EDITORIAL GUIDELINES

ON CONTENT
Articles about businesses or organizations should be written from the perspective of educating readers, not from the perspective of promoting the business. Writers should be particularly careful not to use the promotional language of businesses except for informational purposes and should take care not to use subjective statements (such as “this is the most fantastic, best business in Nepal” or “people just can’t be happy without this product”) that are exaggerations or cannot be verified by an outside source.

Content should always be accurate. Writers should confirm facts with their sources and cross check important or potentially controversial statements with multiple sources.

Content should generally be positive. ECS will not cover topics generally considered to be negative by the writer or the community in general. Articles addressing problems in Nepal should be written from the perspective of efforts towards solutions. If negative sentiments are included, they should be well documented and there should be a sound rationale for doing so. (For example: in an article about a peace organization, several sources indicated that they were concerned that some speakers at a seminar had made statements that confused rather than helped the issues. It was important to give some indication that the organizers had these concerns so that anyone who was present at the seminar or heard about the unfortunate remarks understood that the speakers were not consistent with the intent of the organization.)

Articles that are primarily political in nature or promote specific religious beliefs will not be accepted; statements that indicate a political or religious bias will be edited. Articles that include descriptions of religious practices and beliefs (including quotes from religious texts where appropriate) in order to examine Nepali or expatriate culture, individuals, or organizations are welcome.

Articles that would be considered obscene by local standards will not be accepted. Phrases or subjects that might be considered offensive (sexual innuendo, references to body parts) should generally be avoided unless there is a specific over-riding reason for using them. (For example in a story about problems with Nepali language, the tale of the author mixing up Nepali words for ‘necklace’ and ‘vagina’.)

ORGANIZATION
The first few sentences of an article should catch the reader’s attention and give some idea of what the article is about. The final paragraph should be conclusive in some way, for example summarizing main ideas or outlining the future.

The article should be organized in a logical order, for instance chronologically. Each idea should generally be contained in one paragraph, although it may be referred to earlier or later.

Writers should break up long articles using sub-headings or putting discreet information in text boxes.

At the end of each article, a contact name (either a major source or the author) and e-mail and or/phone number should be given.

EDITORIAL PROTOCALS
Articles will be accepted only when they have been agreed upon before submission, either initiated by an ECS staff person’s request or at the writer’s own suggestion. All articles must conform to ECS guidelines.

Writers should send a copy of their articles to key sources for corrections and comments (not necessarily approval) and incorporate changes before turning them in to the editor.

Writers should submit their articles in final proposed form to the editor before the 10th of each month.

Submission does not guarantee publication. The editor will inform each writer of whether the article has been accepted and which edition it will likely be published in.

The editor will return major content changes to each writer for comment. Writers may also request copies of minor, non-content changes on articles at or before the time of submission. Unless prior agreement is made, the editor reserves the right to publish shortened forms of articles without the writer’s review.

No changes can be made after the 19th of each month.

ETHICS / GENERAL POLICIES
When writers find out about factual errors in their writing after publication, they are responsible for getting the correct information to the editor. Corrections will be printed in the next issue.

Writers are free to write about friends’ or relatives’ enterprises. However, a friend or relative (or any other individual, for that matter) should never be the sole sources for an article, and regular writers are expected to reach beyond their immediate circles for stories.