STYLE:

• Articles should be previously unpublished and 1,000-1,200 words in length (give or take 100).

• For consistency across our site, please use American English spelling.

• We use the Oxford comma and the em dash.

  • Shift + Option + - creates the em dash  (—)

  • There are no spaces on either side of the em dash.

• Articles should be clear of spelling and grammar errors.

• Do not use two spaces after a period (or anywhere else).

• Do not indent when beginning a new paragraph.

• For numbers ranging from 0-100, please spell them out. Larger numbers can be written as numerals. (Examples: “We were there for six weeks.” // “I understood about fifty percent of what she said.” // “We were 10,000 miles away from home with our remaining possessions packed in twelve suitcases.”

• Quoted material must be reproduced exactly as it appears in the original—spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc. (Certain permissible changes may be made at the discretion of our editors.)

• Punctuation always goes inside the quotations marks.

  • I whispered to myself, “she has no idea what she’s getting herself into”. WRONG

  • I whispered to myself, “she has no idea what she’s getting herself into.” RIGHT

• Research and quoted articles are cited by hyperlink.

• We are open to publishing essays anonymously or under a pen name on a case by case basis.

• Writers should make use of the free Taking Route editing guide, which can be found here.
  

TONE:

Our content is fresh, relatable, culturally relevant, and family-friendly. We also love humorous content that gives us a good belly laugh, as well as writing that tells a story from a unique angle. Pieces that won’t be a good fit are opinion pieces and writing that dishonors or degrades other people and cultures. While we don’t exclusively publish Christian content, we are followers of Jesus who seek to honor God with our work. For security purposes, we do not use “the M word” (#IYKYK).

We love practical, well-articulated content as well as narratives that encourage our readers to examine their own expat life. Posts can take the format of narrative storytelling, humor/satirical, listicle, open letter, curations (with proper credit given to original sources), and recipes.

When writing about another culture, we ask that you familiarize yourself with ethical storytelling. Our friends at Kindred Exchange have a free ethical storytelling guide available for download we highly recommend.

Finally, we ask that you familiarize yourself with our recent content before submitting.

If you’ve read our submission guidelines, feel free to click here to submit your work for consideration.