Opinions/Reviews

[Prof. Sky Alton]

This is the category for all your personal thoughts. You could write a review of a film you just watched, describe your latest vacation or opt for something a bit more personal, like discussing your favourite music and the impact it’s had on you.

How To Write Them
This section is all about you so feel free to write in the first person and build something entirely from your own experience of the topic.
You can also use a more relaxed structure than you would elsewhere in the paper. Try not to ramble though. Remember that you need to make this easy and pleasant for a reader to follow, so try and organise your points rather than jumping from one thing to another randomly.

Topics
Topics must be HOL appropriate. This goes for things you’re reviewing as well: please try to stick to content that’s suitable for younger HOLers to watch/read/play.
Be respectful. Even though this is a space for your own personal takes on things, the HOL Code of Conduct still stands and we won’t publish anything that’s too harsh.
Please try to steer clear of traumatic subjects. You can talk about sad things or events but please be mindful that it might be difficult for other people to read if they’ve experienced similar things. The editors do reserve the right not to publish something if we feel it might be too distressing.
Don’t reveal any personal info that might enable people to work out your real life identity or location.
If you have trouble coming up with ideas, the Idea Bank has suggestions which you may use, but your are of course always more than welcome to create your own. Whether you use something from the Idea Bank or your own idea, you must always present your idea in the appropriate thread and have it approved. When you do, make sure to note whether someone else has claimed something similar, especially where puzzles are concerned.

Accuracy
While you don’t need to back up points you make with facts as you do elsewhere in the paper, we’re still relying on you to act in good faith. Please do your best to make sure everything you write is true and don’t exaggerate or make generalisations, particularly about other people.

Requirements
You can earn 10 points for articles of 150 words or more, 15 for articles of 200 words or more and 20 for articles of 300 words or more. There is no maximum length but if we think an article is too long, we’ll chat to you about splitting it up into a series.