The Circulator Blog

The Circulator blog is where people interested in the transportation field find research updates, student projects, news, and more from the campuses of the Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center and beyond.

Guidelines

Posts on the Circulator website are informational, not self-promotional. No jargon or corporate speak. Keep it interesting and conversational.

The audience is a well-informed public who may or may not be experts in the field. They are busy. What are they going to get out of your post?

Requirements

The following are required material for the Circulator blog. 

Word count:

  • 800 (min) – Please don’t limit your blog post based on this number. Most of Ciculator’s blog posts range from 800 – 1200 words.

Format for sharing:

  • Share a Google doc or email a Word doc.

Links:

  • Link to other content whenever relevant. Every link included must add value for readers.

Paragraph length and spacing:

  • Keep paragraphs short. No longer than 4 lines.
  • We adhere to the one space after the period philosophy, not two.

Formatting:

  • Use headers and subheaders to break up your post.
  • Avoid big blocks of text.
  • When writing headlines be specific and indicate a benefit to the reader. 
  • Use bullet or numbered lists.
  • End the post with a question or a call to action for comments. The more specific, the better.

Images:

We love images. We use them to break up text, make the blog post scannable and to support data. 

  • Include one header image. If you don’t have an image, then please provide a direction for the type of image you’d like to use. Otherwise, Transfers editorial team will select. 
  • If you provide an image, make sure you have the rights to use it. 
  • Provide photo credits
  • All post images must be at least 710px wide.  

Author bio:

  • Author bio should be 25 words max or two sentences.
  • Link to your Twitter, LinkedIn and company.

Need ideas? Here are some examples:

Editing

We may edit your post or bounce it back to you for revisions. We may edit anchor text and links that are not relevant to your post. Sometimes scheduling may change but we will let you know ahead of time.

Deadline

We ask that your articles be submitted 10 days prior to your scheduled run date. The Circulator editing staff is primarily run by students. This advance period helps us ensure we have enough time to review your submission given students’ competing priorities. Normally, new Circulator blog posts run on Mondays or Tuesdays. 

Promoting

Please plan to promote your post throughout your social networks. We ask that you share it more than once on multiple networks over multiple days. The timeframe and scheduling is up to you.