Write for Us ✍

Voice of Code (VoC) is a non-profit platform managed by Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors seeking to foster technical acumen amongst readers via educational blogging. The Medium publication is a collection of enlightening, lucid content seeking to empower the readership with cutting-edge technical knowledge. It aims to be a one-stop destination for all your technical cravings!

Being an all-inclusive community, fresh writers from any background are welcomed to contribute to the noble venture. It is the perfect platform to demonstrate your technical zest and eloquence. VoC gives full credit to the writers and abets them to create personalized writing portfolios they could present professionally.

To ensure uniformity and quality in the articles contributed, VoC Editorial recommends all contributors adhere to the General Guideline of the community, which consists of Medium Essentials, Content Guidelines, and Catchy Content Creation Tips.

It is important to note that the contributions disregarding the guidelines are liable to rejection. Writers willing to have their content published must agree to comply with ALL the guidelines.

Medium Essentials

Source: VoC Design

1. The Medium profile of the writer must be complete with a name, a crisp bio, and a formal profile picture.
2. All writers must follow the Voice of Code Official Publication on Medium.
3. The article must comply with Medium rules, Medium Ad-free policy, Member Content Guidelines, and Distribution Standards. Any deviation from the aforementioned guidelines would result in rejection.
4. If the writer is already enlisted as an official writer of the Medium publication, she/he may simply submit the draft article (not yet published) via Add to publication option and wait for review.

Hit the 3 dots on the top-right corner and select ‘Add to Publication’

Choose Voice of Code publication and hit Select and continue.

5. However, if the writer is NOT a member of the publication, she/he MUST drop a mail to voiceofcode@gmail.com with the following content:

• Subject: Application to Join VoC Medium Publication as an Author
• Body: A short introduction of the writer including skill-sets, past experiences, the total no. of hours he/she could devote per month to VoC, and a succinct answer to why is she/he interested to join the publication.

The application would take typically 5–7 days to be reviewed. If the team finds the applicant a good fit for the role, she/he would be further contacted over email and added to the Publication. VoC has autonomous rights to select and reject applicants.

The article could be submitted only after obtaining the official writer status under the platform.

Disclaimer: Any writer displaying prolonged inactivity from the publication (no new article submission in 4 consecutive months) would be discontinued as a writer for VoC.

Content Guidelines

Source: VoC Design

1. The content submitted must be previously unpublished and plagiarism-free. Plagiarism-checking tools must be used by the writer before submission. Plagiarized articles will NOT be reviewed once identified.
2. A royalty-free image should be added as a header image for enhancing the attractiveness of the article. Unsplash, Pixabay, or Pexels may be used for obtaining images. Alternatively, the author herself/himself can design and create the header image as well, having the dimension of at least 1500px width and 750px height. The photographer/creator of the image must be given due credit in the Resource section of the article.
3. The articles contributed must be lucid yet illuminating. Writers must maintain the quality of the articles by ensuring compelling story-telling born out of immense research.
4. The content must be in English (US) and should be free from grammatical errors, misspellings, and typos. Grammar-checking tools must be used by the writer before submission.
5. Every article must end with a Resource section which must contain all the references cited in the article.
6. Images and graphics enhance the quality of content and improve readability and comprehension. To reduce copyright risks and dependencies, VoC advises writers to create their images/diagrams using tools like Canva or Diagrams. However, VoC also accepts royalty-free images from platforms such as Unsplash, Pixabay, and Pexels, if the photographers/creators are given due credit in the Resource section of the article. In case the writer doesn’t add a Resource section, credits can also be hyperlinked in the Image Captions.
7. Any multi-line code snippets to be included in the article should be attached via GitHub Gists. To render the code, the URL of the respective gist must be pasted into the draft. Alternatively, source code image generator tools such as Carbon can be used to attach beautiful code snippets.

Resource Section

Pexels.com:Oleg Magni

8. Voice of Code is an educational platform and does NOT publish fiction/poetry. All contents MUST be educational and related to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields only.

9. The content must be suitable for readers of all ages. Sexually explicit, violent, demeaning, and offensive content will NOT be reviewed and the writer may get banned from the publication for such submissions.

10. Promotional content/spam will NOT be reviewed.

11. Content must be free from all calls to action (CTA) prompting the readers to indulge in activities benefitting the writers or 3rd parties such as sign-up forms or service purchases.

The aforementioned guidelines MUST be adhered to while drafting articles.

How To Create Catchy Content?

Source: VoC Design

Every writer is unique and has a broad spectrum of unparalleled contributions they could make to enrich the community. Voice of Code seeks to give writers umpteen flexibility to get their creative juices flowing.

Here are a few tips writers could use to make their articles stand out from the crowd:

1. Start with a catchy title and a coherent subtitle. Titles should reflect what the article is about and should NOT be clickbait. A headline-analyzer may be used to get more traffic. Medium has in-built SEO tools for traffic management as well. Hit the three dots on the top-right corner →More Settings → SEO Settings for optimized suggestions.
2. The header image needs to be eye-catchy and attractive.
3. Start with an interesting introduction to the topic and create a context that would provide readers with background information about the article. The writer’s stance on the topic must be made clear in the introduction itself.
4. The article must be well-formatted to enhance readability.
5. The body should contain at least 400 words (approx. 5 mins) to deliver complete information to the readers. Sub-headings should be used to properly demarcate the different sections of the article. Transitions between paragraphs must be smooth.

Subheadings

5. All the paragraphs of the body must contain detailed analyses and testified pieces of evidence. Statistics and numbers help in establishing trust amongst the readers. All sources of the data must be cited in the Resources section.

6. To optimize articles for search engine rankings, Voice of Code recommends writers use an SEO tool to find keywords. However, stuffing keywords haphazardly for the sake of search engine optimization is strongly DISCOURAGED. VoC greatly appreciates quality content and would NEVER compromise on quality for optimization.

7. While concluding, analytical inferences drawn from the body of the article should be stated. The article can be terminated on a high note with a promise of a progressive future.

Voice of Code loves having new contributors and strives for diversity and inclusion in its contribution base. Writers from all around the world, pursuing any career are welcome to contribute to the community. Voice of Code awaits your participation and wishes you the very best!