If you are a member of the Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University community, either as a member of staff, a student or graduate, we in University Marketing and Communication want to hear from you!

We are always looking for interesting stories that highlight XJTLU’s unique features, exciting events, innovative research and inspiring people.

If you would like your story published to the website, social media or other outside media that reaches our external audiences – prospective students, parents, staff, employers, research partners, and government – send your information to University Marketing and Communications.

HOW TO SHARE YOUR STORY

You can share stories in several ways:

1. Write the story in English (300-500 words) and/or Chinese (800-1,000 characters)
2. Send us your story idea or “news clue” and we’ll follow up with you, or
3. Give us advance notice of an upcoming event – the earlier, the better.

For any of these approaches, please get in touch with us via University Marketing and Communications.

For example, if you are confident in your writing skills, you can submit a pre-written story for us to consider publishing to XJTLU News. It is most helpful to give us both English and Chinese, but either language is acceptable. Where the story is suitable, we will professionally translate, proofread and/or edit to make sure it meets University style, tone and content requirements. We may contact you if we need additional information or ask you to review the final article before publishing.

In some cases, we might suggest that your story needs a different approach, such as creating a photo-led story, making a video or publishing on social media, rather than publishing as a news story. In this case, we will discuss different approaches with you. We can also schedule professional photography as needed.

Alternatively, you may feel a story needs our professional development, in which case you can send us the “news clue” with as much detail as possible. We can follow up with you to develop the content scheduling interviews to explore your story more in-depth as needed.

HELPFUL HINTS FOR NEWS CLUES

When submitting new clues, some basic information to enable us to decide how best to cover your stories includes:

• Who – who is the subject of your story? Can you give us some background on them? Stories are always better when they involve people.
• What – what is your story? What facts illustrate the points you would like to cover? What is the purpose of the events you describe taken place? Here you can perhaps give us some additional background to your story – make sure you include plenty of details.
• Where – where does the story take place? This might refer to an event or a visit to an external location, for example. This is especially important if the location is somewhere unusual or it involved travel.
• Why – Why is it interesting / significant / awe-inspiring? Why is it important to an external audience? Why are the people in the story doing the things you describe? This is your chance to really sell your story by placing it in context of the bigger picture.
• How – how does your story positively represent XJTLU? How are the people in the story making a difference to the XJTLU community, Suzhou, China or even the world?