Each author's contribution should reflect their own individual voice within the community. However, the following guidelines may provide a useful point of reference...

Write short paragraphs with short sentences. Sentence variety is good, but too much complexity will prevent a skimming user from grasping your point.  Put your main points in the first paragraph or two. Help users quickly determine if the page has what they need.  Incorporate calls to action into your content.  Write content pages so they are informative, not promotional, in tone. (note the policies if in doubt here).

We seek to reflect a forward-looking, professional identity which is authoritative without being bureaucratic. To achieve this, our writing style and language should:

• Be clear and concise with open punctuation.  Use full sentences rather than note form.
• Be inclusive – we have a duty under the Disability Discrimination Act to equal opportunities and web accessibility
• Use active rather than passive sentences (eg ‘The DfES has commissioned Becta...’ rather than ‘Becta has been commissioned by the DfES...'

Avoid:

• Jargon, unless you are absolutely positive that the audience will understand it
• Using long words when a short one will do
• Outdated or highly formal language eg. ‘whilst’, ‘wherefore’, ‘the undersigned’, ‘notwithstanding’ etc
• Making up acronyms

If in doubt, refer to http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/howto.pdf - it’s really clear and helpful.

We're happy to include Creative Commons licenced material from other sites, including authors' own blogs. However,

• We want original work for at least some of the content.
• Bear in mind the audience – it must be relevant to UK school teachers
• Take note of the attribution and any other requirements of the site from which you are deriving material, please credit original authors and include a link back to the source.

Audience – consider who the audience is – many people may have little technical knowledge, so please use clear, easy to understand language, and explain terms / concepts as appropriate.

Focus should be on maintainted primary / secondary schools – other examples can be used – but needs to be made clear. Our main audience is those involved in primary / secondary education. Keep within landscape / policies of those sectors

Break up long blocks of text (eg more than 2 or 3 paras) with meaningful headings and subheadings that reinforce the main points of the page.  Avoid underlining to avoid confusion with links in the text.  Don’t use coloured text.

WebLinks – please double check URL and use the editor's create/edit link button to hyperlink text.

Structure – ensure the document has a clearly defined structure – consider whether long items may be better spread over more than one page

Text – use shorter sentences and paragraphs than you would for a printed document. It's more difficult to read text on screen.

Tables and bullets – ok to use these, but keep them simple, eg only one level of bullets.  Use bulleted or numbered lists instead of long paragraphs.  Only use tables where it is absolutely necessary for organising the information (ie multicolumn lists). Please use the editors functions again, and be careful with copy/paste from word processed files.

Definitions – if you use terms that a general reader may not be familiar with, please include a brief definition in brackets. This will then be added to the glossary as part of the moderation process and a roll over will allow users to view the definition on the page.

Abbreviations/Acronyms – where appropriate and when first used please write the term in full, followed by the acronym / abbreviation in brackets.

Media inclusions - where possible, include content that is not text based – for example images, screenshots, examples of OSS in action, Cam studio for demos.  Include a brief caption for all media and text for an alt-tag. Note the editor's image and flash tools.