Making your voice heard is a key part of getting involved in politics. Voting in an election is important, but real change requires people to stand up and make their voice heard. Speaking up gives us real potential to power positive change by sharing new ideas and challenging those who make decisions that impact us all.

Your views matter, and it’s likely that someone else shares them too. Publishing your opinion in writing is one way to make your voice heard and initiate discussion, plus potential change.

At The Speaker, we’re committed to helping the wider public, and especially young people make their voices heard. Each year, millions of people write blogs and post their opinions on social media, but many struggle to get their opinions seen. The Speaker reaches a growing audience across the globe each month, currently receiving around a quarter of a million views each month across platforms, providing a great and accessible opportunity to speak up.

We accept many different types of writing that we receive for publication and many people have different reasons for writing. Some may just write for a hobby, while others want to influence change. If you’re looking to start a career in journalism, sending your views to a newspaper or online publication is often a good place to start and such experience could even lead you to paid employment.

The Speaker accepts contributions from people from a range of backgrounds, with a range of views and a range of writing abilities. As part of our commitment to empowering young people, we want to provide a platform for many people to find their voice. If you’re unsure about your writing abilities, we’d still encourage you to have a go at writing your thoughts down. You’re welcome to submit content and ask for feedback, and where possible we will get back to you.

Content is checked before publication, but we always recommend double-checking facts, spelling and grammar before hitting submit.

You should know that writing for The Speaker isn’t a commitment or a paid gig. 

The Speaker is a non-profit organisation with a socially-focused mission – we’re committed to having a positive social impact and we don’t have shareholders that profit from external contributions. Our mission is to inspire the next generation in politics – we do this through providing explanatory, understandable content, and providing a platform for young people to find their voice. We are proud of proud of our impact to date, and hope that providing this opportunity continually allows people a platform to talk about real issues, to gain experience in writing, and to help inspire future generations of voters and political leaders.

We receive and publish a wide variety of contributions about key political topics. Most contributions we receive are opinion pieces, though some contributors who have contributed before or are experts in a particular field sometimes share pieces of analysis or explainers for our audiences.

We’ve listed some basic guidelines here, but there’s no exact formula to a great piece of writing, so try and be creative. Usually, the best pieces we see consider opposition to their arguments and explain why they can be challenged. As you may expect, we don’t publish contributions which are clearly designed to be offensive, are false or promote violence or illegal activity.

• 400-2000 words
• Covers Topics Which Are Related To Politics
• Covers Topics Which Impact The Wider Public
• Construct A Clear Argument – Don’t Shout On Paper Or Online
• Opinions Welcome From All Ages, Anywhere In The World

For more details, see our Contributors’ Terms, which apply to all contributions made to The Speaker.

We welcome single pieces of writing, but many contributors also wish to contribute again. Opinions can change and new topics can arise, so you’re welcome to contribute whenever you like. Unfortunately, we can’t guarantee we’ll always be able to publish contributions though.

Contributing regularly isn’t expected, a commitment or a paid gig, but we do like to recognise our regular contributors and help them raise their profile by displaying some information about them on our website. People that contribute to The Speaker regularly may have author profiles on our website, and may be invited to community events related to The Speaker from time to time.

For more about The Speaker, check our Meet The Speaker page.

For our latest content, click here.

If you’d like to find out more about contributing to The Speaker, you can Get In Touch here.

For more ways to get involved in politics and/or social action, check our Get Involved page.