Style & Policy
GENERAL INFORMATION
Purpose and use of this style guide
This Style Guide is a support for contributing users of whyzz, providing guiding principals and an outline for the general practices, missions, and goals of this site in order to make it easier for users to contribute and to help whyzz guarantee high standards.
*whyzz reserves the right to make changes to these policies at any time, without notification. If you have any questions about the information contained within this guide, please email info@whyzz.com or click here to be directed to our FAQs.
Mission
The mission of whyzz is to help parents quickly and accurately respond to their curious child’s questions in an engaging, fulfilling manner whenever and wherever they are asked.
Articles produced for whyzz should bear this goal in mind and aim to be informative as well as creative.
STYLE
Tone
The audience of whyzz are the parents and caregivers of children ages 4-7. Content published on the site is best described as engaging, fact-based, simple, and creative. Articles should do their best to describe even the most complex ideas in simple terms. Where appropriate, children should also be encouraged to seek further knowledge or to explore how the answers to their questions play into their own lives. whyzz aims to teach its young audience to be open-minded individuals and have respect for all living creatures and natural habitats. Content should encourage youthful imagination and curiosity, and should also reflect and honor the emotional perceptions of children.
Of course, contributors are encouraged to always think “outside the box” and look for new ways engage old practices, as well as opportunities for creating their own voice.
Article formats
There are three article formats available for contributing users:
(1) “Short Answer Only”: For the majority of questions, which can be answered easily and thoroughly in a shorter amount of space, approximately 100-150 words. This configuration has two sections only: the space for the answer and a second optional space for including ideas for further exploration or experimentation.
(2) “Further Information”: For questions which cannot be answered in only 100-150 words, this set-up allows for a summary answer of 100-150 words, followed by bullet points which help clarify more about the subject. Like the Short Answer Only format, this configuration also includes space at the end for ideas to experiment or explore beyond the answer.
(3) “Short Story”: Like the other two formats, this type of article also begins with a short narrative answer, approximately 100-150 words, and ends with a segment for exploration or experimentation. In this format, a middle section is available for contributing an original short story that supplements the information in the answer.
Editing
Prior to being published on the site, user contributions are reviewed by whyzz staff for accuracy, content, and consistency with these guidelines. Answers are then published after they are determined to be appropriate.
When necessary, whyzz editors will publish excerpts from user contributions instead of the entire article. This will only happen when an article is too long for publication or contains portions of inappropriate, non-verifiable, or unnecessary material. whyzz desires to publish as many user articles as possible, and staff will always do their best to find portions within every article that can be used. Edited portions appearing from longer articles will always be clearly marked as such.
Occasionally, whyzz editors will also include a short commentary or introduction to a user article, to explain or further clarify something not appearing within the article itself. Like edited portions, these remarks will always be clearly marked as Editor’s Notes, differentiated from the user’s article.
POLICY
Language and appropriate content
Because whyzz is a learning tool for children, it is of utmost importance that all information appearing on the site be appropriate in content and language. Most specifically:
- whyzz only publishes fact-based material; articles that answer questions using religiously-based, false, non-verifiable, or completely fictional material will not be published.
- Contributors should take every precaution to make sure that children will not draw any false conclusions from the articles, particularly in regards to health and safety. whyzz will not publish any content which might provoke dangerous behavior.
- Children should always be reminded to “check with a trusted adult” when being encouraged to explore an idea further in the real world.
- All articles should do their best to anticipate what a child may do and prevent them from dangerous behavior or non-constructive conclusions about the world.
- Swearing or cursing of any kind will not be tolerated or published by whyzz.
- whyzz articles are always positive, never creating fear or worry.
Sensitive issues
whyzz aims to be sensitive to the variety of backgrounds and experiences which the child audience may bring to the site. If or when whyzz articles need to address issues such as death, global problems, serious illness, and so on, professionals and specialists with experience working with children will be hired as contributors.
To increase the dependability of content, these more serious topics are answered exclusively by dedicated experts, never by users or whyzz Staff Writers. Unfortunately, whyzz will not be able to publish user articles written regarding sensitive and difficult subject areas.
Sources and citations
Contributing users are expected to maintain integrity and check the reliability of sources when obtaining facts or other information used in the composition of material for the site. All contributed material should be original work.
Any contributor who uses material that needs to be cited is expected to provide the appropriate information for this citation. Whyzz will not tolerate plagiarism, and any user who contributes unoriginal material without proper citation or submits it as if it were his or her own work will be held individually responsible for these actions.