Freelance Submissions
We accept on-speculation pitches and submissions and consider them valuable to having a rich and engaging field of content. PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES BEFORE SUBMITTING A PITCH OR MANUSCRIPT.
PAY: World at Large negotiates pay on a per-article basis.
Guidelines:
Do not include junk-value journalism in your piece. World at Large likes professional and entirely truthful accounting that doesn’t try too hard to lead the reader through the article. Think “am I holding the reader’s hand through all of this?” and if the answer is yes, reformat. The easiest way to understand what we are looking for is to read something from our website.
This might include “These are the 10 best dietary sources for vitamin K, and number 7 might surprise you,” or “Republican Congressman stuns climate scientist with THIS statement,” and finally “I never would have imagined that my weekend in Florence would change my life, here’s how it happened.” Note the similarities between the three leads and avoid them all in your copy, and your headline.
If it helps, the hierarchy of formatting starts with Truth from all sides, then Context, Nuance, Meaning, and Rhetoric. A story isn’t fully told until all of those boxes are ticked; and yes, that includes artistic and literary rhetoric. The English language has the largest vocabulary of all European languages by far, so utilize it!
Truth: What you’re reporting has to be true and without lies of omission.
Context: What is the context of that truth? It’s true that Russia invaded Ukraine illegally, but the context of that invasion was decades of NATO encroachment.
Nuance: Most subjects are not black and white, provide nuance whenever possible, for example, a scientific study shows result X which is true, the context of X was Y, but the nuance might require the author to point out the weaknesses of that study and suggest it could all be wrong.
Meaning: Why would anyone spend their time reading your story? What does it mean to their lives? Will it fulfill their need to feel informed, will it help them pursue and healthier existence or travel to a particular place?
Rhetoric: WaL invites you to use the most expansive and unorthodox rhetoric you’d like.
Paragraphs should contain 2-3 sentences max, while sentences should be organized intuitively and with correct punctuation (It’s not a bad thing if they’re long). For a feature, a header (Size 1) should be used every 4-5 paragraphs.
Headers should be short and clean, ex. “Snakes: a global force for good,” or “Learning valuable lessons”. They should not be sensationalized or too long.
CLAIMS AND REFERENCES: If you’re making a bold(ish) claim, such as “With worsening weather conditions in Virginia, lawmakers are looking to roll back emissions with a plan to reduce reliance on oil, coal, and gas,” you better have some source that empirically shows that weather in Virginia is worsening. You can format this with footnotes at the bottom of the page, in-line references, or with hyperlinks in your copy, but MAKE SURE YOUR REFERENCES ARE AVAILABLE.
We are living in a world where online sensationalism muddies the waters of scientific observation, as such it’s our duty as journalists to report their work, however boring or unsatisfying it is. To this end, we recommend familiarizing yourself with the manner in which scientific publications are written and formatted so you can extract what information you need in the smallest amount of time.
TOPICS
Environment & Policy: Please refrain from over-sensationalizing your topic (unless it is already sensational) but rather make sure you stick to the hierarchy – Truth, Context, Nuance, Meaning, Rhetoric. For example, a proposal to roll back grey wolf protections was submitted in Montana. Notice how the writer covers both the perspective of the hunter and rancher, as well as the wildlife advocate. This is correct, as there are normally several points of view within a story. Our job is not to pick the side we think is right, but to give the reader both opinions and let them decide. If you’re using a press release, please follow the guidelines of the content provider for using press releases.
World & Conflict: We publish mostly analysis and reporting, often using foreign policy-focused journals and thinktanks as contrasting opinions. If you have sources inside the military or intelligence establishments and they want to break a story to you by all means use them. However following the example of heroic journalists like Robert Parry, Julian Assange, Gareth Porter, and many others, World at Large doesn’t believe that the highest echelons of government or military are our allies. Therefore as long as your article is through the lens of truth and skepticism, we will publish analysis.
Furthermore, following America’s behavior in the Middle East over the last 20 years, particularly as it relates to Iraq, Syria, and Libya, all coverage of any of America’s foreign policy should be centered around these ideas: “The cost of war is enormous, and normally borne by the civilian populations — to start a war, a government must have more than clear and very compelling evidence to suggest necessity, of which there can be really only one, self-defense — The Geneva and Hague Conventions recognize as the Founding Fathers did, the inalienable right of a body of people to self-determination, both in government, in the friends they keep.”
For instance, if the Secretary of Defense says “we believe this act to be done by this Iran. We know this because intelligence reports say so,” that’s far from good enough, and should not be treated as truth. Correspondingly, newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times are proven mouthpieces for fraudulent leaks from the military and intelligence establishments, and so if either paper mentions “anonymous sources who were familiar with the matter,” that is also not to be taken as fact.
Finally, include images of key political figures, and militants, or, if those aren’t available on CC or Public Domain, a geographic image is also permissible.
Function & Health:
We’re happy to accept anything on the subjects of workouts and exercise, physiology, nutrition, supplementation, or wellness topics like anti-aging, skin health, or anything like that. As mentioned above, your story should be rooted in empirical scientific observations and rhetoric; no superfoods, healing, real/whole foods, or anything else that cannot be measured by science.
In this category perhaps more than any other, we invite you to read existing stories and apply the hierarchy of Truth, Context, Nuance, Meaning, and Rhetoric.
If you are referring to a topic that could be considered scientific, use correct jargon. You’ll never hear a scientist say, “Turmeric is a superfood that’s beneficial for your body”. Be specific – is it good for your kidneys? How much, and in what way? How was this confirmed, was it a randomized controlled trial, an observational study, or an epidemiological study?
Don’t assume our readers are totally uneducated on the topic you’re writing about; don’t dumb the science down so much that it takes away the opportunity for the reader to learn something. For instance, don’t just say antioxidant without touching a little bit on what an antioxidant is. On the other hand, don’t make the explanation so simple that it would fit on a food wrapper. The ideal article will make the reader want to follow the topic even after they’ve departed the website.
Travel & Discovery:
These articles should not be formatted like a blog ie, “I went here, and I did this, then I ate this and I stayed here.” It should be some kind of reflective narrative, some wider concept to ruminate on. For instance, the story about Capitol Reef National Park in Utah, was about how incredibly challenging it would be to be an astronaut in Trump’s Space Force, because of the similarities I experienced between the park and Mars.
Always keep in mind your research question, “Having done my journalistic research, I see the story like this…” Keep in mind possible points of view that might make for a more interesting narrative, because beautiful or famous locations are more interesting than what you have to say about them usually.
If your story is highly visual, in that you are describing beautiful oriental temples or incredible mountain vistas, come prepared with a long shopping list of images. These images should be landscape oriented, and over 2 megabytes in density. Images with local people should be a priority if they have a place in the narrative. You should also send an attachment containing photo captions with datelines.
For example, SANTA MARTA, COLOMBIA – JULY 25TH 2017. A local motorist smiles for the camera. Park rangers drive up and down Cerro Kennedy once every day on patrol.
Travel articles should not differ from regular stories too much. The reader should still learn something, feel something, and be left with something to chew on or wonder about. It’s totally okay to add things like restaurants or hotels into your story so long as they match the narrative. For example, “I stayed at Casa Relax Hostel in Minca. It was here that I met Bertie, a stout mountaineering sort of chap from Austria who was very keen to go hiking with me.” If your inclusion of a restaurant or hotel is just. “I went to Rome and stayed at the Mariot. The next day I went to the Coliseum.” What does the Mariot have to do with Rome or the Coliseum?
We really want to be reaching for 1,000-2,000 words, and you should always be asking yourself “why should someone read this? The insight and adventure, why should it be valuable to anyone?”