We welcome submission of guest essays for The Seattle Times’ Under Our Skin project. We are interested in essays with thoughtful reactions to and respectful critiques of the project. The ideal word length is between 300 and 500 words. Below are some guidelines on how to submit a guest essay.

• We prefer submissions to be made by email. To ensure your submission will be considered in the most timely fashion, please send it to underourskin@seattletimes.com.
• Please include the text of the submission in the body of the email or in an attached Microsoft Word document. Please do not send us files in PDF format.
• Please include the author’s name and topic in the subject line of the email. We do not publish guest essays written anonymously or under pseudonyms.
• Please include a headshot, minimum size 30 KB, and a biography of 30 words or less.
• Please include Web URLs for statistics, facts and reports mentioned in your submission.

• Tell us how your on-the-ground experiences have informed your opinions. Specific examples will make your essay stronger.
• Be civil. It’s perfectly appropriate to strongly criticize ideas, reasoning or positions that you disagree with. But it is not appropriate to make personal attacks.
• Present the case from the top down. It’s usually better to begin with the premise of your opinion rather than assembling the facts and presenting a conclusion at the end.
• Consider including photos, videos or other visual elements that will help tell your story.
• Please don't use jargon. Use common English.

Have more questions? Contact the Under Our Skin project team at underourskin@seattletimes.com