AUTHOR GUIDELINES

 

If you have useful ideas or expertise to share, please consider writing a short article for AWN. These articles will be read by your colleagues who are looking for good, practical suggestions on how to do their work better.

 

  • We welcome articles for publication on any topic of practical relevance to aid workers. You may write for a general audience or for specialists within your particular field of expertise.
  • No previous experience in writing articles is needed. We are looking for articles with a practical focus and relevant primarily for people working at the field level, whether for a national NGO, international NGO, UN agency, host nation government, etc.
  • Your article should be short enough that a busy aid worker can read it in 10-15 minutes (about 1000 words/6000 characters).
  • Please be mindful that many people will translate your article into the language in which they are most comfortable. As such, we suggest that you use clear and simple language to make your points, as this will allow for more accurate translations. (The Sphere Handbook is a good example of clear writing in order to enable translation).
  • As with all the material on the AWN site, your article will be reviewed by an editor, who may suggest some changes in order to ensure that your content is as clear as possible to a wide audience. You will have final authority on the version that is published on the site.

How to Submit an Article for Publication:

 

  • Please give your article a short, catchy title that provides an accurate description of what follows (max 40 characters including spaces).
  • You should also include a 1-3 sentence summary that will help people decide whether your article is relevant to their work (max 45 words/270 characters).
  • Your writing style should be direct and action-oriented. Aim to share your experience and inform your colleagues.
  • Your article should not include a lot of background theory – you can include hyperlinks to useful background reading should readers wish to go into greater depth.
  • Please also include a short paragraph about the author (“byline”) of no more than 50 words/300 characters including contact information (email address/Twitter handle).
  • You must be the author, or a representative of the author, of any articles that you submit.
  • Articles and proposals should be sent to info@aidworkersnetwork.org (either in the body of an email or as an attachment) or you can upload an article at this link:
  • At the moment, we request that the articles be submitted in English – we hope to expand to other languages shortly.