Put SUBMISSION (all caps)  in the subject line of your email. Send it to editor@americanthinker.com.

A brief note should accompany the email submission. The note should state (in less than two sentences) an outline of the content of the submission. The writer's name and a return email address are required.

American Thinker publishes previously unpublished material only. We are not an aggregator of material available elsewhere. AT will only review unpublished manuscripts. Please do not submit material which has appeared on the web, including on a personal website or blog. After publication, authors are free to post their own material to other websites, so long as they note its prior publication on AT, and provide a hyperlink to the original.

American Thinker is divided into two sections: blogs and articles.

Articles provide analysis and new information on topics of importance to Americans. We want to advance the national conversation with fresh insight. Polemics for their own sake and recapitulations of what has been published elsewhere are not normally of interest.

Tables

If you have any tables in your work, please use the table function on Microsoft Word. Do not use the spacebar to create tables.

Links

Hyperlinking to a source (rather than using an endnote) is the preferred method for fact verification. Source all your quotes and any important factual contentions. Embed hyperlinks if possible. If you cannot embed, then the URL of the source should be pasted into the text following the word to serve as the hyperlink:

This link to American Thinker http://www.americanthinker.com/ pastes the URL into the text.

This is a link to American Thinker already embedded in a hyperlink.

Endnotes

If the source is not available as a link an endnote can be used. The endnote should contain (at a minimum) the title of the work, the author, date of publication, apposite page number.

Factual Verification

Writers should source, verify and then double-check all facts in their submissions. Wikipedia, something you heard on the radio, and nearly all bloggers are not definitive sources. Do not write speculatively about factual information. Do not guess or approximate unless you have expert knowledge.

Style Guide

Write in clear and direct sentences whenever possible. Avoid run-on sentences. Focus on fact and logic more than your own opinions. Grammar and punctuation should conform to The Chicago Manual of Style.

Bombast

Avoid overstatement, clichés, and emotionalism. In general, less is more when it comes to rhetoric. If there is humor, it should be original and witty.

American Thinker will not consider any material which contains anything which could be construed as a threat, a call to violence or revolution, or any other illegal activity. Our mission is in the realm of civil discussion.

Pronouns

Writers need to avoid the excessive use of pronouns like "this," "it," "that," and "they." Properly affirming all antecedents is an essential element for clear and accessible writing. Whenever possible synonyms should be used in place of pronouns.

Here is an example of an improperly affirmed antecedent:

"Jane and Mary watched the cars. They were racing."
Notice that the reader is left wondering who or what is racing. The writer forces the reader to guess the referent of the pronoun "they."

These sentences would be properly written (assuming the cars -- not Jane and Mary -- are racing): "Jane and Mary watched the cars. The autos were racing."

Avoid use of the personal pronoun "I" as much as possible.

Focus on the Reader

Attention to the perspective and information needs of the readers is necessary for writing to be effective. Presume that readers are impatient and have a world of choices a click or two away, so get to the point as clearly and economically as possible. Tell the reader what the article is about and why the reader should care in the lead sentences.

Thank-you for your interest in being published on American Thinker.