Contribute to the ID Blog
The ID Blog hosts public discussion of issues, research, experiences and free-form thinking about international development issues by staff, students, alumni and friends of the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. We welcome all students, academics, thinkers, writers and observers of International Development to contribute to the blog.
Write for us
If you would like to write an article for us, please follow the blog’s guidelines below and send the written piece with any other media to d.patel20@lse.ac.uk.
Please note that we take plagiarism very seriously. All submitted articles should be your own work, and not copied from any other person’s work (published or unpublished). We advise all contributors to read and ensure that they understand the LSE’s regulations on plagiarism. Any article suspected of plagiarism will be investigated.
Subject
Anything about International Development – and it is a broad subject. At the Department of International Development we are dedicated to understanding problems of poverty and late development within local communities, as well as national and international political and economic systems. We encourage an interdisciplinary approach to postgraduate teaching and research, and this is reflected in the diversity of the blog topics. We also encourage students to write about books they have read, events they have attended and current affairs they have been observing, or simply your experience of being a student at the LSE. It’s a good idea to read a few articles on the ID Blog to get a sense of what we publish.
Tone
Blogs sound better when they are written in a conversational style. Remember the blog’s audience extends outside of the academic world so try to avoid using overly academic words. Imagine you are ‘talking’ to a good friend who is not from an international development background, who has a few minutes to give of their precious time to listen to your thoughts on a topic.
Structure
The blog post should be between 600-1000 words and should cover one, or at most two, central points. Paragraphs should be made up of no more than six sentences. Sentences shouldn’t be too long – try to cut out any unnecessary words and sentences as this loses the reader’s attention.
Use hyper-links instead of citations or references. The reader should be able to follow the links to find out more about your information source. If you are unsure how to create hyperlinks, simply place the URL in parentheses where you would like it placed and we will do the rest. Please make your articles as timeless as possible. Please remove all mentions of today, tomorrow, next week, last month or this year and replace them with dates.
Please use sub-heading to break up longer articles. This helps readers navigate the post and also helps the accessibility of the post for readers who might need to use their keyboards to scroll down a webpage.
Title
Think about a descriptive title that will hook the reader and make them want to read more. Use keywords and avoid using lengthy titles with a colon as these can be off-putting to a non-academic audience.
What to send
Please submit your article as a Microsoft Word document (not a PDF) and include:
- Title for your piece: a single sentence that sums up the main argument of the article
- A short two- to three-line summary of your post to introduce the topic’s main point to the reader
- Your written article, or a para or two on the main idea
- A 50-word short bio about yourself
- Any images/graphics/videos you would like uploaded alongside your blog. Remember, if these are not your own, then please also send us a link to the media
If you have any questions, please contact Dipa Patel at d.patel20@lse.ac.uk.
Create a podcast for us
As well as publishing articles, the ID blog publishes podcasts by staff, students and alumni from the Department exploring a diverse range of topics related to International Development. If you are interested in creating a podcast for the ID blog, please read our guidelines here.