Write and be heard! - we bring you a Thompson Reuters blogging opportunity.

GYAC,

It is really a privilege and an ecstatic moment for us to bring you this golden opportunity to amplify your voice and make your opinions heard far and wide! Make no mistake though, this is all thanks to you and the hard work you do. It has shown and been seen, so that you can now send us blog entries for them to be submitted to a Thompson Reuters blog! Our friends at the TrustLaw-Good Governance blogging platform called Anti-Corruption Views, a Reuters platform, have reached out to us to offer you the chance to write for them. Not just that, but if you send blogs that are posted regularly, you’ll also be featured as one of their very own regulars.

This blog is one of the most popular parts of TrustLaw and it is receiving increasing amounts of traffic, which not only means you’ll be sharing your views with many, but also that you’ll be sharing your views with many more to come. Anti-Corruption Views currently has corruption related posts from an eclectic mix of lawyers, NGOs, journalists and academics, but it is up to you, GYAC, to bring a new perspective to the mix. You are activists, IT experts, musicians, journalists, but above all, you are the youth! Young citizens from around the world who are determined to be heard and to make their communities better, for themselves, their generation, and the generations to come.

This is not to say that sending us a blog will ensure you a spot on TrustLaw-Good Governance. Quality is much more important than quantity and even their best bloggers only blog a couple of times a month, to make sure that their post are not only well written but also well researched. Thomson Reuters and increasingly, the Reuters Foundation under whose umbrella is TrustLaw, has a high profile and will strive to keep it like that. This is why their editors will retain the final say, though they, like the GYAC CU, will be more than happy to provide you the support you need along the way.

Make sure you check out the blog to get a good idea of what sort of topics are of interest and go through the bullets below to get an idea of the submission criteria.
- Length of post should be about 500 to 800 words
- It should be a readable style to appeal to non-academic audiences
- Avoid jargon. Use the everyday language you use to talk to family and friends.
- Avoid abbreviations: NGO, EITI, MNC, etc. Most people won’t understand them so don’t use them without explaining what they mean at first reference. Keep in mind a lot of abbreviations in an article are alienating even when the reader does know what they stand for.
- Avoid long job titles and organization names in the lead. For example, you could say, “the U.N. refugee agency” rather than, “the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).”
- Don’t assume your readers have prior knowledge. Weave in essential background but keep it simple. For example, if you mention the BP oil spill on the Gulf Coast, you should summarize what happened. Your piece should be able to stand by itself. Imagine you’re talking to a friend who has been on holiday on a desert island for the last month.

So here it is! Send us your questions, requests, but most importantly your posts at info@voices-against-corruption.org. We look forward to seeing what you send our way!

Best,

GYAC CU