Guidelines for Smartacity Submission
Whenever writing an article or a post for Smartaciy, please adhere to the following guidelines. They are in force so that the publication can remain coherent and consistent in style.
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1 Formatting guidelines
1.1 Formatting title
When formatting the title of your piece, please use the title case. The title case is defined as a way of formatting a sentence so that every significant word begins with a capital letter.
Example:
1.2 Formatting subtitle
Whenever writing an article for Smartacity, add a sentence or a short paragraph that would be placed directly under the title. Use subsection style to turn it into a subtitle. To do that choose the small T that pops up when you select the sentence.
Then, that sentence or short paragraph would be the one displayed as the description of the article on the front page, the home page, the search results etc. Hence it is recommended to write and choose something that would hook the reader.
1.3 Formatting sections
When formatting sections use the appropriate build-in style.
- Use the section style for division into major parts of the text.
- Use the subsection style for the division of major parts into minor parts.
- Use a line in bold to divide minor parts even further.
Please note that the numbering of sections is optional. In this article, it was done to make it sound posh.
⚠️ Do not use section styles for emphasis!
1.4 Formatting emphasis
1.4.1 Bold method
When formatting emphasis, use bold formatting:
Well, I don’t know. Maybe it’s some kind of bias. But I look at a daily personal review in terms of sharpening the saw.
1.4.2 Bold + italics method
To make an even more standing out emphasis, you can use bold and italics together:
Well, I don’t know. Maybe it’s some kind of bias. But I look at a daily personal review in terms of sharpening the saw.
1.4.3 Block quote method
To make a distinctive emphasis we recommend using citation blocks. This practise is somewhat controversial but we at Smartacity believe, that if used reasonably, can provide great effects.
To use a normal quotation, select some piece of text and press the quotation symbol on the pop-up. This small quotation block is good for longer pieces of text.
Well, I don’t know. Maybe it’s some kind of bias. But I look at a daily personal review in terms of sharpening the saw.
Please note that in the quotation block you can still use other types of text stylisation:
Well, I don’t know. Maybe it’s some kind of bias. But I look at a daily personal review in terms of sharpening the saw.
1.4.4 Pull-out quote method
For short pieces of text or when a bigger font is required use the second mean of quoting which is available after pressing the quotation mark the second time.
Well, I don’t know. Maybe it’s some kind of bias. But I look at a daily personal review in terms of sharpening the saw.
1.5 Formatting quotes
For formatting quotes, you can use:
- standard text, if you aim to put the quote within your paragraph,
- block quotes, for longer pieces of text,
- pull-out quotes, for shorter pieces of text, that you want to stand out.
When quoting, putting apostrophes is necessary when quoting within the body of text. If using one of the separate quoting styles, it becomes optional.
Remember to put a source or accreditation in the quote, favourably in the next line, in the same quote block / pull-out.
Examples:
1
While reading I have encountered a very interesting phenomenon of unintentional copying of sentences that have already been stated or written. “Everything, technically speaking, is a quotation”, as Eric Kulbiej puts it.
2
Everything, technically speaking, is a quotation.
— Eric Kulbiej
3
Everything, technically speaking, is a quotation. Whatever you say, on any topic, anytime, can be accredited to somebody. There is very little chance, if any, that some utterance is completely novel and has not been spoken before.
— Eric Kulbiej
1.6 Formatting links
Whenever putting a link in the text, it has to be done in an implicit manner. Correct implicit linking is to be followed as per example:
If you want to read books so that you remember some lessons from them, you really need to follow this advice.
Another optional method is embedding links into the body of your article. This is recommended only when regarding articles on Medium, as you just need to put the medium link and press enter.
Other 3rd party embeds are to be evaded.
2 Topic guidelines
[Updated Apr-2022]
We are looking for pieces that offer smart, practical advice on how to improve yourself. The articles need personal experience behind them and should be engaging enough so as not to feel like just another article about the same topic you can find anywhere else.
Some generic templates for titles and contents are as follows:
- Here are some tips for how I coach others to reach their goals, what works and what doesn’t.
- I want to share my story with you because it’s not just about reaching a specific goal. It is also an example of what worked and what (perhaps surprisingly) didn’t work when we tried something new.
- I was doing something completely wrong, and the research shows that this (perhaps surprising) way is the correct one.
Remember to use click-bait titles reasonably if not scarcely4.
The topics we want to hear from you about are as follows:
- improving the quality of life,
- motivation,
- productivity,
- relationships,
- entrepreneurship,
- time-management,
- life lessons,
- mental health,
- self-development,
- writing.
3 Length guidelines
We only accept stories above 500 words.
That being said, the optimal length would be between 1000 and 1500 words.
Try not to write articles that are longer than 3000 words. If that would happen, you are most welcome to divide them into parts. Rember to note the part number in the title:
I and Living a Happy Life and Here’s How — Part One
4 Correctness and formality guidelines
This piece is somewhat formal, but yours doesn’t have to be. Frankly saying, it can be of whatever level of formality. Just note that putting too much slang and informal vocabulary can decrease readability. The same can happen with too much formal vocab.
As far as correctness is concerned, please do put effort into spell-checking and employing correct grammar. If English is not your native tongue, I recommend you use Grammarly, like myself. The free version works wonders.
5 Submission guidelines
Whenever you write an article you have to add it to Smartacity first. To do that press the three dots … next to publish.
Then you submit it. As simple as that. You can even add already existing articles to Smartacity, just remember that their date of publication will remain unchanged. So that way you are technically moving them to publication rather than publishing again.
