Conventions for SOTL@SHU Blogs
The SoTL blogs at Hallam will be published on this page: https://blog.shu.ac.uk/sotl/
All blogs will use the SoTL@SHU logo:
Purpose – to showcase the T&L practices, insights and reflections from across Sheffield Hallam with internal and external audiences.
Categories:
- Update – updates on work you are doing
- Event report – reporting back from a workshop, conference, session, other event
- Announcement – where you want to tell stakeholders something
- Output – either a scholarly output or a project output. You may want to distinguish in the title
- Resource – a guide, case study, video, etc. that you have created. Can include drafts which you want people to know about.
- Discussion piece – more of an opinion type piece, not necessarily about a solid piece of work or project
- Meet the Staff – an overview of yourself and the interesting work you do!
Titles – establish a hook and be creative. Ensure they are of sufficient length/description that someone will understand what they should expect. Should also be unambiguous and free of abbreviations which some readers will not know. Category info like ‘Project update:’ and ‘Conference report’ are fine at the beginning of a title where they help people understand what they will be getting.
Photos/images – blogs look better with a smattering of images. Add an ALT tag description of the image and verify as copyright free. Provide an EEDI lens on representation within the images.
Tags – provide 2-3 keywords for your blog that we can use as searchable tags, this will make your work more visible
Abstract – provide one sentence that describes the content of your blog
Length – variable length is fine but ideally posts should not exceed 600 words.
Structure – section sub-headings are good to break up the text into readable chunks.
Links – Links to other guides, blogs, resources, etc. are encouraged. Remember this is an external webpage, so link appropriately and remember not all links will be accessible.
Style Guide – Consider the following prompts:
- 1st person preferable to 3rd person – should give it a personal feel
- Credibility: what’s the author bringing?
- Clear line of argument, and clear conclusions
- Set out the immediate relevant context
- Accessible/readable for a range of audiences (inc. non-experts)
- Conversational tone
- Concise/succinct (no extra baggage)
- Stick to the purpose
- Offer alternative suggestions (don’t just criticise)
- Judge the humour, don’t force it; playfulness
- Authenticity
- Some evidence, but not ‘academic’ referencing
- Decide on the tone – analysis? Comment?
About you – it would be useful to provide a photo with contact details and social media links in case folks want to connect with you.
What next? – A post published on our blog is a publication. You should therefore add this publication to your publication list/CV, enter the publication on Elements, and promote the post as much as possible among colleagues and students (adding a link to your signature is a good idea). You can reference your output like this:
Beckingham, S. (2025) SoTL Staircase. SHU@SoTL Blog. https://blog.shu.ac.uk/sotl/sotl-staircase/
SOTL Leadership Team, April 2025