The CTI Exchange is a web portal offering convenient access to resources on contraceptive research, development, registration, and introduction. Its blog, Exchanges, provides a community platform for posting news updates, sharing thought pieces, and promoting upcoming events. We ask contributors to consider the following guidelines before drafting their blogs.
View the opportunity to write a blog as a chance to offer up a first-person account of your topic of interest. The blog should clearly channel a conversational voice—not the one used in academic writing.
Blogs allow you to step out of your comfort zone to pose questions, challenge the status quo, or suggest plans of action not typically discussed in your day-to-day work. Try to “hook” your readers with a thought-provoking idea (e.g. What if…?, Why not…?. Imagine if…).
Reader retention is tied to short sentences and short paragraphs. Long paragraphs are a turn-off, no matter what the vehicle. White space gives your reader time to breathe and absorb, and encourages continued reading.
Once you hook your reader, aim to make your convincing argument in no more than 700 words. While longer text may be accepted, the reality is many readers have short attention spans and prefer succinct articles.
Make sure your blog is not overly focused on a particular research effort or product. The Exchanges blog is not meant to be a vehicle to sell a product, promote a company or service, or raise funds. We reserve the right to edit any blog to keep it from being too self-promotional.
Since our readers’ knowledge of contraceptive technology varies widely, avoid overly technical language. We can help you gauge proper level of technical verbiage. And, instead of using footnotes or parenthetical references to cite sources, hyperlink to relevant websites, articles, or scientific publications. We can assist with these hyperlinks, as needed.
If you have an appropriate picture to tell any part of your story, please share along with the proper photo credit. We will consider it for use as the “title” graphic.Develop an engaging, albeit short title for your blog as it will be superimposed over the title graphic on the CTI Exchange blog homepage.
The CTI Exchange team is available to assist in refining topics, wordsmithing copy, and/or creating blog titles. We reserve the right to edit any blog to ensure it meets these guidelines. We also reserve the right to reject blogs that do not support the needs of our audience.
We are excited about your interest in contributing to the CTI Exchange and want to help you gain confidence in your blog-writing ability. If you have additional questions, please email us.
Support for the CTI Exchange is provided through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Contraceptive Technology Innovation Initiative.
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