We encourage members to submit articles, letters, reviews and other material related to computing, especially from the user perspective, and particularly aimed at the beginner.
Your article will be proofread and spell-checked by one of our editors. Text may be altered to improve readability or clarity. Technical content will be reviewed by a technical editor for accuracy and may be returned to you for amendment. The earlier we receive your article, the more likely this is to occur before our deadline.
We may choose to seek vendor comment on review articles.
Any material considered misleading or inappropriate will be withheld at editorial discretion - we reserve the right not to publish an article.
Articles, source code, graphical images and photographs submitted to Sixteen Bits for publication must be the original work and/or property of the person submitting the material, or shall have clearly acknowledged the source with a written assurance by the person submitting the material that reproduction by Sixteen Bits does not contravene copyright held by that source. Please also read our copyright and disclaimer notice.
Correspondence and material for review or publication should be submitted as:
If the file is larger than 100K, please compress it using .ZIP format.
Please include a message with or in your file indicating your name, phone number, membership number and for which issue of Sixteen Bits the article is intended.
You can send your submission to The Managing Editor:
Anonymous contributions will not be published, though name and address can be withheld from publication on request.
Disks are not returned unless requested by the author.
PCUG members (only) may submit free ads on our Members Ads page for computer-related items. Please supply item description, price, name, membership number and contact details.
For all commercial advertising, please contact our Advertising Manager.
The deadline for the following month is published in the Editorial Information section of each Sixteen Bits. You can also check our latest calendar at any time here on the Web.
To avoid possible disappointment, you should ensure that your material will be received well before the deadline.
Please submit articles as a Microsoft Word 6, Word 7/95 or Word 97 document (we can also accept Word for Windows 2 and WordPerfect). Please keep formatting to a minimum - articles will be reformatted in PageMaker for publication. Don't embed graphics in your articles - supply them separately, either on disk or by email as GIFs, TIFFs, BMPs, JPEGs or PCX files.
We also accept plain ASCII text (.TXT) files without line breaks, with a single space between sentences and a single line between paragraphs. Your word processor or editor should have the option to save in this format.
Do not use tabs or embedded commands (bold/italics, justification, tables, columns etc). If you have special layout requirements, please send a print of the word-processed version of the article to give us a guide. However, we cannot guarantee it will be printed this way due to advertising space and software constraints.
Source code must be saved as plain ASCII text without tabs. Restrict code to 40 characters per line (use continuation characters or code if necessary) to allow for our multiple column format. Ensure that your code is clearly documented internally. You should only include code which illustrates your point, no matter how clever the rest is - keep it simple! Referring to pieces of code to which the reader does not have access only confuses people. Please do not include things which are specific to your setup (eg references to non-standard drive names or sub directories).
Please provide graphics separately to text, marking their preferred location in your text file. We accept PCX format, however, note that not all formats are 'standard' - we have had problems reading some PCX format files because there is more than one PCX standard. BMP, JPEG and GIF are also accepted. If in doubt, contact the Managing Editor well before the copy deadline!
We accept colour or black and white uncropped photographs, but bear in mind that colour will not reproduce as well on internal pages when printed in black and white.
Use UPPER CASE for all file names in your article (eg AUTOEXEC.BAT).
Put the name of the key (as it appears on the keyboard) in mixed case within angle brackets (eg <Ctrl> key).
All dates are of the format 1 October 1993 unless it is meaningful to have it otherwise (eg in source code). Time format is HH.MMpm - with no full stops after pm - and hours are expressed fully - ie 7.00pm not 7pm.
We prefer articles which take up multiples of whole or half pages. A page of text in SIXTEEN BITS is around 1000 words. Advertising is sold per multiple of quarter page. As a general rule, articles should be between 1/2 and 4 pages (including diagrams, code etc), and reviews between 2 and 4 pages (including screen dumps etc).
Write what you know about. If you are unsure of something, research it. The PCUG paperware library is a good starting point. Your article will be much clearer and more enjoyable to read if you are clearly comfortable with the material.
What may seem obvious to you may not be to a beginner, so it's a good idea to get a friend (preferably a computing novice!) to read your article and give you feedback before submitting it.
(Three Letter Acronyms)
Many of the people who read your article are reading about the topic for the first time. If you use acronyms or abbreviations, make sure you spell them out the first time you refer to them, unless they are commonly accepted terms outside the computing arena (such as IBM). Alternatively, create a glossary of terms at the end of your article and refer to it throughout your article.
Ensure your code compiles and works! Test any last minute changes before saving the final version and document your code; you will save our readers a lot of heartache (not to mention your reputation)!
About 25% of our members access the PCUG's electronic bulletin board service, and others access our shareware library. If you are willing to make your program public domain or shareware, why not provide the code separately on a disk for our shareware library, to save people the effort of typing it in from the magazine? Make sure you provide the librarian with some documentation or at least a README.TXT file on the disk to explain how to install and run it. We can arrange someone to review it if required.
New members join the PC Users Group each month. Some people renew late and miss out on one or more issues. Therefore, even if you are a regular contributor, your readers may be seeing your work for the first time. Always try to start your article as if it were the first one you had written - make it stand out, and people will read it!
Take care when referencing previous articles to give a summary of what you covered and in which issue. If people are interested enough, they will ask for back issues, but they need to be able to follow the thread. Likewise, if you say you are going to continue a topic in the next issue, make sure it happens!
People will place a lot of faith in your opinion. Your review should be factual and honest and cover the following:
To assist readers in making comparisons between products, list the following information at the end:
Rate the product in categories from 1 to 5 (5=best) by asking yourself these questions:
Suggested length is 2 to 4 pages including relevant screen dumps/graphics (no more than 2000 words). Your review should be submitted in sufficient time to allow us to seek vendor comment if required.
Two pages of pure text can be pretty boring for the reader. On the other hand, too many pictures or pictures that are irrelevant can rob your article of impact. Used wisely they can help explain complex ideas, add emphasis to your words, or replace words altogether.
Screen dumps are especially useful in reviews. There are a number of shareware packages around which take dumps of screens or single windows. Two are available from the BBS - CAP (for DOS) and SNAPSHOT (for Windows). If you have an idea for an illustration, but don't feel up to creating one yourself, send in a rough idea and we will try to create something appropriate for you. If you have a flair for drawing cartoons, please send them in!
Beginners in particular have difficulty finding articles pitched to their level in the general computing press. We are therefore particularly interested in articles of this nature. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
...don't be discouraged if your first attempt at an article is not printed - the important thing is to keep writing, and to learn from any feedback you receive. Remember, too, that we can't always fit everything we receive into one issue, so your article may be printed in a later issue.
If you would be interested in helping out with the layout of the magazine, please get in touch. It's an excellent way of learning some tricks of the trade, as well as sharing knowledge and meeting a fun team of people.
GOOD LUCK and happy writing...!
Last updated 26 January 1999
Comments to pcug.editor@pcug.org.au