# Writing guide: blogs

What an edited blog post on PreventionWeb and undrr.org should look like: personal perspectives, practitioner stories and interviews, often written by guest authors.

> **About this guidance:** this guide summarizes guidance maintained elsewhere, for reference. If it conflicts with the UNDRR Publications SOP or UNDRR Communications team guidance, those win; if you can't consult them, apply this guide and flag the point. [Sources](README.md#sources). Found a problem? Report it in the [Mangrove issue queue](https://github.com/PreventionWeb/undrr-mangrove/issues).

- **Applies to:** the Blog content type on the UNDRR Drupal platform (blog types Blog and Interview)
- **Mechanics:** spelling, capitalization, numbers, dates, abbreviations, UNDRR terminology and inclusive language follow the [Mangrove editorial manual](https://mangrove.undrr.org/llms-editorial-manual.txt) ([rendered version](https://mangrove.undrr.org/?path=/docs/contributing-editorial-manual--docs)). This guide doesn't repeat those rules.
- **Source:** the UNDRR Communications team's guidance for blog editors.
- **Last reviewed:** 29 September 2026

This guide describes the finished post. How editors work with authors (commissioning, queries, review and approval) is internal editorial workflow; see [for UNDRR staff](#for-undrr-staff).

## When to use blogs

Use blogs for a named author's perspective, experience or analysis: a practitioner's lessons from the field, a researcher explaining their work, an interview. Use [news](news.md) for announcements by UNDRR and op-eds by UNDRR leadership, and [publications](publications.md) for documents.

## What a finished post looks like

### Language

- **British English with Oxford spelling**, as set out in the [Mangrove editorial manual](https://mangrove.undrr.org/llms-editorial-manual.txt) (section: Spelling): "organization", "programme", "analyse".
- **Simple sentences.** Break up long, complex sentences; one idea per sentence is a good default.
- **No unexplained jargon.** Technical terms are explained in plain words the first time they appear, or replaced.
- **Acronyms spelled out on first use**, with the acronym in parentheses, and only if it is used again. Don't stack several new acronyms in one sentence, least of all the first.
- **Common nouns in lower case:** "artificial intelligence", "disaster risk reduction", "early warning systems", even when an acronym follows.
- **No hype.** Cut openers such as "has the potential to fundamentally alter the landscape"; a concrete claim does more.

### Sources and links

- **Reference through hyperlinks only.** No footnotes, endnotes or reference lists: link the source at the point where it is cited.
- **Link for further reading too.** Publications, projects and initiatives mentioned in the text can link to more information for the reader.
- Use descriptive link text that says where the link goes (see [all content types](README.md#all-content-types)).

### Structure

- **An opening that draws the reader in:** a scene, a striking fact or a clear claim. Not an abstract ("This blog examines...", "This blog post advocates...").
- **Subheadings guide the narrative.** A reader skimming only the subheadings should be able to follow the argument. Add them where the author hasn't, at the points where the story turns. Match them to the length: a post of 600 words or more needs some, but a short post doesn't need a dozen, and levels shouldn't skip (H2 to H4).
- **A clear narrative order.** Paragraphs can be moved so the post builds logically from problem to action to lesson.
- **A short author bio:** two or three sentences, in the third person and present tense.
- **Sentence case for the title and every subheading**, with lower case after a colon unless the next word is a proper noun, in line with the [Mangrove editorial manual](https://mangrove.undrr.org/llms-editorial-manual.txt) (section: Capitalization).

### Focus

Blogs emphasize **actions and learnings for reducing risk**. A post that describes a disaster or a problem should also say what was done, what worked, what didn't and what others can take from it. A post that lists what an organization did but never says what readers could do differently hasn't got there yet; the editor asks the author for more.

A blog is not an advertisement. Calls to join a waiting list or try a product, plugs for the author's own events or services and pieces built around the author's own product or company don't belong. Where an author's organization is also the main source of the solutions discussed, say so plainly or balance it with other sources. Long thank-you lists of co-authors don't belong in the body either.

### First person

The Mangrove manual bans "we", "our" and "I" in UNDRR content. Blogs are often written by guest authors in their own voice, so blogs have one exception:

- **Guest-authored blogs may use the first person where it rests on firsthand experience:** the author was there, ran the study or does the job. "I grew up seeing disasters measured in numbers" earns its place; recent guest posts that use first person this way read as more credible, not less.
- **No undefined institutional "we".** A "we" that drifts between the author, their organization, the sector and humanity blurs who is speaking. If "we" means the author's team or organization, the post says who that is.
- **Not for promotion.** First person that sells ("our network", "join us") is out, as it is in any other content.
- **UNDRR-authored copy does not use first person.** This covers the title where UNDRR writes it, the short description, editor's introductions and notes, as well as posts written by UNDRR as an organization. These follow the manual.
- Third person remains a good choice for guest posts, especially co-authored ones.

The same exception applies to op-eds signed by named UNDRR leadership (see [news](news.md#tone-and-voice)).

## Metadata

See [metadata guidance](metadata.md) for themes, hazards and countries. For blogs in particular:

- **Blog type:** Blog, or Interview for question-and-answer posts
- **Author(s):** every author, so the byline and author pages are correct
- **Short description:** one or two sentences on what the reader will learn, written in the voice of UNDRR (no first person)
- **Image:** a relevant image with meaningful alt text

## Examples

Chosen from recent PreventionWeb blogs for what they do well. None is flawless, so each lists what an editor would still fix; the fixes teach as much as the strengths. Blogs were not part of the December 2025 baseline.

### [Sixteen times the monthly income: What recovery really costs in a Kyrgyz village](https://www.preventionweb.net/node/104157)

Blog, 28 August 2026. First person: yes, the guest researcher's own voice.

**Why it works:** A concrete opening scene, then a personal reason for the research, then the method (15 households, a named framework defined on first use). It is honest about its limits ("a small, qualitative study ... not a representative survey"). The subheadings carry the narrative from vulnerability to recovery gap to hidden losses to what the community wants, and it ends with four specific, actionable recommendations.

**An editor would still fix:** lower case after the colon in the title; currency formatting and inconsistent spacing around approximations; at first mention the amount should read like "476,667 Kyrgyzstani som (about US$5,470)", naming the less familiar currency in full.

> "I grew up seeing disasters measured in numbers: hectares affected, houses damaged and kilometres of road washed away. What is harder to measure is what happens to a family once emergency teams have finished their work and moved on."

### [Why mental health is core to disaster risk reduction](https://www.preventionweb.net/node/100518)

Blog, 24 February 2026. First person: yes, the guest practitioner's own voice.

**Why it works:** A practitioner's account from a hurricane response that moves from specific workshop testimony to evidence and policy. It cites the exact Sendai Framework paragraph with a link and gives four concrete policy actions, each tied to what participants experienced. Sources are handled through hyperlinks.

**An editor would still fix:** "DRR" in a subheading and the body without being spelled out; missing spaces between words; remove the serial comma.

> "One woman kept insisting there must be something wrong with her, because she was crying all the time. We all reassured her that, after the trauma of desperately clinging to her children as their house was destroyed around them, crying all the time was a normal response."

### [AI in disaster risk reduction: Who is being left out?](https://www.preventionweb.net/node/102271)

Blog, 15 May 2026. First person: yes, used sparingly.

**Why it works:** Plain sentences and short paragraphs carry a clear argument from data gaps to access barriers to power and accountability. Acronyms are defined on first use. It coins and explains one memorable concept and ends with concrete asks for organizations, donors and governments. The subheadings read as a logical sequence.

**An editor would still fix:** lower case after the colon in the title; broken link text (a dropped first letter); "-ise" spellings; a missing comma in a list; a number spelled out in the bio where the manual uses figures.

> "This creates what I have been calling “double exclusion”: people are first missing from the data used to build AI systems, and then unable to access the systems those tools support."

### [Life as a locust officer: safeguarding crops and communities from desert locust](https://www.preventionweb.net/node/102535)

Interview, 3 June 2026. First person: in the interviewee's answers; the introduction is third person.

**Why it works:** A clean interview format: a two-sentence introduction saying who is speaking and why it matters, then the questions as headings, so readers can scan to what interests them. The answers are concrete (swarm consumption figures, the daily field routine, named data systems), and acronyms are defined.

**An editor would still fix:** "Desert Locust" and "desert locust" capitalized inconsistently; remove the serial comma in each list; "programs" for training programmes; a two-paragraph bio that could be three sentences.

> "Each locust consumes approximately its own weight in vegetation daily. A swarm of 80 million locusts can consume the same amount of food as 35,000 people in a single day."

### [As temperatures increase in India, so must the commitment to thermal comfort](https://www.preventionweb.net/node/103120)

Blog, 1 July 2026. First person: no; third person, co-authored.

**Why it works:** A useful contrast to the first-person picks. It opens with a striking statistic and a human example, and every figure links to its source. Sector-by-sector subheadings (power, transport, vulnerable groups, long-term urban planning) turn a broad topic into specific measures, and every acronym is defined on first use.

**An editor would still fix:** heavy reliance on a co-author's organization as the main source of solutions, which an editor would balance or disclose more plainly; "per cent" in place of "%"; a stock phrase ("Extreme heat is no longer a distant risk").

> "India accounted for 98 of the world’s 100 hottest cities in May 2026. Behind these figures are lived realities, including that of a 24-year-old student who collapsed from heatstroke while travelling by train and arrived unconscious at a hospital in Delhi as temperatures soared."

## Checklist

- [ ] British English with Oxford spelling; checked against the [manual](https://mangrove.undrr.org/llms-editorial-manual.txt)
- [ ] Complex sentences simplified; jargon explained or removed
- [ ] Every acronym spelled out on first use
- [ ] All sources referenced through hyperlinks
- [ ] Subheadings that carry the narrative
- [ ] Title and subheadings in sentence case, lower case after a colon
- [ ] Emphasis on actions and learnings for reducing risk
- [ ] First person only for the guest author's firsthand experience; no undefined institutional "we"
- [ ] Blog type, authors, themes and short description set

## For UNDRR staff

Process guidance for blog editors is in the editorial workflow on SharePoint. It covers how to query authors about jargon, how to ask for more information on actions and lessons and how to agree changes with them.

- [Editorial workflow: Communications policies and SOPs](https://unitednations.sharepoint.com/sites/UNDRR-DRR-COMMS/SitePages/Policies-and-SOPs.aspx) (UNDRR staff only)
- [Web Style Guide](https://unitednations.sharepoint.com/sites/UNDRR-DRR-COMMS/SitePages/Web-Style-Guide.aspx) (UNDRR staff only)