Contributor Guide
Everything you need to know to write, format, and publish a strong article on PEG Perspective, from your first login to seeing your byline go live.
Getting Access
You can only write for PEG Perspective once your contributor application has been approved. Once that happens, you’ll receive a welcome email with your login details.
Your Dashboard
Your Dashboard shows a personal greeting, your published and pending article counts, and a list of your recent submissions with their current status: Published, Pending, or Draft.
This is also where you’ll find the “Write a New Article” button, and, for any saved draft, a “Continue Editing” link that takes you right back into it.
Back to top ↑The Writing Canvas
Clicking “Write a New Article” opens your writing canvas. At the top, you’ll see a live word count and estimated read time, updating as you type, and a Focus Mode toggle that hides visual distractions so you can concentrate on the writing itself.
Below that sits your title field, styled boldly since your title matters, followed by your cover image dropzone, then the formatting toolbar, then the main writing area.
Back to top ↑Formatting Your Text
The toolbar above the writing area gives you five core tools:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| B (Bold) | Makes selected text bold, use sparingly, for genuine emphasis only |
| I (Italic) | Italicizes selected text, good for titles of works or subtle emphasis |
| H2 (Heading) | Turns a selected line into a section heading, use these to break long articles into clear parts |
| 🔗 (Link) | Turns selected text into a clickable link, see Section 8 below |
| ” ” (Quote) | Turns a selected passage into a pull-quote, see Section 5 below |
Adding and Removing Quotes
To add a pull-quote: highlight the exact sentence or passage you want to feature, then click the quote button (” “) in the toolbar. It will visually transform into a styled quote block.
To remove a quote: click anywhere inside the quoted text, select it fully, and click the quote button again. If that doesn’t fully revert it, the simplest fix is to delete the quoted text entirely and retype it as a normal paragraph.
Cover Image Requirements
Your cover image is the first thing readers see, on the homepage, in article lists, and at the top of your published piece. A weak cover image genuinely lowers the perceived quality of the whole publication, so we’re specific about this.
Accepted Ratios
- Landscape (16:9) — the standard, works best for most photos and scenes
- Square (1:1) — works well for portraits, single objects, or symbolic imagery
How to Upload and Crop
Inline Images and Galleries
Beyond your cover image, you can add up to 5 additional images inside the body of your article, a live counter in the toolbar area shows how many you’ve used.
Adding a Single Image
Click the 📷 Image button in the toolbar, choose your file, and it uploads and drops in exactly where your cursor was. You’ll be asked if you want to add a caption, captions display nicely below the image and are worth adding whenever the image needs context (a location, a source, a name).
Adding a Gallery
Click the 📷📷 Gallery button to select multiple images at once, they’ll display together in a clean grid. Useful when a single photo doesn’t tell the whole story.
Linking Claims and Sources
Any factual claim, statistic, or reference to another person’s work should be linked to a real, credible source. This matters for three reasons: it protects your credibility, it protects PEG Pulse’s credibility, and it helps readers verify things themselves rather than taking your word for it.
How to Add a Link
Choosing Your Topic
Below the summary field, you’ll see topic pills: Health, Leadership, Policy, Governance, Environment, Opinion, and Society. Choose the single one that best fits your piece, this determines where your article shows up across the site, including topic-specific homepage sections.
Back to top ↑Writing Your Summary
The short summary field (20–40 words) appears in article previews across the homepage and Perspective archive. Write it as a genuine, specific hook, what will the reader actually learn or feel, not a vague restatement of the title.
Back to top ↑Saving Drafts and Resuming Later
Click Save Draft anytime, this saves your title, content, cover image, topic, and summary exactly as they are. You do not need to finish an article in one sitting.
To come back to it, go to your Dashboard, find it under “Your Recent Submissions,” and click Continue Editing, everything reloads exactly where you left off.
Back to top ↑Previewing Your Article
Click Preview to see exactly how your article will look once published, real fonts, real layout, real spacing, not an approximation. Behind the scenes, this quietly saves your current work as a draft first, then opens the real preview in a new tab.
Back to top ↑Deleting a Draft
On your Dashboard, any draft shows a Delete option next to “Continue Editing.” This permanently removes the draft, there’s no undo, so only use it for drafts you genuinely no longer want. Published and pending articles cannot be deleted this way.
Back to top ↑Submitting for Review
Once you’re genuinely happy with your piece, click Submit for Review instead of Save Draft. This moves your article to Pending status and notifies our editorial team automatically. You’ll see a clear confirmation screen once it’s gone through, you won’t be left wondering if it worked.
Back to top ↑After You Submit
Your article sits in our review queue until an editor reads through it. We don’t currently promise a fixed turnaround time, we review as promptly as we genuinely can, so please be patient. You can check your article’s status anytime from your Dashboard.
Back to top ↑Getting Published
The moment your article is approved and goes live, you’ll receive an automatic email confirming it’s published, with a direct link to read it. Your byline appears at the top of the article and again at the bottom with a short bio, and your piece may also appear in the “More to Read” suggestions on other articles.
Back to top ↑Mobile vs Laptop
The entire writing canvas works on both. On mobile, you can write, upload and crop cover images (including straight from your camera roll), insert inline images, and submit or save drafts, all fully supported.
That said, for anything longer than a short piece, we genuinely recommend writing on a laptop or desktop. Long-form typing, careful placement of images and quotes, and reviewing your formatting are all noticeably easier with a full keyboard and larger screen. Mobile is great for edits, touch-ups, and quick submissions, less ideal for drafting a 1,500-word piece from scratch.
Back to top ↑Editorial Standards
Before you submit, run through this list:
- The piece is your own original writing, not copied or lightly reworded from another source
- Every factual claim or statistic is linked to a real, credible source
- Your cover image is sharp, well-lit, and correctly cropped
- You’ve read through it once for flow, does it sound like a real person wrote it, not a stiff or robotic summary
- Your chosen topic genuinely fits the content
- Your summary is specific, not a vague restatement of the title
- You haven’t exceeded 5 inline images, and none of them duplicate your cover image