South Asian Perspective on COVID19 Student Blog

The Stanford Center for South Asia (CSA) wants to hear from its undergraduate students how their academic and non-academic lives have been affected by the Covid19 crisis. If you are a student of or from South Asia, or otherwise connected to the region, we would like to hear from you! We will post a select number of blogs on our website and social media.

 

Submission Guidelines

  • Submissions should be in English, between 500 and 1000 words, and accompanied by a headline or short description, and a brief author biography (with relevant links to social media profiles, etc.).
  • If you have a relevant photo to pair with your article, please include it with a caption in your submission.
  • Submissions should be professional, conversational, and should hyperlink to cited information whenever possible, but should not include unexplained acronyms or jargon. Additional style tips are included below.
  • To submit your blog, email CSA Associate Director Lalita du Perron at lalita [at] stanford.edu (lalita[at]stanford[dot]edu)

 

Writing tips

 

  • Use a professional and conversational style. Avoid clichés, jargon, academic language, and acronyms. When referencing sophisticated concepts, be sure to clearly explain them. The Hemingway editor tool can help with this.
  • Is your introduction intriguing, engaging, and different?
  • Always use examples to support your points or help tell your story, perhaps based on personal experience. Don’t generalize.
  • Try to find recent research or media coverage about your topic, and link to it in your blog.
  • Check your facts. There’s no point in guessing or speculating. You need to have an up-to-date statistic or reference, and a link, to show where you found it.
  • Do not make unsubstantiated libelous claims against people. You can’t change a quote to make it say what you want it to say. If someone has said something they may later deny having said, it’s good if you have it on tape, or written down word for word. 
  • Avoid standing on a soapbox. Quoting a variety of people will help to bring other voices into your piece.
  • Read your story aloud when you’re finished. Is that how you talk?

If you have questions about spelling, grammar or punctuation, please follow AP style.