Writing Articles
How to write an article for the website
This is a guide mostly about how to format an article for the website, which is largely driven by the features and limitations of the software used. There are also some comments on content. We would encourage anyone who gives a presentation to the Society to submit a written article on the same subject-matter. We cannot simply take a slideshow and put it on the site with the present software. The same is true for video and audio. Writing an additional text to go with a slideshow is a little extra work, but means that the content can be referred to rather than simply remembered, and can be more widely accessed, which promotes the objectives of the Society in encouraging research and making the results available both now and to the future.
We do not have the same "rules" as Wikipedia - and encourage the publication of original research, provided it is of interest to the members. It need not be of direct relevance to Hoole and Newton, but as it is difficult to define what is "of interest" in a few words, the Society Committee reserves the right to decide.
It's also worth giving some thought to a title and which "categories" an article should go into. As articles are in part listed by alphabetic title, a well-researched article on the orchid CATTLEYA TRIANAE HOOLEANA might not be found if it was entitled "A story about Potts".
Document Format
We can read the most common word-processing software formats, but in the process of uploading an article it has to be converted to something which is very similar to an email, with no fancy formatting such as font size changes. The only format styles we generally use are limited to bold, italic and underline. In many ways the quickest way to get an article onto the website is to dump the text into an email, format as you like using simple formatting and then attach any jpgs.
Photographs
.jpg images are easy to insert, but should be sent as attachments when submitting an article.
It is possible to submit an "article" which contains a lot of photographs and very little text, such as a "gallery". Guilden Sutton's History People maintain an extensive series of local photo galleries: see for example the Arthur Willis photo collection
Articles with a mix of text and images can sometimes be difficult to format as the images take up space on the page and the text has to flow around them.
Tables
Tables are a little problematic. The software that this website uses is not really designed for them, and they require quite a lot of work to insert and can be complicated to add to if needed.
Copyright
People should ensure that anything submitted does not breach third-party copyright. All submissions are accepted on the express understanding that the Society will be held harmlesss for infringement of any third party intellectual property rights.
References and links
References and other citations are always a good thing. The pupose of references include: providing evidence for a statement and allowing others to conduct further exploration for entertainment or research. Thus if you mention a person a link to Wikipedia might help, as in Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester. For links to other websites please remember the link may get broken if the website is not maintained or for other reasons (as here). Again, the Society has to reserve the absolute right to veto some external links. "Professional" historians sometimes get a little over-obsessed with everything having to have a reference, but don't be put off. Recording local history is quite different than writing stuff for Wikipedia.
You can list references in a simple a format like "Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 3)" or "Tacitus, Agricola, Chapter #30", or even better provide a link. Many books are available online free of copyright restrictions and it is easy to link to them, for example as: "A Voyage in the Sunbeam". We can also insert references as footnotes: for example (Barraclough, Charters of the Earls of Chester, 14–16, no. 8)[1]. Some references are only available as headers or in libraries but it is still a good idea to cite them [2].
Newspaper articles as sometime available online and linking to these makes them much more readable. A jpg of a "clipping" is an alternative (and looks good, if it is short), but a link is better for anything longer and may add tone and context from the surrounding page. An example might be "..as reported in the Courant"[3]. The rest of the Courant page gives the reader an impression of what else was being discussed as an "important matter" at the time the original event was reported.
Our website editor is always happy to help with questions over format and any "special features" an article might need.