12) About the Writer: Writing Effective Writer Biographies (OUTDATED)
As discussed before, incorporating EAT helps enhance content quality and helps more people discover the developed content.
Apart from ensuring EAT within our content, we need to ensure that we have effective writer biographies that support the developed content.
In this discussion, we will understand how to ensure effective writer biographies through applying EAT and other best practices.
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Expertise
- When considering the expertise factor for author biographies, expertise refers to the credentials or experience the author has.
- Medical content is best supported/expertised through medical professionals, for example, and similarly, relevant experience or education qualifies as expertise.
- However, if one does not have a degree, expertise can be demonstrated through lived experience or other ways. For example, being an active listener for 7 Cups for 3 years does demonstrate expertise in listening and supporting mental health concerns.
Note: To keep up with the Expertise factor’s need, 7 Cups currently either pairs content writers with experts and content is published through the expert profile with the writer biography contained at the end of the co-authored article, or publishes writer works through a shared account called “7 Cups Community, Global Support” - the biography of this account is optimized to reflect EAT.
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Authoritativeness
- Authority in terms of an author biography refers to the number of citations the author has. This includes their publications and other published content, as well as any reviews or things that show the impact or quality of their work.
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Trust
- Trust is also determined by an author’s citations - trusted authors have published content for websites and publications that score high on EAT factors.
- Trust is also established through the quality of an author’s content.
Activity
Using the factors discussed above, write a biography for your prospective articles at 7 Cups. Feel welcome to include your real name/pseudonym or first name - anything you are comfortable with being prospectively published!
After you have written the brief paragraph-form biography, point out what parts of the biography highlight each of the EAT factors.
Respond to at least one other student’s biography and comment your feedback for improvement.
Bonus (Optional): Consider starting a 7 Cups creator portfolio here!
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This post is brought to you by the Content Development and Marketing Program, find out more information about the program here
Raven2711 has been a trained Active Listener with 7cups since 2017. Initially starting out as a member, seeking support while struggling with depression, anxiety and self-harm, they made the jump over to being a listener as they wanted to help others who were in the same place. In the years since first signing up, Raven2711 has gone through many unexpected issues with health, trauma and phobias.
As difficult as their journey has been, Raven2711 has not let it keep them down as they are now more determined than ever. They have used their experiences as a way to relate to people who have been through a similar situation. They have posted about their experiences and their growth on their social media and blog, with the goal of helping even one person feel less alone.
Expertise - Trained Active Listener and my lived experience with mental health issues.
Authoritativeness – Posts on social media and blog.
Trust – Honestly I’m not sure how to answer this one. I hope to achieve trust in the future through posting effective and well-written pieces.
@Raven2711
I think that for trust, you may be able to list any forum posting you've done or any community socializing you've done on the site in general! Great job.
@SoulfullyAButterfly
Nicole, or HopefulWrench as she goes by on the site, has been an active listener on 7 Cups since April 2024. Nicole is also a room supporter for the Bipolar Support room and enjoys hosting guided discussions there. She has recently completed her 7 Cups internship and hopes to grow more on the site by completing other academy programs.
Expertise - I listed my "credentials" as they are related to 7 Cups.
Authoritative - I create forums and am a room supporter for the Bipolar Support group.
Trust - I have created a circle of members and listeners who join my group weekly and am reliable and attentive.
@HopefulWrench
I love how concise and relevant you made your biography! It highlights the EAT criteria well. I'm not sure what I could suggest for improvement :)
@SoulfullyAButterfly
Mara, known as AwesomeForever34 on 7 Cups, originally joined as a listener six years ago. After a break, she returned to the community in July 2023 looking to support others through active listening, participating in forum discussions, completing training programs and learning through internship opportunities. Currently a healthcare student, Mara hopes to grow her passion for writing and supporting others through the Content Development and Marketing program.
Expertise: time on 7 Cups, healthcare student.
Authoritativeness: completed trainings, forum discussion participation.
Trustworthiness: continued learning, active listening, internship programs.
side note - writing your own biography is hard!
This post is no longer a part of CDM coursework. Please refer to the updated posts available in the requirements list sent to you.
