Guidelines

Here are some general guidelines for guest contributors writing posts for the blog.

The Ruined Report is a blog by and for FJVs and friends all about FJV life and the four pillars of JVC: social justice, simple living, community, and spirituality. Accordingly, we are happy to publish blog posts that broadly relate to FJV life or the four pillars. If your post engages a few of those at once, that’s fabulous! If your post only relates to one of those, that’s fine too.

  •  Here are some general ideas for stand-alone posts provided for your brainstorming assistance:
    • Spiritual reflections (take that in whatever direction you like)
    • Processing, unpacking, and reflecting on your JV year
    • Advice to current JVs (“A letter to my JV self”)
    • Sharing about your activism or work at a Jesuit ministry or other nonprofit
    • Sharing and reflecting about community life and/or simple living
    • Sharing about a simple living tactic or practice that you like (simple living how-tos)
    • Consciousness-raising essays about social justice issues that more people should know about
    • Sharing and reflecting about something you’ve recently read, watched, or done that relates to the four pillars
    • Reflections or advice on staying connected to and in touch with JVC, FJVs, and/or the four pillars
  • In addition to stand-alone posts about the four pillars, we also publish several recurring features to which you are welcome to contribute:
    • Spotlight: shout outs to and spotlights of organizations, people, events, and whatnot of interest to the FJV community
    • Interview: interviews with people who have interesting things to say about social justice, simple living, community, and spirituality
    • Food for Thought: for anything to do with food and cooking, such as sharing recipes or tips for grocery shopping
    • Faith, Doctrines, & Dogma: reflections on how our faith is informed, nurtured, and/or troubled by doctrines and theology
    • Apostolates & Ministries: reflections on your work experiences in Jesuit ministries or other similar organizations

Style & Format

  • Length: Ideally, aim for between 500–1,500 words. We will happily accept anything between 300–2,000 words.
    • If your post is below 300 words, your editor may ask you to expand.
    • If your post is significantly longer than 2,000 words, please query before you submit it.
  • Formatting: If your post has simple formatting, you can submit it in the body of your email. Otherwise, please send it as an attachment.
    • ODT files are preferred. (Consider installing LibreOffice if you’re not using it already.)
    • DOC and DOCX files are also okay. You can also submit a plain text file formatted in Markdown.
  • Image: Each blog post on our site is accompanied by a featured image (either a photo or a drawing).
    • If you have (or can easily create) an image to accompany your post, please submit it alongside your post.
    • Landscape images are preferred, but portrait images are also okay.
  • Bio: Please submit your bio along with your guest post and image(s).
  • Excerpt: Along with your post, please submit a short excerpt to be featured on our homepage. This will be a short block of text (1-3 sentences) that can hook a reader and let them know what your post is about. (If you skip this step, your editor will write an excerpt for your post.)
  • Editing: Our in-house editors are empowered to make small alterations to correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. If there are more significant issues, your editor will offer feedback and ask you to revise.
  • Social Media: If you want us to tag you on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook when we shout out your post, please tell us what your social media handles are when you submit the post.

Guest Contributors vs. “Regular” Contributors

The difference between guest contributors and “regular” contributors is that regular contributors are officially added to our WordPress site, whereas guest contributors are not. If you’re a guest contributor, we’ll credit you and we’ll flag your post as a guest post, but WordPress will technically mark our managing editor as the author. If you’re a regular contributor, WordPress will mark you as the author of the post and you’ll have your own page to show off all your posts. Also, if you’re a regular contributor, we’ll ask that you submit posts directly through WordPress (rather than through email).

If you’re just submitting one post, it’s probably easiest to credit you as a guest contributor, but if you submit more posts after that, we’ll want to get you set up as a regular contributor. If you know that you want to write multiple posts for us, we can also immediately set you up as a regular contributor.

Submitting Your Guest Post

To submit your guest post, email it to our managing editor Cam at <admin@theruinedreport.com>. You can either (1) reach out first, let us know you’re interested, and ask any questions you have, or (2) just go right ahead, write your guest post, and then email it in.

Thanks! We look forward to your post 😀