Writing a Blog Post for ENRRICH-ED
Have you ever thought about writing a blog post? Or wondered how to write one? In today’s post, we’re exploring how to write a captivating blog post. This is inspired by the 2024 blog writing session delivered to Summer Studentship (see blog posts from the 2024 summer students: Meet Our Summer Students 1 and Meet Our Summer Student 2). So, let’s get right into it!
What is a Blog?
Before writing a blog post, it is important to understand what a blog is and how blogs differ from other forms of writing. Blogs are informal pieces published on websites or online platforms, often written by people like you and me—whether we’re experts or just passionate about a topic. Peer-reviewed manuscripts published in academic journals, on the other hand, tend to follow strict structures and guidelines. Unlike journal articles, blogs are flexible—you, as the author, get to decide how to structure your post!
Why Write a Blog?
People write blogs for various reasons, such as:
Sharing research experiences
Announcing potential opportunities to participate in a research study
Communicating research findings
Practicing writing in a more relaxed and creative manner
Unlike academic manuscripts, blogs don’t require rigid formatting or technical jargon. With blogs, you have the freedom to play with language and engage readers in a conversational tone. So, where do you start?
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The first step to writing a blog is deciding what to write about. Do you want to share your latest research? Highlight an exciting or surprising finding? Or share an incredible experience?
Blogs are generally shorter pieces of writing, so once you have your topic, try to think about the main message you want to share. From there you can brainstorm a few main points to support that message, and that will give you the outline for your blog!
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Once you have a topic in mind, start with a captivating introduction to draw the reader in. Here are two examples of introductions from previous ENRRICH-Ed posts:
The way I have been doing research has shifted over the years, from writing syntax in statistical programs at The Manitoba Research Data Centre on the Bannatyne campus and spending countless hours reading hundreds of studies, to ordering lemon potatoes and cheese trays. If anyone else is confused about this statement, let me provide some context. –Dr. Kristine Cheung. [read more]
When I tell people that I conduct biomedical research with fruit flies, I very often get requests to remove these pests from people's kitchens during the summer. As much as I would love to help out, these ‘wildtype’ fruit flies, are of little interest to me. I am interested in flies that are a bit different. These would be flies that have mutations in genes related to neurological disease in humans. –Dr. Paul Marcogliese. [read more]
Browse through other posts to find more examples!
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It’s important to consider what the overall purpose of the blog is, who are the people who generally contribute to the blog, and who will be reading your blog.
For example, ENRRICH-ED was created to highlight important topics and current trends in child development and rehabilitation research, and to share exciting opportunities or findings from within our research community. ENRRICH-ED publishes blog submissions from clinicians, scientists, trainees, and institutional partners with whom we collaborate. We also welcome contributions from our Family Advisory Council, who have shared valuable insights on topics such as strength-based language and patient partnerships in research. Our audience includes people from all of these groups (and more).
Knowing that readers may come from diverse backgrounds; try to make your writing as easy to understand as possible. For instance, a post explaining IV insertion using technical terms like “cannula” and “tegaderm” might be clear to nursing students or those familiar with the technique, but confusing to others. A good rule of thumb is to write in lay language, which just means simplifying your ideas so that anyone can understand. A tip here is to have one or two people review your work before you submit it. If you’re a student, your supervisor can be very helpful here. But also think about others, for example a friend, colleague, or neighbor. People who are familiar with your area of work and those who are less familiar with the topic can have equally valuable feedback to share.
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Everyone has a different creative and editing process and writing is rarely perfect on the first try. With the ENRRICH-Ed blog, there is going to be back-and-forth with (a.k.a. support from) the editing team. Revising, refining, and editing your blog is completely normal! If you are struggling to draft your ENRRICH-ED blog post, don’t hesitate to reach out. We are always happy to support you!
We welcome and encourage contributions from all members, so if you feel inspired to write a blog, please reach out! We’d love to feature your work.
Published April 1, 2025
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ENRRICH is a research theme at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba focusing on research that advances research in pediatrics rehabilitation and neurodevelopment. ENRRICH-ED is a platform created for knowledge exchange and translation!