Informative Articles

[Prof. Sky Alton]

Informative articles are your chance to tell the reader all about something fascinating. That could be a sport, a historical event, a fashion, a famous person or anything else you find interesting.

How to Write Them
Informative articles should be mostly written in the third person (avoid using ‘I’ or ‘my’) and shouldn’t be about what you personally think of something (that’s what the opinions/reviews section is for). However, if you’re using your own experience to back up a point you’re making or describing an event that you were present at, then it’s fine to use first person.
Try to keep to a structure and use a new paragraph for each point or theme you cover. Including an introduction and a conclusion will also make it easier for your reader to follow.

Topics
Any topic that you can provide a factual explanation of is fair game here, from science to entertainment. Obviously we’ll need you to keep anything you cover HOL appropriate though.
If you have trouble coming up with ideas, the Idea Bank has suggestions which you may use, but your are of course always more than welcome to create your own. Whether you use something from the Idea Bank or your own idea, you must always present your idea in the appropriate thread and have it approved. When you do, make sure to note whether someone else has claimed something similar.

Accuracy
Please do your research. It doesn’t need to be really in-depth stuff (this isn’t a textbook!) but we are relying on you to do some basic checks to make sure what you’re writing about is true. Remember that you can’t trust everything posted on the Internet.
You must cite your sources. Any factual articles without sources included won't be published. Sources can include webpages, books, documentaries, etc. Where you're relying on your own expert knowledge, please also find a source that confirms the points you've made .

Requirements
You can earn 10 points for articles of 150 words or more, 15 for articles of 200 words or more and 20 for articles of 300 words or more. The absolute maximum we can publish is 2500 words but we would appreciate it if you could keep your article far below that as it makes it easier for us to edit and for people to enjoy. We may suggest dividing longer articles up into a series for ease of reading.