WITH TIRZAH

TIRZAH INTERNATIONAL IS a global network of grassroots movements.

We partner with women leaders in their own

nations to combat poverty, exclusion from education,

modern-day slavery, HIV/AIDS, and violence against

women and girls. We do this by helping women increase their

ssecurity by earning more income, by addressing the physical,

emotional, and spiritual wounds they carry, and by cultivating

and equipping advocates who are willing to use their voices, skills,

and talents to work for gender equality and justice.

OUR MISSIONWe connect and educate women so that they can impact their

world with God's love as they address issues of injustice affecting

wwomen and girls.

OUR VISIONWe envision a world where women and girls

flourish as they fulfill their God-given potential.

We are grateful for your partnership with

women around the world!

Hello friend!

I put together this little booklet to make guest

blogging with Tirzah an easy, stress-free writing

experience. I assume this isn’t your first rodeo so

none of this booklet is intended to monitor your

content, correct your grammar, or cramp your

sstyle. I’m just here to facilitate your creative

expression on our platform. And I’m so grateful

you have a heart for empowering women through

your words! I hope you’ll find some helpful info

and brainstorming material inside. If you’ve ever

got a question or want to test out some ideas,

I’m your girl!

Cheers, Cheers,

Emma

Web and Social Media Manager 2

what to expectwriting guidelines topic ideasediting + publishing processscheduling infocontact info

WHAT’S INSIDE:

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You’re scheduled for a blog post next month, so naturally

you’d like some details on what exactly that means. Let’s

outline some expectations. These are some things you can

regularly expect from me:

I am thrilled to have you on our writing team and get your

ideas about women’s issues out into the world. Together,

we can bring some fresh, varied perspectives on current

events and issues pertinent to Tirzah.

On that note, here’s what I’d like from you:

- enthusiasm- support in writing, editing, imaging, sourcing, and life- response to your questions within 24 hours- final product delivery and publishing

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- an informative and fun 100ish word bio- a picture of you to go with your bio, around 500x500 pix - your contact information: cell, email, address, homing pigeon roost, etc. (note which of these is the best way for me to get ahold of you)- an email to egrager@tirzah.org with all of the above!

Your very first blog post will be a kind of introduction toyou as a writer in the context of Tirzah International. Myrequest is that your first post tells readers how you initiallygot interested in women’s issues, what is close to your heart, and why Tirzah’s work is important to you.

The beauty of this blog is that we have so many different voices, stories, and topics all in once place. I don’t ever want you to feel burdened by what you have to write. Iwant this to be fun and life-giving. If you want to writea research style post about a current social issue, it’s fairggame! If you want to tell a story about when you traveledwith Tirzah, go for it! I will be communicating with youabout your post before each scheduled date so I know what you’re writing and can make sure we prepare for whatever story you have to tell on our other digital platforms.

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You are invited to write in any way that you feel is trueto your voice as a writer. I’m talking first person, poetry,photo essay, profile, vlog, and more. Do whatever you feelis the best way to communicate your topic.

That said, please be sure you are using a professional,rrespectful tone in approaching any topic. This probablygoes without saying, but since Tirzah International is anonprofit and deals with many different cultures, sensitivetopics, and backgrounds, we need to make sure that thewriting we publish is of the highest character. If you are ever unsure about a topic, statement, or approach, talkto me and we can figure it out together.

Whenever you use an image, graphic, infographic, statistic, quote, or any other source, please make sureyou keep track of where it originated. We want to always give credit where credit is due. I’ll cover this morein the section on the editing and publishing process (p15).

If you have an idea for a graphic, quote, infographic, or need a phneed a photo that matches your post, I will hunt one downor custom make one for you!

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Average posts should be between 500-1,000 words.

For the series “Five Minutes on Being a Woman,” the

posts are around 1,000 words and (go figure) take about

five minutes for someone to read.

If you’ve chosen a nontraditional format (aka something

that isthat isn’t in paragraph form), check in with me on

length.

Hopefully you’re noticing that Tirzah has a distinct feel

in imagery and story-telling. We want to present our

network with engaging, vibrant, and modern images and

posts. For reference, here is a summary of Tirzah’s style:

exclusive

generic

interventionalist

schmoozey

judgmental

hopeful

story-telling

grassroots

relational

encouraging

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A series about what it is like

for you to be a woman. You’re

unique! Each of us will write

one at some point, so let me

know when you want to write

yours!

Write an opinion piece on a women’s issue.

What is your favorite Tirzah memory?

If you’ve traveled with Tirzah or in some similar capacity, share a

story or memory from that experience.

Name a characteristic - strong, brave, kind, compassionate, etc.

- that- that you have learned or grown into and tell us about how it

is a part of your identity and our identity as women.

How did you first respond, act, get involved, invest your skills

when you decided to pursue justice for women?

Tell a story or write a profile about a woman who is a hero to you.

Maybe she’s your mom or teacher, maybe she’s Maya Angelou.

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How do you used your talents - and tell us what they are! - to

empower others?

Select one of the key issues for women that Tirzah focuses on

and share why it’s important to you.

Write a piece on a current event, social issue, or political event

affecting our women internationally or women in general.

I am working on and updating a calendar with events, such as Women’s Equality Day, and with current news and socially relevant happenings. If you come across a news article and think, “Wow I need to write about this” or “I see a trend here,” please let me know so we can do a special post!

Come up with a series idea!

The sky is the limit. If you’ve got a topic that you’d like to see be a recurring theme or you’d like to have other voices chime in on, talk to me and we’ll see what we can do about bringing in more writers and making a series.

Write an open letter to women or girls of a specifc age or of a

specific background encouraging them. (e.g., teenagers, girls

without family support, widows, orphans, girls pressured into

early marriage).

HopeHopefully these ideas will get you started. If all you do is blog

once a month and draw only from these ideas, you’ll be covered.

Feel free to come up with your own topics and share them with

me so I can send them on to the other guest bloggers!13

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In submitting your draft to me, please make a Googledocument and share it with emmagrager@gmail.com as an editor. The title should read “Title - MM/DD/YY.”

Please embed any images or files that are included in thepost within the Google document.

PPlease hyperlink any sources that you want to appearin the text of the post directly in the body, just asyou would see it in final verson online.

When you are formatting your post, please do so in Google docs, Word, or Pages, adding bold, italics, and other dynamics like HEADLINES where you would like them to be in the final published version.

The good news: I’ve got an English Creative Writing degreethat sits on my shelf and looks pretty. I’m here as a resourceand sounding board (and occassional comma corrector). I’llmake sure that whatever is posted online is double checked,reads clearly, and meets highest writing standards.

The better news: You’re a great writer. That’s why you’re here.So doSo don’t sweat it too much. If I see a trend in my edits, I’ll let you know to save us some time in the future.

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Your final draft, the one you want me to post, only missing

my edits, is due 2 days before the scheduled post date. This

is to give me turnaround time on final edits and making any

graphics or finding any images you may need. It also provides

me some time to make sure your post is properly publicized

via social media. via social media.

When you’re draft is in tip-top shape, I’ll upload it to the

Squarespace blogging platform. I’ll schedule it to post

live to our website on the day we’d previously set (see the

section on Scheduling) and you can pat yourself on the back!

Once your post is live and sent out via our social media

platplatforms, I’ll send you the link so you can share it with your

friends and so your Grandma can write a long, lovingly

over-the-top “FWD:FWD:FWD My grandkid” email about it.

Stay tuned! Once your blog post is live, people have the

opportunity to engage with it, comment, share, like, and so

on. I’ll let you know how your post is doing statistically and

yyou can chat with your readers via comments.

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It’s really up to you. I would love for each of you to blog

about once a month. That would be so great for us! We

want to have a regular rotation of diverse voices. If you

would like to do one every other week, one a week, one

per quarter, you just let me know. If you say “I’d like to

wriwrite once a week” and then two weeks in decide it’s too

much, we can change your rotation. Ditto for wanting

to write more often.

Seriously. It’s whatever works for you. I know we’re all

busy so I am so grateful that you would take time to sit

down, think through these issues that are close to our

hearts, and share your stories.

Once we’ve agreed on a date for your post, I would really

appreciate that you honor that agreement. If you need an

extension, let me know at least one week before the date

we had previously set. I totally understand that life has

some unexpected events awaiting all of us; if you let me

know what’s going on, then I can see if someone else

can fillcan fill your spot for that time or I can whip up another

post myself.

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Your final draft is due 2 days before the scheduled post date, via shared Google document, with all of your images and sources included.

When you send me your first email with your bio, picture,and all that jazz, and all that jazz, let me know what you think would bea good frequency for you. Once I get everyone’s responsesI’ll email you about setting up your first scheduled post(don’t you just hate the word deadline?) and we’ll playit by ear from there.

If you’ve got any questions at all, and in case I haven’t ssaid it enough, I’m here for you! If you’ve got a friend youthink would be a great fit for the blog, send them my way. If you’d like to do a mixed media post or share apost you’d previously published somewhere else, we’re down for that. I’m just so excited you’re on board with us!This blog is my writing baby and you’re making my dreamto have a wide variety of voices come true (cue Hall + Oates)!

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cell: (925) 588-8057

email: egrager@tirzah.org

info@tirzah.org

emmagrager@gmail.com

address: 912 A Lischey Avenue,

Nashville, TN 37207

facebook: www.facebook.com/tirzahinternational

twitter: @tirzahintl

instagram: @tirzahintl

Once I have everyone’s contact info, I’ll be adding you all to

Facebook group so that you can encourage each other and

meetmeet your fellow guest bloggers. No pressure to post

anything much there; just a nice way to see with whom

you’re sharing your cyberspace.

iPhone 5, text or call!

I love snail mail so if you

get a card from this address,

it’s not creeper mail.

I’ve got three more, but

I’ll respond to one of

these within 24 hours

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