As editor-in-chief, I have decided  to develop a standard for the work published on the-shire.org. We've had some excellent writing thus far, but in order to make the system as efficient as possible, we ask that you follow the requirements listed below. My goal is to use the content of the the-shire.org to make our non-profit a reliable resource for people interested in learning about sustainability and sustainable communities (the S.H.I.R.E., after all, stands for sustainable habitats incorporating renewable education). What better way to incorporate renewable education than to practice what we preach?

Guidelines:

Metadata—you will find a button for metadata at the bottom of the page when posting an article or blog post. You need to fill this out before publishing—it's integral for generating site traffic.

- Meta description (at least 150 words; more in-depth than post slog: what people see when searching google or other search engines).          

- Post slug (100 words—mini version of the meta description, for front page of website to draw in readers).

- Seven minimum key words (all related to story—these words decide how on the google crawler ranks your article or blog post—very important! This can make the difference between attractting new traffic and having no one read your piece. And they've been reading! So this is very important).

Format:

            Essay style, no matter the length of the work (one sentence, one paragraph, or 50).

I.             Intro

a.     Thesis statement (what you are talking about)

b.     First point

c.     Second point

d.     Third point (etcetera, carry on in this manner if more points—and you can put these points in one sentence with commas and tie them together)

e.     Conclusion (tie in the body of written piece with your own personal take on the situation)

II.            First Point

a.     Explain why this point is relevant to the thesis statement

b.     Flow into second point

III.          Second Point

a.     Explain why this point is relevant to the thesis statement

b.     Flow into third point

IV.           Third Point

a.     Explain why this point is relevant to the thesis statement (follow this pattern for any subsequent points)

b.     Flow into next point or conclusion, whichever comes first

V.            Conclusion

a. Restate thesis statement

b. Tie all points together to illustrate that your thesis statement is true

c. Give your own point of view on the whole thang

d. End

Please provide a list of all sources, including any multi-media, e.g., pictures or video, with links back to the content you used to write your piece. This ensures that: firstly, you aren't plagiarizing, and two, that we give proper credit where credit is due and we don't piss off the internetz. Fact-checking will be taking place, so keep this in mind.

RELEVANCY! RELEVANCY! RELEVANCY!

I cannot stress enough that every last sentence, every last word must be relevant to the thesis you are presenting. This means that your intro needs to latch onto one basic idea and then extrapolate upon that idea, not throw in random bits of information that have absolutely nothing to do with the sentence before it. Example of what NOT TO DO:

            I finally returned from my back and forth, crazy-ass journey across the US. I traversed the western desert heats to the tip of the northeastern winter; wow stuff is weird. A puppy was killed by a motorcycle in Ohio. Thank god I am home.

What the hell am I talking about? Even I have no idea.  Here's an example of what TO DO:

I finally returned from my journey across the continental US to meet with each of the-shire.org's board members in order to reach a consensus about how to move our non-profit forward. From the blazen heat of the southwest, where I met with board member Bob Bobberson, to the chilly Bostonian evenings I spent with board member  John Johnson in the northeast, I debated many an hour about the future directions we imagine The S.H.I.R.E. taking. In the end, after I finally ended my cross-country tour and I took into account all of my discussions with the different board members, I finally decided that the way forward for the-shire.org begins with regularly-added, new and diverse content. And with site traffic increases corresponding to our increases in regularly added content, I know that this method will be effective.

(The next paragraphs should discuss, in order, the meeting with Bob Bobberson, the meeting with John Johnson, and then how the author reached the conclusion that increasing our regular content will result in corresponding increases in site traffic, and then ending with a re-articulation of the first point: that after meeting with all the board members we decided that new content is the way to go.)

The above is a surefire essay format guaranteed to convince your readers that you are right, which means that this is the most effective way to argue a point, at least in terms of articles and blog posts. And yes, I want everything, even down to a single sentence that you are writing in the forum, to have a main idea, a reason that idea is important, and a conclusion detailing that the idea is indeed important and what it means to the-shire.org and/or sustainability as a topic. Basically, this ensures that we do become the resource we want to be and that we maintain a high editorial standard, which means  recognizable professionalism, credibility in the sustainability and environmental fields as an organization, as well as improving our standing in the google and other search lists. This means we may even get outside donors/funding if we can prove our mettle as an actual non-profit. So let's work together!

PRIORITY REQUIREMENT: All writing must be written for our target audience. As we aim to educate others about sustainability and its practices, that means that when we write, we must write for an audience who has no clue about what we are writing. This means explaining or defining field-related jargon (an example of jargon is as follows: "rhizome" is scientific vocabulary, not something your everyday Joe is going to understand, so you should define it. "Salinity," on the other hand, is not a science-only related term and one can expect the majority of literate folks to understand its meaning; if not, it's a word they can easily add to their vocabulary by simply looking it up in any old dictionary). You will notice that even in missives sent to the-shire.org board members, I will still make sure that a non-board member would be able to understand each sentence and how the information relates to The S.H.I.R.E Institute (even here, instead of saying "we," you can see I've been writing either The S.H.I.R.E., The S.H.I.R.E. Institute, or the-shire.org—either way, anyone reading this would understand whom I am addressing and why). This requirement ties in very closely with our relevancy requirement. 

Method of Editing and Constructive Criticism

As an editor, I can, at times, be quite ruthless. Or, at least, that's what it seems like to those less used to frank constructive criticism. Basically, I don't have time to massage egos and, to be quite honest, I don't care about your ego. My job is to ensure that the content on the-shire.org maintains an editorial standard that is on par with related periodicals, such as Ode Magazine.

Even though we are a young organization, it's never too early to instate high standards, and if we begin in this way, it means we can only improve upon those standards. In four years' time, we may be a leading source in the environmental and sustainability fields.  In order to get there, though, means doing some hard work now to establish these journalistic standards. That said, you can expect me to highlight spelling and grammar mistakes as well as holes in your argument without any minced words. Again, let me stress that I do not care about your ego. Your writing, however, is another matter. >>>

For the month of July only, I will give out detailed comments and feedback on any pieces submitted for publication on the-shire.org. We expect every piece that comes in, to be as polished as the author can make it, so that our publishing system of: receive, edit, publish; can work as it is meant to.

Uneditable pieces will be sent back without feedback.