How To Write and Submit to deMISTify
Introduction
For those who have been affiliated with UTMIST for a long time, you’re probably aware that we’ve previously published all articles from the technical writing department on our Medium account. Of course, the writer would always be given credit, but this really limited the scope of what the technical writing department could do. As such, we decided to expand our scope this year with the release of our new publication — deMISTify! Sharing the same name as our bi-monthly newsletter, this new format allows anyone to submit their own articles and have their writing associated with UTMIST!
Background Information
So what is a Medium publication? Well, Medium defines them as “shared spaces for stories written around a common theme or topic, usually by multiple authors.” Basically, think of it like a journal or collection that a group of writers submit articles to. The nice thing is, it’s a great way to reach a larger audience when you’re just starting out! Assuming people enjoy your writing, that is.
So, what is the point of this article? Well, in the past, only the technical writers officially hired by UTMIST could write articles. However, we have received feedback and inquiries regarding individuals who may not have time to write regularly, but would still like to contribute. By creating a publication, anyone, and I mean anyone, can submit their article for everyone to see! Of course, we will personally be reviewing each one, so please ensure that you adhere to the following guidelines when writing. We have standards, you know?
Guidelines for Submission
So if you want your article to be accepted and published, please keep in mind the following:
- Your article should be related to a topic in machine learning.
- Your article should preferably be centered around a recent paper or topic. You can give relevant background information from older sources, but no one wants to read about how amazing GPT-3 is for the hundredth time.
- Your article should discuss the background of the topic, how the model or technology works, why it is significant, and what results researchers have found. This is just a guideline, but it’s the general template all our writers follow.
- Include pictures with each section! I will include some samples at the end of previously published articles that do this well. Do not write your article like this one.
- Cite your sources! This is partially for academic plagiarism and whatnot, but also because your readers may want to do some further reading into your discussed topic! Feel free to use any official citation format you want (MLA, APA, IEEE).
- Make sure to include a nice feature image at the top of your article. A feature image should tell your reader what your article is going to be about, so make it unique and eye-catching!
- Do not make your article super long! Medium will give you an estimate of how long of a read your article is. Generally, I recommend keeping it under 6 minutes, unless your topic is particularly complicated. However, if you’re going to write about a complex topic, it’s your responsibility to dumb it down enough for the average reader to understand.
Instructions for Submission
Here is a guideline on how to start writing!
- Create a Medium account. Don’t worry, this is free!
- On the top right, click your profile picture, then “Write a story” to start writing!
*Once you are finished, and this is the important step, DO NOT CLICK “PUBLISH”! You have to submit your article to our publication first. Once it is approved, we will publish it for you.
3. Send the current VP Technical Writing a message, either on Discord or through email (Discord is preferred), with your Medium username (e.g. @utorontomist). They will add you as an author to the publication such that you can submit your article.
4. Once you are added, click the three dots beside “Publish”, then “Add to publication”, select “deMISTify”, and then “Select and continue.” Now, you can click “Publish”, and it will prompt you to “Submit to publication.”
5. Now, all you have to do is wait for approval from the VP Technical Writing, and you should be able to see your article once it’s approved!
Conclusion
Apart from that, if you have any inquiries, feel free to reach out to the current VP Technical Writing. If you don’t know who that is, you can check the Discord server or on our website. Happy writing, everyone!
Sample Articles
These articles were written by technical writers who have been with UTMIST for two years now. Feel free to message them for any advice on writing articles.
- ControllerPose — A New Solution for VR Full-Body Tracking by Charles Yuan
- A Brief Overview of Diffusion Models and DALL-E 2 by Shirley Wang
- Phrase-Based Unsupervised Machine Translation by Ellina Zhang
