Your Guide To Green

BACKGROUND

"Your Guide To Green" is an in depth webportal designed to inspire our readers into positive social green change. Our comprehensive offerings include "Smart Spaces: Inside & Out" a TV Show, "Freshly Green" an internet podcast radio show, and YourGuideToGreen.com. The web site will pair short educational essays with product offerings to bridge the gap between facts and action for those people that are interested in green lifestyle changes and sustainably-minded processes and products.

Your Guide To Green seeks contributions of educational pieces by talented researchers, writers and those people that are truly interested in green living. Writers will receive a byline, bio, and a link back to your website.

CONTENT

Articles and tips should contain helpful, factual and interesting information pertaining to sustainable living. Additionally they should inspire readers into action.

Article length should be approximately 500 words at a high school reading level.

Tip length should be approximately 20 to 100 words.

Your Guide To Green intends to establish itself as a reliable source of information on green living. Therefore, the content of our educational products must be fact-based, substantive, and well-researched, based on reliable sources, and with sources documented. Articles should be written in an upbeat, positive, (non-preachy, no guilt) voice that are fun & easy-to-read. Articles citing facts that are not backed up with sources will be returned.

FORM

Articles should be narrative nonfiction, and may use any of the following forms:

Informational - Describes an environmental or health problem using carefully researched facts written in easy-to-understand language. The article should also offer solutions.

How-to - Provides step-by-step instructions on actions an individual can take on behalf of the environment and personal health.

Historical - Describes, in chronological progression, the unfolding of an event, the development of a technology, or some other development relevant to sustainable living.

Personal experience - Describes, in first-person (I), an event or epiphany that teaches or inspires readers to live more sustainably.

Inspirational - A true story that uplifts readers on an emotional, spiritual or psychological level, deepening their commitment to sustainable living.

FORMAT

Submit your manuscript as a Microsoft Word, Works or a Text file (Mac or PC) attached to an e-mail. Please do not send it in hard copy or in the body of an e-mail.

Use standard 8.5 X 11 page settings, double-spaced, in any standard 12-point typeface, left-justified with one-inch margins all around.

Do not use special formatting, such as multiple spaces after periods or to create tabs, colored text, large font sizes, borders and boxes, etc.

When citing facts, include your sources in parentheses (most will be deleted or added to a "more info" box after fact-checking by the editor).

At the top of the title page, include your title and full name.

At the end of your piece, include a 1-3 sentence bio.

STYLE

Any standard professional writing style is acceptable: MLA, Chicago or AP, though editing will follow AP style.

For those unfamiliar with professional writing styles, you can rely on your best grammar, punctuation and spelling; and do your best to maintain a consistent point of view, tense, voice and tone.

Please spell out any acronyms the first time you use them in an article.

If you reference or quote a publication in your article, please provide the spell-checked full name of the author, along with the publication title, date and publisher.

If you cite statistics or other verifiable facts in your article, please include the source. If you cite something you've heard, but can't verify, please make that clear (e.g. "I've heard that 1% of Americans control 90% of our nation's wealth" vs. "Of course, 1% of Americans control 90% of our nation's wealth.")

Please verify the spelling of the names of individuals, products, businesses and towns you use in your article, and make sure you have spelled them the same way throughout your article.

I strongly recommend beginning writers purchase a copy of The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. This tiny paperback of 85 pages has been a great source for beginning writers for decades.

EDITING

Submissions will be fact-checked and edited for structure, style, clarity, grammar and spelling. The editor is dedicated to preserving your unique style and voice. The editor's decisions are final.

Submissions that do not follow these guidelines or are full of errors will be rejected.

ARTICLE SUBMISSION CHECKLIST

MY CONTENT

• True and accurate, and references are cited.
• Structured, organized and complete
• Word count is about 500 words
• Is written at the high school level

MY DOCUMENT

• Word or text file attached to an e-mail
• At the top of the title page: title, author
• 12-point type
• No fancy formatting

MY RESEARCH

• Spell-checked names and places
• Any facts and figures are verified and their source is included at the end of the article.
• Facts and figures that can't be verified are attributed to the author rather than "reality" (e.g. "I've heard that..."; "I once read that..."; "It has been said that...")
• Any resources and references mentioned include author name, full title of publication, publication date and publisher (or complete and verified Web address).