Guidelines for Authors
Important - GNU
The book will be released under the GNU Free Documentation Licence (GFDL) and so all contributions must be your own work or have no copyrights attached to them. The GFDL can be read here.
What is required of you as a volunteer...
In order to help you get an idea of what is required we have summarised the main points that must be kept in mind when contributing content. The guidelines apply to writing and editing. Use this FHSST Formatting Reference Manual for more details on how the content should be formatted in Latex.
- Allowed Formats for Submitting Content
Content can be submitted in one of the following formats:
- html
- rich text
- Latex
More details on the formats can be found here
- Assignment Descriptions
Detailed descriptions of what is required is provided for each available assignment. The guidelines should help you get an idea of what is required, in terms of content, exercises, activities, etc. More details can be found here
- Syllabus Requirements
Most of the assignment description focusses on the content required by the syllabus. Please ensure that all the topics required by the syllabus are covered to the indicated level of detail. If you are unsure of anything in the syllabus requirements, please post a question in the relevant book forum, and the book coordinators will help you out.
- Outcomes Based Education (OBE) Issues
The new South African curriculum is outcomes based. This means that the outcome is defined and the learner learns what he/she needs to in order to achieve the outcome. For example, one of the outcomes of the physical science is:
Use process skills, critical thinking, scientific reasoning and strategies to investigate and solve problems in a variety of scientific, technological, environmental and everyday contexts.
This learning outcome incorporates such skills as being able to design and conduct an experiment, being able to analyse the data from an experiment to draw conclusions, and to be able to present a report of your conclusions. These are vital skills that a scientist must have and is taught through the learner performing activities that teach these skills.
Simple experiments, group discussions, exercises, debates, etc. must be provided to support the aim of OBE.
- Submitting Content for Evaluation
Once you are satisfied with what you have written/edited, you can submit it for evaluation. Evaluators will compare your contribution with what is required and rate the contribution accordingly. More details can be found here.
- Language Level
The book is aimed at high school learners, some of whom might not speak English as their first language. It is therefore vital that the content be written such that it is easily understood. Content must be written concisely and clearly. In order to ensure readability, try to write content at a reading grade one level below the school grade of the content.
The best way to ensure readability of the content is to avoid long sentences and words containing a large number of syllables. Try to find synonyms with fewer syllables and rather divide one long sentence into two shorter sentences when possible. However, keep in mind that very short sentences can destroy flow and style, so use your initiative to make the call.
Use the test reading level functionality on the FHSST web-site to test the readability level of what you have written.
More details and examples can be found here.
- Units
There has been much uncertainty about how to format units.
- Units should not be italicised.
- There should be a space between the value and the unit. For example, 1 m is correct, 1m is not correct.
- There must be a centre dot between two SI base units.
- The following macros have been defined in Latex:
- \emm - metres in equations
- \es - seconds in equations
- \ms - metres per second in text
- \ems - metres per second in equations
- \mss - metres per second per second in text
- \emss - metres per second per second in equations
- \kph - kilometres per hour in text
- Diagrams
Diagrams must be used as often as possible. It is often much easier to explain a tricky idea with the use of an appropriate figure than a page of words. All diagrams should ideally be Encapsulated Postscript (eps) figures or be created in a Latex picture environment (using e.g. PSTricks). However, any electronic format will be accepted during the writing phase. More details on submitting images can be found here
- Definitions, Interesting Facts, Tips, etc
Definitions, interesting facts, tips, etc should stand out from the surrounding text. Details of how these should be formatted can be found here
For those writing in Latex, the following environments have been defined to make formatting of definitions, interesting facts, tips, etc easier.
-
\Definition{Word to be defined}{Definition}
Example: \Definition{Mass}{A measure of the number of molecules contained in any object.}
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\begin{IFact}{Interesting Fact}\end{IFact}
Example: \begin{IFact}{2005 was declared the International Year of Physics in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Einstein publishing three papers in 1905.}\end{IFact}
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\Method{Heading}{Details of Method}
Example: \Method{How to Bake a Cake}{1. Gather all the ingredients...}
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\Tip{Heading}{Details of Tip}
Example: \Tip{Units}{Ensure that all units are in SI Units before performing all calculations.}
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\Activity{Heading}{Details of OBE activity}
Example: \Activity{Statistics - Minimum, Maximum and Range}{Measure the heights of all learners in your class, to the nearest mm. Determine the minimum, maximum and range of your data. Examine how your data would change if you rounded off the data to the nearest cm.}
-
\begin{wex}{Heading}{Question}{Details of Answer using \westep{} to define steps}\end{wex}
\begin{wex}{Weight}{Determine the weight of an object (mass 50 g) on a planet with a gravitational acceleration of 20\mss}{\westep{Determine how to approach problem}
....}
\end{wex} - Use this FHSST Formatting Reference Manual for more details on how the content should be formatted in Latex.
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- Essays
The books use essays to fill two roles: give learners an indication of where the content that they are learning is used in the real-world and some career guidance. Sample essays can be found here.
Guidelines Only Applicable to Editing
- Convert all text to Latex, if the text is in another format.
- Ensure that the language used to describe the concepts are understandable by second language English speakers, around 15 years old.
- Describe some activities that the learners could do to make them understand how the topics are applied in the real-world.
- In those cases where specific ideas for activities are provided in the guidelines, these must be adhered to, because following
them will ensure that the OBE requirements are met. - The content must be relevant to the chapter and of interest to a 15-year old.
- The content should 'flow' from section to section.
- Try to address any issues raised in any Notes or 'To Do' sections in the text.
- If you are unsure about something, please post your questions in the forum.
Volunteer Roles
Volunteers on the FHSST workspace can assume many roles. Details can be found here.
Click here to view some Frequently Asked Questions and their Answers relating to volunteer roles.