A guide to laying out and formatting your article to fit with the general look of libcom.org.
For a more detailed guide on how to write articles, please see our News report writing guide.
For tips on categorising your article - adding region, sector and tag information, see our article tagging guide.
Title
Enter article title capitalising only the first word and any proper nouns in the title. e.g.
Janitors in Houston reach deal to end strike
Try to keep article titles as short as possible, while still explaining what the article is about.
For news articles please include the country or city (if major) of the news story . e.g.
Bangladesh: Police open fire on striking workers
For library articles, include the date of that article, or the dates covered, and the author in the title in the following format:
GI opposition the Vietnam War, 1965-1973 - Howard Zinn
Image
Please add an image to any article you post up. Try to include the most relevant picture possible. Google image search is a great way to find photographs, but please do not post up images copyrighted by big companies like the BBC or Associated press.
If you cannot find a photograph of the exact story you are covering, please use one related to the person, company, or city that is mentioned, for example. Ideally the photograph will be a good image, with the bulk of the detail in the centre of the image, so that it will be visible in our site's thumbnails.
Introduction
Always include a short abstract explaining exactly Who, What, and Where your article is about. Ideally it should be about 130 characters, or 1-2 lines of text on the screen.
Article
Please add any extra summarising information in the first paragraph of the main part of your article.
Use short paragraphs.
In your article, if you include subheadings, please use bold text for subheadings, with italics for secondary subheadings. Please do not leave a gap between body text and subheadings. e.g.
The strike begins
Workers downed tools at 4.30pm on April 5...
or
Timeline
21 December
New employment bill becomes law.27 December
First street protests held
...
Please credit sources at the end of your article with any relevant information such as author, edits or translations, in italics. e.g.
By Wildcat Germany, taken and slightly edited by libcom from www.prol-position.net
Thank you for reading, and for making libcom.org an easier and more attractive site to use!
