Pexels, “Hand Write Pen Notebook Journal Planner Writing”, Pixabay, Nov. 29, 2016, https://pixabay.com/photos/hand-write-pen-notebook-journal-1868015/
Wading the waters of media rules and regulations can get tricky, and can be scary if you’re new to college. Don’t worry, with a couple of Google searches you can easily learn what to do and what not to do. But for those who don’t feel like researching (trust me, I’ve been there) I’ve created a basic guide.
If you’re a college student, here’s what you should know before posting online:
succo, “Sign Prohibitory A Notice Ban Information Sign”, Pixabay, March 28, 2016, https://pixabay.com/vectors/sign-prohibitory-a-notice-ban-1286293/
Rule #1: Don’t Say Inappropriate Things
If you wouldn’t say it in front of your mom, then don’t say it on the internet. Avoid curse words. Maybe, and just maybe, you can get away with one, but it’s not a risk you should take. Don’t talk about sexual topics 99.9% of the time. That 0.1% is if you’re writing a serious scientific article about how seahorses reproduce. This rule is kind of common knowledge, so it shouldn’t be too hard to understand.
Rule #2: Avoid Plagiarism
If you’ve gone to school at some point in your lifetime, I’m sure you’ve been drilled about not plagiarizing in an essay. Same principle applies here. Give credit where credit is due. Never claim something as your own if you didn’t make it. If you’re unsure whether or not you’ve committed plagiarism, you can use a site such as Plagiarism Detector to see if you’re breaking this rule or not. There’s a lot of websites like this, so if this one isn’t to your liking you can type “free plagiarism detector” in your favorite search engine and get millions results instantly.
geralt, “Traffic Signs Attention Sign Hand Stop Stop Sign”, Pixabay, Sept. 28, 2014, https://pixabay.com/illustrations/traffic-signs-attention-sign-hand-464654/
PhotoMIX-Company, “Social Media Facebook Twitter Instagram Icons”, Pixabay, Nov. 3, 2016, https://pixabay.com/photos/social-media-facebook-twitter-1795578/
Rule #3: Write For A Platform
This one sounds a bit strange, but let me explain. Before you start to write, determine what platform it’s going to go on. Is this going to go on the school’s website? Are you going to post to Facebook? Are you writing for Twitter? Or is it going to be submitted to your teacher, and she’s going to be the only person to read it? Figuring out where you post it is going to determine how you write your article. If it’s going to the school’s website, your writing should be clear, concise, and professional. It can be lengthy depending on where the content is going to be published on the website. If you’re writing for Facebook, you can use more casual language, but still keep things semi-professional. Be wary of the length, because long Facebook posts are considered an annoyance. If you’re writing for Twitter, you have to be highly considerate of the character limit. Make sure what you write is extremely to the point.
Rule #4: Do Your Research
When you’re writing anything informational, make sure you do your research beforehand. While doing your research, research your research to make sure the information is accurate and that your source is trustworthy. Typically this means going to the website, reading their about page (if you find one). If everything seems fine, then you should find the person who wrote the article you’re sourcing from and look them up. As long as you don’t find any negative results about the author or the website, you should be fine. If you’re still unsure, just search the information in the article and see if other trustworthy sources say something similar. Then you should be fine.
422737, “Google Www Search Online Seek Website Web Address”, Pixabay, Oct. 12, 2014, https://pixabay.com/photos/google-www-search-online-seek-485611/
White77, “Children Studying Togetherness Boys Reading Books”, Pixabay, March 12, 2014, https://pixabay.com/photos/children-studying-togetherness-boys-286239/
Rule #5: Proof Read
Before posting, make sure you proof read your writing. And after proof reading, do it again. Then get a friend to read it. Find your dog to read it. Recruit your whole family, including second-cousins and the one aunt you don’t like to read it. When you think you’re done proof reading, you aren’t. Do it all over again. It’s good to read over your writing multiple times for grammar mistakes, spelling errors, and sentence structure. On your 5th proof reading session you may realize you could phrase something better, or even change the structure of your writing to further optimization. It’s best to get another pair of eyes to check your writing in case there was a mistake you didn’t catch. Grammarly is a good, free website to use to make sure everything is grammatically correct, and that the tone of your writing is what you want it to be. There are other website that serve this purpose, but it’s up to you to use them.
Cera Lawrence
Student Writer - Spring 2022
