The Basics

Good journalism is easy if you follow a few key points. Read our style guide to find out how to write your article.

Is it a good idea?
The first question you should ask yourself before writing something is ‘who cares?’ It doesn’t have to appeal to everyone, but it shouldn’t be too niche.

Tell your readers something new
If you aren’t saying something new in an article, then you’re not doing much. That’s why it’s important to cover the university bubble, where you can break new information.

Keep it short
Nothing should be longer than 500 words, or the reader switches off. You don’t need to say everything, just the important things. It’s more of a skill to write concisely than to ramble on for pages.

Don’t talk about yourself
Stop using the words ‘I’ and ‘me’. No one cares about your experience or what you think. If your insight is that good, you won’t have to use the first person. Read more on this.

Photos
We don’t publish articles without pictures. Use original photos of students – nothing from Google images. Always think about getting faces into photos, people like them. Camera phone quality looks better than top quality.

Phones
The first rule of journalism used to be ‘always carry a pen’. Now it’s ‘always carry your phone’. As long as you have it, you can take pictures or videos, and make calls. You can also get quotes using the voice recorder.

Be creative. If you’re at a netball match, you could grab a quick video interview with the team afterwards. Readers love this sort of thing, and it’s easy. Just take the photo or video, email it to yourself and upload it to The Tab.

Facebook & Twitter
When you publish an article, post it as your status, share it on people’s walls and like it. The same goes for posting on Twitter, which can also be a good source for stories and contacts.

@TheTab