During my first month on Steemit (and now because of my activity as a curator for OCD), I noticed that #science is filled with posts that can be sorted into three categories:
- Plagiarized
- Badly Written
- Good
Sadly, category 3 is very rare and plagiarized posts dominate the tag. But how do you write a good post? What is important?
- One or more picture(s) (with a source, if you didn’t take it yourself)
- Not too much text (under 1000 words seems to be appropriate)
- Not too little text (200 words at least)
- No videos (or at least not as main content)
- Original content
- Good grammar and spelling (You can try the free version of Grammarly to find basic mistakes)
- Sources and/or References
Readers want to be entertained. For that, you need to present new information (or old information in a new way). You need to keep the reader’s attention throughout the whole post or they will just close it without upvoting because they get bored.
So don’t just copy or rephrase an article from somewhere. Give the reader something new, something unique. An exciting point of view. What would you want to read?
At the same time, it is important to provide credible sources. You can make claims all you want; the quality of your post heavily depends on the quality of your sources. Did you just make the information up? Or is there actually a study about this? Don’t expect your reader to look up everything by themselves.
If you want to use content created by someone else, make it clear that it isn’t your own content and add content you created yourself. Nobody wants to give you upvotes (money) for something you just found on the internet!
It is not easy to write good posts, but following these guidelines will already make you stand out from the trash that currently dominates #science!
Got a scientific topic which you want to see as a story? Leave me a comment!
You’re working in a STEM related field? Participate in my science challenge!
Check out @steemstem and the #steemSTEM channel in steemit.chat to support scientists on steemit!
Picture taken from pixabay.com
That rules can be applied for any post not just science
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Not every post needs sources, but I agree. I just wanted to focus especially on the posts in #science as that's where I spend most of my time.
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This was very informative, thank you. Those of us currently in academia might be accustomed to writing papers and journal entries, but the style does not apply well to a blog post. This style bridges the gap a bit.
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Those who know their science have trouble writing blog posts and those who can write blog posts don't know their science, so my goal is to help both.
:)
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Seriously, that's the truth. I hope this kind of thing would help me translate some of my research into blog posts. Literally just joined, so I am still learning a lot about the community. However, if people can get that kind of formatting down, I think its a great forum for sharing news in the sciences. Took a look at your page, and It looks like you definitely not only have the styling down, but also have some very valid points to make in the various sciences. Can't wait to hear more from you, especially about those lab mice! The psychobiology department should have some for us by the coming term. Hopefully we can learn a lot from them, and maybe even benefit the steemit community with what we are learning!
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Thank you for pointing this out!!
We are posting here to spread knowledges, so its important to make sure the content in the post is right, and not copy of someone else!!
All of us should work and help the science community grow so we can all grow with it!!
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Thanks for writing this! I have been wondering this very thing and believe it might have been you I spoke to about this very topic. I wrote an article that probably doesn't fit into the Third category, but still, I was reaching at straws in the dark, trying to figure out how I should find an effective way of engaging the scientific community/the science enthusiasts on here, but to do so properly since I was sure there were groups to join or tags that would be more effective. The article I wrote, that makes me so appreciative of THIS article is here: https://steemit.com/science/@ecoknowme/need-science-people It does have too many videos and is too long for most people, but I would encourage people to simply write well, use references and perhaps, find a balance between putting out good content regularly, and using this platform as an opportunity to share information that can be repeatedly referenced, built on and better understood by the general public and those that collaborate on such projects. Thanks again, @suesa, will try to polish up for future posts.
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Thank you for pointing this out! As a scientist, I think you are definitively right with the point sources. We don't need a discussion about this, because it is a fact, especially for posts about novel literature or special topics.
I can only say it for my little series (I don't know if you read it or even talk about it among others) but I think that long posts are not necessarily bad or bad in general. To explain some topics you can either presume some basics or you extend the scope. I think, it is depending from the audience you wish to reach.
I asked myself severel times, if I should add some sources but in fact, I write about rather basic things and most time out of my mind. Maybe I could cite Wikipedia articles (even if this is not necessarily a reliable source) or my lecture scripts or general books. Until now, I decided against it because somehow I think, for scientist it is basic knowledge. And the audience I write for at the moment, would not use the further sources. Maybe I can add something like "for further information, you can read here and here". I will think about it. Maybe you or someone else has any suggestions?
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If I don't use specific sources, I like to add an "read more about this topic here" section. That's often enough to make the post more credible, especially when it's just the basics.
Always remember: what's basic knowledge for you might be completely unknown for someone else.
Concerning long posts I recommend splitting them up in several parts, that's usually easier to digest for the reader.
Of course, the 1000 words maximum is just a suggestion. Not everyone will stop reading at this point but shorter posts attract a wider audience.
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This is what I call hitting the nail on the head. You've pinpointed the current problem accurately and provided helpful direction to remedy it. Hear! hear! May Steemit soon fall only in the third category. :)
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Very good points to create a good post. Thanks for sharing. I try to make it interesting, maybe you like my last post: https://busy.org/history/@oscarcc89/4rjfeh-humanity-the-origin-2-drawings-eng
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I am the person who asked to nominate your post for OCD...
I don't really appreciate when others try to promote their posts in the comments of my posts.
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Ah ok, I did not quite understand the last lines of your post, I thought you asked me to leave a comment with a topic about science. Excuse me
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Yes, a topic you want me to write a post about, not your own post :P
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Haha ok sorry, I use the google translate. I really like the themes about the universe and time travel. It's an interesting subject, if you're up for it and like it like me, you could do it. What do you say? I would make a drawing so that you publish it in your post on the subject only if you wish.
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I'll think about it and will leave you a comment when I want to do a cooperation :)
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yup, you are right, I am seeing a lot of posts with photos without sources...
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I am very bad in writing short posts. I think I have never written any post with less than 1000 words (okay, with maybe one or more exceptions :) ). It would be very hard to me to make my posts shorter (I could in contrast make them waaaay longer ;) )
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Not every long post is bad, you're doing pretty well with long posts :P but for newbies, shoter might be smarter
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I agree :)
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Same here. :D
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This was a very useful article. I am just starting out with Steemit and trying to write a few scientific articles myself. Most of the articles I plan to write are directly from my knowledge rather than from information on websites. Following this, how do you think I should be referencing my articles?
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Search for articles on the topic and include them as "read more" or "references", that's what I do :)
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Great topic. Everyone has his own style of wringing. I think that most people don't spend enough time writing. We get overwhelmed with information via images and videos.
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Excellent post is very helpful, thank you for sharing it with us, I have also posted science post, you think of this https://steemit.com/science/@falcao12/mixtures-of-dirichlet-process-and-gaussian-mixtures
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Scrolling through your old post and seeing such wonderful info makes smile.
Hopefully after reading this I will try to experiment more and see if u could write better posts
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