Round and Square Post-Lengths

[a] Big RF

At an unusually productive annual meeting of the Round and Square Board of Trustees, a number of new series were approved, including guidelines for Round and Square postings. From 2014 on, you will see not only several new topics, but—even more significantly—a distinct post-length pattern (and, no, I do not refer to thoroughbred racing). Posts will either be 大 (big) or 小 (small), just like the lunar calendar months throughout the year (or the flush mechanism on a Japanese toilet). This will allow our authors and readers to know clearly the guidelines for each post. 

There are three basic sub-genres on Round and Square.

Small posts (小) are about 300 words. They are meant to highlight a topic or question, to point a way toward analyzing it, and then leave it to the reader to learn more. The maximum length for a "small" post is 500 words. They are not intended to be comprehensive. Their aim is rather to intrigue readers in something longer than a tweet and shorter than a full-length post. They are stand-alone pieces. Although they appear under a "topic" (e.g. "Newsprint Nonpareil"), they never continue onto a second day. What you read is what you get.

[b] Small RF

Large posts (大) are about 1,000 words. If a contributor submits a longer piece, the editors may choose to break it into a series (see below). 1,000 words is about the perfect length for an extended, but not voluminous, treatment of a topic. The maximum length for a "large" post is 1,200 words.

Continued (續) posts are formed from a series of "long" posts, and are numbered sequentially, with the same overall topic name (e.g. "Longevity Mountain). They are the way that Round and Square writers can dive into a topic and write the equivalent of a full-length treatment on a subject. These essays can be found in almost every "topic" that has been posted on the blog. For example, the September 2012 series on football punting strategies and brain research combined six individual (long) posts into a full treatment of the topic. It is a little bit like William Shawn's New Yorker, where articles might appear over a three, four...or more...week span. They are always linked, so that readers can navigate easily from the end of one section to the beginning of another.

Introductory (序) posts and Resource Centers are the foundation for all work on Round and Square. There is a separate introduction for each topic on the blog. These range from about 1,000 words to many more. They are meant to be thorough, and are not limited to a thousand words. Introductions longer than 2,000 words will appear as "continuous" posts. Resource Centers link all posts in a topic on a single page, so that readers can navigate within any topic in the series.

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Go to the "Topics" column on the right side of the home page and poke around a little. You'll see a wide variety of posts, 大 and 小.

[c] Continuous RF