The AguaClara blog is a way for the team to update interested parties about the efforts of AguaClara in the lab and in the field, as well as provide information about the educational and personal growth benefits of the engineering in context trips. If you are interested in writing or asked to write blog posts for AguaClara, contact the Team Leader to invite you as an author. The posts are mostly informal, but please keep the following main points in mind when writing an AguaClara blog post:
- Not everyone who reads the blog is an engineer. Be sure to make any technical details you may choose to provide understandable to the layperson. If you're not sure if your post will be understandable to others, have a friend studying something other than engineering read it over and give you feedback. If they're confused, change it to terms they'll understand!
- Style and language matter. While this isn't a formal writing exercise, be careful to steer away from very informal language typical in personal blogs. Don't use any slang that isn't well known. Make sure that the style is something that college students and older folks alike will be able to connect with. Also, please proofread and double check for spelling and grammar errors!
- Photos are good to include, and photos should have captions.
- If you're writing about a specific AguaClara team, be sure to have them read over a draft of the post before posting it. They may catch errors or be able to simplify something.
- Topical blog posts are preferable. If you're writing about a specific event (beginning/completing construction of a plant, a trip, a research breakthrough in the lab), updating the blog readership about it as soon as possible is better than waiting.
- When possible, connect the content of your post to the greater water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) sector, international development projects, or similarly focused research. This will make your post more compelling to a wider audience.
- Make sure your titles are brief, interesting, and representative of the content of your post.
Remember, what you write is attributed to AguaClara - be sure to represent us well!