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THE BBC WILDLIFE CONTRIBUTORS’ SURVIVAL KIT
(Or, how to make sure we're still on speaking terms by the time your article is published)
Please read this even if you’ve written for us before. It might look daunting, but it’s important and will save time in the long run.
Our goal is to ensure that your published article is as interesting, informative, authoritative, exclusive and readable as possible.
The ideal is to ensure that your original is all these things before you send it to us, so that we can keep our editing to an absolute minimum.
Please let us have your contributions via email (as an attachment and copied into the main body of the message); please also post us a
hard copy. If you don't have email, the text should be supplied on CD, posted with a hard copy.
Alternatively, send us your text typed, double-spaced, on one side of A4 paper. Please leave wide margins at the sides and a space of about
six centimetres at the top. Could you also make sure that each page is numbered and has ‘more’ at the bottom, and that you write ‘END’ at the end (so that we know we have the last page). If you have access to a photocopying machine, we would be most grateful if you could send us a duplicate copy of your manuscript. If you are using a word processor and feeding in a continuous roll of paper, please separate your pages before sending them to us.
And, if faxing your story, please still double-space the lines and keep the margins, and always post a hard copy as well.
PRACTICAL POINTS
Let us know if you have submitted or intend to submit another article on the same subject to any other publication.
If you must use a technical term that readers are likely to be unfamiliar with, include an explanation of it in everyday language.
Please double-check any facts and figures. If there are any you are unsure about, let us know. Don’t fudge the issue.
We generally avoid dual authorship. If you feel it is essential to mention another author, consult us about this before you start writing.
Bear in mind that, in most cases, writing in the first person singular is the easiest way to tell a story.
BBC Wildlife Magazine is not a refereed scientific journal, and we don’t publish lists of references or credits.
We will acknowledge your article as soon as it arrives. Please get in touch if you don’t receive an acknowledgement, and always keep a copy of your final article.
We work two months ahead of publication, but often require articles to be in well before this, to fit them in our editing schedule and so we can draw up a picture list. If you can’t make your deadline, let us know as early as possible. Your article will have been allocated to an issue, but we may have to move it, sometimes even just before we are going to press.
It is the sub-editor’s job to write all the ‘extras’ — headline, introduction and captions (where possible, these will be checked with you).
Where significant changes have had to be made to improve the article, it is very likely that some errors will have been introduced. This is why we always check the edited article with you (generally by fax). In many cases, the article may also be checked with a relevant expert (if you yourself are not that person).
Please let us know where you can be contacted if you are going to be away from your usual telephone number for more than a few days between the date of commission and publication.
Let us know of any good sources of photographs.
WRITING TIPS
Take the commission seriously — don’t send us a rehash of a book chapter, tv script, scientific paper, etc.
Don’t send us your first draft. Even the most skilled writer needs to craft a story, which may necessitate four or more drafts.
It helps to leave the story for a day or so, and re-read it with a fresh eye. And it’s always useful to get someone who is not in your field to read it,
to check for fluency and clarity, and to pick up any jargon.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
Information. There is seldom a problem with including too much information — the secret is to think of a way of
weaving it into a story that people will read. We want as much fresh information as possible to make the article of
interest to those who are familiar with the subject as well as those who are coming to it for the first time. A popular
article isn’t the same thing as an uninformed article — it’s merely one that people enjoy reading, as well as one that they’re going to learn a lot from.
A storyline. This is essential to avoid a jumble of unlinked bits of information, and to give the reader an incentive
to read on. A magazine article is very different from a scientific paper, book chapter, tv or radio script or local newspaper article. It should be a polished piece of writing that will prove irresistible to casual readers — once they start they should be hooked. We don’t want any readers simply photocopying the article and putting it in a file for future reference.
A story has a progression, usually from the beginning through the middle to the end. People like stories, and remember them. In fact, a story is the best vehicle for whatever information it is you want to impart. The story is the thread of the piece, which will tie together all your facts. A storyline is not necessarily easy to come by, but it’s worth giving a lot of thought to it before you start writing. If you’re having problems, ring your editor, because it’s often easier to think up a storyline while talking it through with someone else. Most authors find that the best story is a personal one. Think of yourself telling the same story to a friend.
On the other hand, a story is only a means to an end, and what you must not lose sight of is the aim of your article. In fact, you should think quite carefully about what you are trying to
achieve. If your real aim is different from your purported one, there may be a problem. We don’t want hidden agendas: the article shouldn’t be a vehicle foimpressing a few obscure scientists, for one-upmanship or for giving publicity to the sponsor of your free trip or your research.
COMMON PITFALLS
The article peters out just when it’s getting interesting.
If you are worried about the length, and feel you need another 1,000 words, ring the editor.
You’ve left it to the very last minute, and send us your first draft, or a dictated manuscript (yes, one contributor did admit to dictating the article while driving down the motorway!). Don’t.
You’ve sent us a half-finished manuscript, not having made a serious attempt to polish it, on the assumption that we can do it better. We may not have time to do it better, in which case it won’t get used.
You start off with a flowery and personal first paragraph and then switch to a dry scientific style for the rest of the article.
Almost certainly, the most important thing you have to offer is your personal enthusiasm and your own personal experience.
We want both of these to be apparent throughout the piece.
WHY IT’S WORTH BOTHERING
BBC Wildlife Magazine is one of the leading magazines in the field, and is read worldwide. What you say may be taken seriously by half a
million people in 87 different countries. How’s that for starters? We have a reputation, as we are sure you have, and neither of us wants to let the other down.
The readership spans a wide range of levels of understanding and knowledge, and includes professionals and amateurs of all ages and all disciplines.
You can’t, therefore, afford to be patronising, shallow, simplistic, jargon-ridden, unnecessarily verbose, abrupt or rushed.
You can also guarantee that at least one reader somewhere will spot your factual mistakes (as well as ours).
OUR PART OF THE DEAL
Our goal is to make sure that your published article is as interesting, readable, and well presented as possible.
We really don’t want to change your article unnecessarily, but we almost invariably will have to make alterations. We don’t make changes for personal glorification, and we’re not frustrated writers. Every writer has to be edited. We will be doing it for grammar and punctuation reasons; for reasons of house style and consistency (where there are alternative ways of saying something, we will have standardised on one, eg, we use ‘while’ rather than ‘whilst’, puma rather than cougar or mountain lion); to help the flow; to make points understandable; to make the progression logical; to include information that is essential (we may ask you to add this); to make sure nothing obvious is left out of an argument, list of facts or biological description.
We’re not perfect. We will be sending you the edited text to check as well as to approve. It will almost inevitably
include a few mistakes if we have had to guess at what you meant. If we introduce a mistake, don’t hit the ceiling — that’s why we are showing it to you.
If you have not had time to perfect your piece, there may be a good reason. We are quite understanding. But we are always very busy, and have very little spare time left to devote to rewriting your manuscript. If this does become necessary, we may have to delay the article until we have time for it, or we might even reduce your fee. The maximum amount of time we can afford to spend editing an article is two days — and you can be sure that if you’ve rushed through writing yours in half a day we won’t have enough time to improve it.
If all this sounds harsh, bear in mind that we don’t expect you to be the world’s most polished author, but we do expect you to make a serious attempt. Writing isn’t easy, and it’s not something everyone can do, but we’ve almost certainly decided to commission you to write an article because you have a good story to tell, and so you are already over the first major hurdle.
Finally...
It would also help if you could follow some of the main points of our house style, as outlined below.
Numbers up to and including nine are written out; all others are expressed in figures.
We use figures for percentages, but spell out ‘per cent’: eg, 6 per cent.
You can use either imperial or metric measurements, as long as you are consistent throughout the article.
Common names of animals and plants always have lower-case initial letters, unless the name is that of a country or a person: eg, Grevy’s zebra, Asian elephant.
Scientific names are underlined, as are titles of books and tv/radio programmes.
We have no objection to using ‘And’ or ‘But’ to start a sentence.
We don’t use full-stops in all-capital abbreviations such as RSPB (ie, not R.S.P.B.), or in connection with devices such as ‘etc’, ‘eg’.
When using the name of an organisation such as the Fauna and Flora International, it should be spelled out when it is first used and followed by the abbreviation (FFI)
in brackets. All subsequent mentions can use the abbreviation on its own.
Ordinal numbers — ‘thirtieth’, ‘eighty-seventh’, etc — are written out, unless doing so would lead to clumsiness.
We use double quotation marks for speech, and our style is to punctuate within the quotation marks.
Our style (when there is a choice) is to use ‘s’ instead of ‘z’.
Quote for the day:
“I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”
Blaise Pascal, Lettres Provinciales 1657
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