANH site here but if you want us to share this far and wide, write a blog.
- Opinion pieces: Would you like to comment on research related to agriculture, nutrition and/or health?
- Interviews and expert roundups: Do you have an interview, Q&A, or are you gathering the opinion of different experts in a single blog post?
3. Think about the audience
The ANH Academy audience consists primarily of researchers, practitioners and policymakers. Our blogs reach people working in different contexts, disciplines, sectors and geographies. Be mindful of this diversity and use language accordingly. Blogs are not necessarily overly academic, so feel free to be less formal, but keep your audience in mind.
4. Give it a snappy, interesting title
Catch attention with something that stands out, or that concisely summarises what you want to convey.
5. Look for good sources
Add the links for publications, news and other reliable outputs. Giving subjective, political and personal opinions is welcome, but support these with the use of credible sources.
6. Use photos, figures and images to illustrate the blog and your points
But where you use images, please ensure that they are appropriate, you have permission to use them and you are able to provide credit. More on this in our Ethics and Equity Guiding Principles.
7. Break up the text
Consider sticking with a few main points and avoiding overloading the reader with information. It’s better to transmit less information for readers to process. If it’s something based on news, or something that happened, you can try to answer simple questions like “who”, “what”, “when” and “how” in the text. Avoid jargon and acronyms, or explain them to the audience – e.g. pdf may mean “probability density function” but for most people is just a file format.
8. Link it up
Add links to your sources, institutions, names, and websites, for the readers who want deeper levels of information.
9. Include a call to action, if appropriate
This could be inviting the reader to answer a poll, read a paper, share and comment their thoughts, etc.
10. Take advantage of social media
After writing your blog, use social media to link to it and promote engagement with the content. Be sure to tag us @ANH_Academy
Submit your blog
If you have an idea for a blog and would like to run it past us before writing it up, please do get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!
Questions and blogs should be sent to: [email protected]
