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Lesson Planet Article Writer Training Manual 2013

Article Writer Training Manual

Table of Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................... 3 Getting Started ..................................................................................... 3 Lesson Planet Article Writers Blog ....................................................... 4 1. Select and Submit Articles 2. View Your Submitted Articles 3. Propose an Article Topic 4. Article Content and Formatting Guidelines 5. Lesson Planet Article Rubric 6. Lesson Planet Writing Style Guide 7. Find Lesson Resources on LessonPlanet.com 8. View Published Articles on LessonPlanet.com 9. Article Writer FAQs 10. Lesson Planet Article Writers Manual 11. Give Us Your Feedback Writing an Article .................................................................................. 5 1. Log in to Lesson Planet .......................................................... 5 2. Log in to Blog ......................................................................... 6 3. Create a Topic ........................................................................ 6 4. Select Your Topic ................................................................... 9 5. Create Your Article .................................................................. 10 6. Find Lesson Resources on LessonPlanet.com ...................... 12 7. Editing Your Saved Draft ........................................................ 15 8. Submit Your Article to Lesson Planet Editors .......................... 17 9. Lesson Planets Article Approval Process .............................. 18 10. View Your Submitted Articles .................................................. 19 11. Give Us Your Feedback .......................................................... 19 Standards and Guidelines 1. Due Dates, Pay Dates, and Publication Dates ........................ 21 2. Lesson Planet Article Writing Rubric ...................................... 21 3. Article Content and Formatting Guidelines ............................. 22 4. Lesson Planet Writing Style Guide ......................................... 24 5. Blog Use ................................................................................. 24 6. Contact Us .............................................................................. 25

Article Writer Training Manual

Introduction
Welcome! Were so happy youve joined our team of talented teacherwriters! This manual first introduces you to our blog, a central hub for article writers to submit their work, view guidelines, and communicate with the article management team. It then walks you through the steps of submitting an article, and finally explains the standards and guidelines article writers are expected to follow. If you have questions that neither the blog nor manual answer, you can always contact us at this email: articles@lessonplanet.com.

Getting Started
Before writing your first article for Lesson Planet, we ask that you read this guide in its entirety, review the writing rubric and style guide, and go over the Article Writer FAQs. After taking these steps, youll be fully aware of our expectations and will have all the tools you need to submit articles to Lesson Planet. We designed this manual to be an easy reference guide for Lesson Planet Article Writers. If there are additions or changes that would make this a more useful tool to you, please let us know via the Give Us Your Feedback link on the blog. Once again, we are so thrilled you have joined the Lesson Planet community, and we look forward to reading your articles!

Article Writer Training Manual

Lesson Planet Article Writers Blog


This blog is designed to be a central hub of activity and communication for article writers. Below are brief descriptions of what youll find behind each link. For further details, refer to the Writing an Article section. Select, Draft, and Submit Articles Accept article topics youve proposed to write, work on article drafts, and submit articles for publication. View Your Submitted Articles View articles that you have submitted for publication. Propose an Article Topic Propose an article topic that you would like to write about. Article Content and Formatting Guidelines Find guidelines for writing your article. Lesson Planet Article Rubric View the Lesson Planet Article Rubric, which is the tool our editors use to rate your article Lesson Planet Writing Style Guide Read the Lesson Planet Writing Style Guide. Find Lesson Resources on LessonPlanet.com Find relevant lessons to add to your article. View Published Articles on LessonPlanet.com View examples of lessons previously published on LessonPlanet.com. Article Writer FAQs Find answers to the most common article writer questions. Article Writers Training Manual View or download this manual. Give Us Your Feedback Tell us what is (or is not) working in our article writing process.
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Article Writer Training Manual

Writing an Article
1. Log In to Lesson Planet
a. Go to www.LessonPlanet.com b. Click Sign in.

c. Log in with your username and password

Article Writer Training Manual

2. Log In to Blog
a. Enter this link: www.lessonplanetarticlewriters.blogspot.com

b. IMPORTANT: If this is your first time reading this manual, click on View Published Articles on LessonPlanet.com. Read the most recent articles to get a feel for the type of articles and topics we are looking for on our site. c. See the previous page of this manual for a brief description of each of the links. The rest of this manual will address how and when to use each of the links.

3. Create a Topic
Each month, a new list of topics will be posted on the blog. If you would like to select one of these topics, or if you want to create your own, follow the directions below. a. Go to the blog. b. Under Useful Links for Article Writers, select Propose an Article Topic.

c. The following screen will appear:


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Article Writer Training Manual

d. Enter in your full name. e. Enter in a Topic Title. This should give a succinct idea of the main topic your article will be about. f. Enter in a brief summary, or abstract, of your article. This is meant to help us understand the angle from which you plan to approach

Article Writer Training Manual

your topic. We ask that you provide 2-3 specific points that your article plans to address. g. Enter the main school subject or event to which your article pertains (such as history, algebra, Valentines Day, etc.) If it does not relate to a school subject, please state what category youd like to classify your article under. h. Enter the grade level(s) for which your article is relevant. i. Click Submit to send your topic to the Article Team at Lesson Planet. j. You will receive this pop-up that confirms your topic proposal submission.

k. If you want to add to or change your proposal, you can also edit your response using this pop-up. l. Once we have approved your topic, it will appear on the Select and Submit Articles page. m. Our article team will review your proposal during business hours, Monday-Friday. Please allow up to 72 hours for your article topic to appear on the Select and Submit Articles page.

Article Writer Training Manual

4. Select Your Article


a. Go to the blog: www.lessonplanetarticlewriters.blogspot.com b. Under Useful Links for Article Writers, click Select, Draft, and Submit Articles. c. The following page will appear:

d. After being approved by the editing team, the topics you submitted will be listed with your name as the Contributor. a. Accept the article by clicking the small bubble in the Accept Topic column. b. If for some reason youve decided you do not want to proceed with writing an article, reject the article by clicking the small bubble in the Reserve or Reject Topic column.

Article Writer Training Manual

5. Create Your Article


Once you are listed as the Contributor and have clicked the Accept Topic bubble, you are ready to create your article. Important: Be sure to follow the formatting guidelines for each of the following sections a. At the bottom of the Select, Draft, and Submit Articles page, click the Create Draft button. b. The following page will appear:

c. Skip the Keywords field; the Article Team will fill this in. d. Enter in the title of your article in the Title field, which should be more than 3 words, but no more than 70 characters. The title should

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Article Writer Training Manual

be interesting and informative, so that the reader has a clear sense of what the article is about and why they should read. e. Enter your article in the Body field. You can type your article in this tool, or you can type it in a separate document and then paste it here. We recommend the latter so that you can maintain a record of your original work and avoid losing work should your browser crash. Work does not currently auto-save in the body field. f. In the Article Title Subheader field, enter in a sub-header that is interesting, gives the gist of your article, and is longer than 70 characters. Review our SEO writing guidelines for further clarification of this. g. Skip the Calendar related Article box, Article Image field, and Podcast Audio Files field. h. Click the Save Draft button at the bottom of the form once you are ready to save your article draft. IMPORTANT NOTE: Before you click the Next button, be sure you have properly formatted your article by reviewing the procedures in the Article Content and Formatting Guidelines section of this manual.

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Article Writer Training Manual

i. This screen will appear when you click Save Draft:

j. From this page, you can Edit Draft or Submit to Article Editor. These options are explained further in the next section.

6. Find Lesson Resources on LessonPlanet.com


In every article that has to do with teaching a concept in the classroom, we require that you find 2-3 teacher-reviewed resource links on our site that relate to your article. You can either go directly to the website, LessonPlanet.com, or link from the blog. a. Go to the blog. b. Click on Find Lesson Resources on LessonPlanet.com.

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Article Writer Training Manual

c. You will arrive at this page:

d. Click Sign In. e. Sign in with your Username and Password. f. In the search bar, type in a search term related to your article. For example, if your article is about creative ways to teach writing, type writing into the search bar. g. A page like this will appear:

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Article Writer Training Manual

h. Narrow your search by the type of resource, grade level, and rating on the left-hand side of the page. i. When you find a resource that relates to your article, click the name of the resource, and it will link to the website where that resource is hosted. j. Read through the resource. k. Copy and paste the entire URL of this website into the bottom of your article draft. l. Above the lesson link in your article draft, provide a title that describes the resource. m. Next write a unique, 2-3 sentence description of the resource. IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not copy and paste any part of the resource into your description. Your description must be unique and written entirely by you. n. Use these questions to guide your description: i. What specific topic(s)/concept(s) are addressed by the resource? ii. What is the purpose of the resource? What do the students do? How are they assessed? iii. How might an educator use this? Who would this lesson be appropriate for? Recommendations? iv. Can this resource be used to address current or relevant topics or technologies? Examples of strong descriptions: Clay Alphabet Sculptures Digging into cool clay, students stretch and prod the medium to represent all the letters from the alphabet. A number of accommodations and extensions are included, such as
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Article Writer Training Manual

providing printed templates of each letter for students to view, or place clay atop as they form the letters. For students who are ready to extend beyond letter formation, they suggest building an accompanying artistic sculpture of an item that begins with the letter, i.e. an apple for a. Telephone Game Test your students' listening comprehension skills by reading them a story, and have them play this "telephone" game to recite what they remember. An ELD accommodation could include a simplified story, or allowing students to read a copy of the story as well as listen to it. Fair or Not Fair Investigate probability by playing dice games with varying rules. Players examine possibilities, make predictions, determine fair and unfair games, organize the outcome of each game, and figure the probability of each event. A lottery representative discusses how the probability of various games is determined. o. Repeat this process for each of the 2-3 resource links. p. IMPORTANT NOTE: Avoid beginning your descriptions with the same word or phrase and also avoid repetitive phrases within your descriptions. For example, beginning every sentence with This lesson or Students ____ would be considered too repetitive.

7. Editing a Saved Draft


a. Once you have clicked the Save Draft button, your article will be saved.

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Article Writer Training Manual

b. You will see the Saved Draft screen:

c. If you are on this screen, click Edit Draft. d. This will take you back to the Edit Article screen:

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Article Writer Training Manual

e. Make your changes. f. To save your changes, click Update at the bottom of the page.

8. Submit Your Article to Lesson Planet Editors


Once your draft is exactly as you want it to be, it is time to submit the draft to Lesson Planet Article Editors. IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you submit your draft to our editors, you will no longer be able to make changes to this article. If you are already on the Saved Draft screen, skip to step h below. Otherwise, follow these directions: a. Go to the blog. b. Click the Accept, Draft, and Submit Articles link. c. Youll see this page:

d. Find the article you want to edit in the last column of the spreadsheet, View and Edit Draft. e. Click on the title of the article.
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Article Writer Training Manual

f. This will return you to the saved draft of your article. g. You will see this screen:

h. Click Submit to Article Editor. IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you click this link, you will no longer be able to make changes to this article. Before you click the Submit to Article Editor button, be sure you have properly formatted your article by reviewing the procedures in the Article Content and Formatting Guidelines section of this manual. i. Lesson Planets Article Editors will then review and edit your article.

9. Lesson Planets Article Approval Process


Every article submitted to Lesson Planet is edited by our Article Editors and rated on our rubric, which is posted on the blog (more details are also included under Lesson Planet Article Rubric below). We expect writers to
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Article Writer Training Manual

submit high-quality articles. If the article is rated as a 4 or 5, our editors will approve it for use, and you will be paid for that article in the month it was approved. However, if an article rates an average of 3 or below on our rubric, we will return the article to you with notes on what needs to change for us to accept the article. Once the article is resubmitted with changes, you will receive pay if the article rates at a 4 or 5.

10. View Your Submitted Articles


All the articles you submit will display on one page. a. Go to the blog. b. Click View Your Submitted Articles. c. This page will appear:

d. Your articles are listed on the left hand side of the page. e. The date you created the article is listed in the middle. f. If your article has been published to Lesson Planet, the date of publication will appear in the right hand column. If your article has not been published, then no date will appear.

11. Give Us Your Feedback


Since we work in a web-based environment, there are occasionally glitches that occur. If something in the article writing process is not working right, let
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Article Writer Training Manual

us know. Were also happy to hear about things that are working well, or about suggestions or questions you might have. a. Go to the blog. b. Click Give Us Your Feedback. c. This form will appear:

g. Provide your feedback and full name. h. Click Submit. i. This screen will appear to confirm your submission:

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Article Writer Training Manual

Standards and Guidelines


1. Due Dates, Pay Dates, and Publication Dates
Lesson Planet requires article writers to submit at least two, but no more than five, articles per month. The first article is due by the 10th of the month. The second article is due by the 20th of the month. Additional articles can be submitted at any time, up to a maximum of 5 articles per month. Only articles submitted by the 20th of the month will be paid for the following month. For example, an article submitted on January 20th will be paid for in February. An article submitted on January 21st will be paid for in March. Article submissions will typically be posted the month following the month they are submitted, unless the submission is for a holiday. If, for example, an article about Labor Day is submitted in January, it will be posted closer to the actual holiday in September. Sometimes we choose to hold an article for later publication. You will be paid once it is approved, but we retain the right to decide when and if we publish it. You will receive an email the day your article is posted to our site.

2. Lesson Planet Article Rubric


Lesson Planets Article Rubric helps us ensure that high-quality content is being published on our site. The rubric is what we base our article rating on, which can range from top quality (5 stars) to low quality (1 star). For each of the criteria areas listed in the rubric, we assign a score. Your rating is based on the average of the total score your article receives. To access the Lesson Planet Article Rubric: a. Go to the blog. b. Click Lesson Planet Article Rubric.

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3. Article Content and Formatting Guidelines


Lesson Planet has specific guidelines regarding the content and format of your article, and one of the criteria on our Article Rubric is that you follow these guidelines. As you write your article, youll want to keep these content and formatting rules in mind. There is also a link to these rules on the blog for easy reference.

Article Content
1. Original Content All content submitted to Lesson Planet must not have been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere. 2. Style and Purpose Make the article interesting, engaging, and useful to the reader. The tone of articles should be professional and informative. 3. Word Choice Avoid using repetitive words and phrases. For example, do not begin each line with This lesson or use the phrase students ________ repeatedly. The word students tends to be overused. When possible, use synonyms such as learners, pupils, young scientists, etc. 4. Outside URLs Within the article, writers may provide links to reputable online resources that support the purpose/focus of the article. Lesson Planet reserves the right to remove these resources if they detract from the article or are non-reputable resources. 5. Citations When stating facts, article writers must cite sources.

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Article Writer Training Manual

Article Format
1. Article Font 12-point , Arial 2. Article Title Less than 70 characters 3 words or more Interesting and explanatory; the reader should know: i. What the main topic is ii. What specifically they are going to learn about that topic Example: Weak Title: Books About Self-Esteem Strong Title: Boost Student Self-Esteem with Literature 3. Article Subtitle a. More than 70 characters; less than 160 characters b. Elaborate on what reader will get out of article 4. Body of Article a. More than 500 words in length b. Utilize sub-headers, bullet points, Top 10, and other ways to break up text throughout the article to appeal to the reader. i. These should be interesting, engaging, and relevant to the article. c. Lesson Resource Links i. Article writers are required to post 3-4 links to OER, selected from LessonPlanet.com. ii. Each of these resources should be accurately and succinctly described in 2-3 sentences (see Article Writer Manual for further discussion of this topic). iii. These descriptions do not count toward the 500 word minimum. iv. If there is an online educational resource that would be appropriate for the article but is not already listed on our site, article writers may suggest that we add the resource to our site.
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Article Writer Training Manual

Article Images
a. Lesson Planets Article Editors select photographs for your article. b. If you have a photograph that you would like to submit for use with your article, it must i. be owned and created by you. ii. not have images of students in your classroom. c. Other images (including graphs, tables, etc.) can be uploaded if they enhance the article.

4. Lesson Planet Written Conventions Style Guide


While Lesson Planet uses the Chicago Manual of Style to guide our writing decisions, there are many instances when Chicago simply says, Here are the options; you choose. Our Written Conventions Style Guide reflects the choices we have made to aid in consistency on our site. To access the Lesson Planet Written Conventions Style Guide: a. Go to the blog. b. Click Lesson Planet Written Conventions Style Guide.

5. Blog Use
The Lesson Planet Article Writers Blog is meant to be a central hub, linking to all the tools and resources you need to submit articles to Lesson Planets Article Editors. The blog will also be a place for you to receive updates and news from Lesson Planet, as well as to provide us with feedback regarding your experience. To ensure timely receipt of blog posts, we require that all Article Writers subscribe to the blog by entering their email in the Follow By Email field on the blog. If you have not done so already, please subscribe to the blog now.

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Article Writer Training Manual

6. Contacting Us
Most of our communication will be conducted via the blog. However, if there are times that you need more immediate feedback, please email us at: articles@lessonplanet.com

A Final Note
Our goal at Lesson Planet is to help teachers be great teachers, and your articles will help us achieve this. Thank you so much for your contribution!

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