Blogging Policy

The PBLWorks Blog is a forum for sharing and discussing information, tools, and ideas about Project Based Learning (PBL).

Many posts are written by either PBLWorks staff members or PBLWorks National Faculty members. But PBLWorks also welcomes blog posts, suggestions, proposals, and other submissions from external guests, as outlined below.

Reblogging & Reposting Policy

PBLWorks permits its National Faculty bloggers, bloggers, journalists, or writers to reblog, repost, or republish blog posts found on pblworks.org after 24 hours from the original publish date as guest blogs on their blog or website with attribution to: (i) the original article; (ii) the author; and (iii) PBLWorks.

Specifically, we ask that you abide by the following guidelines:

  • Write the following attribution line before the copied blog post:
  • (“Article Title” with hyperlink to the original post) by (Author Name) was originally published on (PBLWorks hyperlinked pblworks.org).
  • Publish 24 hours following the original publish date and time on pblworks.org.
  • Do not alter, edit, change, or revise any written or visual content on the original blog post when reblogging, reposting or republishing.

Translations

PBLWorks permits bloggers to translate its works into additional languages so long as it follows the reblogging policy guidelines above. PBLWorks is not responsible for any mistranslations of the works.

Disclaimer

PBLWorks is not responsible for additional content found on blogs or websites that reblog, repost or republish works by PBLWorks. PBLWorks does not endorse blogs, websites, bloggers, journalists, or writers who reblog, repost, or republish works by PBLWorks. PBLWorks does not compensate bloggers, journalists, or writers who reblog, repost, or republish works by PBLWorks.

Comment Policy

PBLWorks encourages conversation, feedback and comments. PBLWorks reserves the right to – but is not obliged – to do any or all of the following:

  • Delete comments deemed to be spam or questionable spam.
  • Delete comments that are abusive, illegal or disruptive, or that otherwise fail to meet the requirements of this Comment Policy.
  • Delete comments that include profanity or language and concepts that could be deemed offensive.
  • Delete comments that include irrelevant links. Including a link to relevant content is permitted, but comments should be relevant to the topic.
  • Delete comments that personally attack an individual or group of individuals.
  • Edit comments for spelling, grammatical or factual errors.
  • Delete any comments posted on the blog, without notice, regardless of whether or not such communications violate the above standards.

By posting comments on pblworks.org, you give PBLWorks the irrevocable right to reproduce, distribute, publish, display, edit, modify, create derivative works from, and otherwise use your submission for any purpose in any form on any media. PBLWorks is not responsible and will not be held accountable for comments posted to pblworks.org.

Guest Posting Policy

On the PBLWorks blog, we welcome guest authors to join our forum about Project Based Learning (PBL). However, PBLWorks does not accept guest blogs from authors whose sole purpose is link sharing or promoting a product or service. Our guest blogs are reserved for dedicated educators, students, and education writers, leaders, and advocates.

The blog posts can be about anything that connects to Project Based Learning. You can describe projects you’ve done as a teacher or experienced as a learner or parent/guardian of a student, offering lessons learned and advice. You can explain the benefits of PBL and reflect on what makes it work effectively. You can connect PBL to other programs in schools or the world outside of school. The main point is to tell interesting stories based on your personal experience. See examples at pblworks.org/blog.

If you’d like to discuss your ideas before writing, please email [email protected]. Any submission may be edited for content, length, and style. We cannot guarantee that every submission will be posted, but if your first one is not, we welcome you to submit another!

Submitting and Publishing Articles

We accept guest articles on a case-by-case basis unless some other agreement has been established between PBLWorks and the guest author. Please submit a draft of your article that meets the following guidelines for consideration and review:

Guidelines

  • Write an original guest post in 1,000 words or less.
  • Provide a catchy and descriptive title for the post.
  • Do not use subheads. We'll help to select topic sentences to highlight throughout.
  • Use proper spelling and grammar.
  • Give credit and cite content where necessary.
  • Disclose any conflicts of interest.
  • Optional: Submit quality photos that relate to the article in two size formats if you have them; if not, we will use our own image (feature image size 964×670).
  • Include a high-quality photo of yourself (aka “headshot”)
  • Authors may submit original or personal photos, graphics, diagrams, etc. to be used within the text. Photos and graphics created by other individuals or companies must be listed with one of the following creative commons licenses: Attribution (CC BY), Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND) or Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA).
  • Include the author’s byline — First Name & Last Name, Title, Organization/Affiliation, and City/State/Nation.

Writing Tips

  • Use the first-person voice and a conversational, informal style – not academic.
  • Keep the reader in mind. Who will read this? What would they want to know?
  • Start with a hook. Share some personal anecdote or story if applicable.
  • Include lessons learned that make your content applicable to other audiences in other schools or organizations.
  • Include a call to action at the end of your blog, or leave the reader with a final message or questions to ponder.
  • Break up writing into fairly short paragraphs.

Writing Conventions

  • Use 12-point font, single-spaced text, left-justified.
  • Use only ONE space after a period (this is the newly accepted style; see this article to find out why).
  • Note that PBLWorks capitalizes “Project Based Learning” with no hyphen.
  • Do not embed images within the text; put them at the end and we will add them.
  • Do not indent a new paragraph; use one line break to indicate it.
  • If you include a link to the Web, make it embedded in the word(s) that refer to it, not by saying “here” or by giving the url.

Upon submission, review and approval, PBLWorks will publish the article to pblworks.org. PBLWorks reserves the right to refuse content and remove links and bios from submitted posts.

Compensation

PBLWorks does not compensate the authors of guest posts or articles. Compensation is given only to our team of PBLWorks National Faculty bloggers, who are also bound by the terms of the applicable Memorandum of Understanding and corresponding Exhibits.

Terms and Disclosure

PBLWorks reserves the right to edit content, spelling, grammar, etc. PBLWorks reserves the right to refuse to publish any works submitted for review for any reason, which it is not obligated to disclose to the guest author. Reasons for rejecting a guest article include, but are not limited, to the following:

  • Inaccurate information or facts
  • Excessive grammatical or spelling errors
  • Irrelevance to the blog, its existing content, theme, and focus
  • Product push, marketing speak, or sales pitches

PBLWorks also reserves the right to remove any published works by a guest author from pblworks.org without prior warning or explanation to the author. All original content submitted by the guest author will remain the intellectual property of the author. 

By submitting a guest-authored article for review, or submitting a blog post as an approved National Faculty Member, you are agreeing to the terms outlined in this Guest Posting Policy. For questions regarding guest authoring or guest articles on the PBLWorks Blog, please contact [email protected].