Take a look at that black bar at the top of the page. “Community Tools” — what’s that? Well, it’s now easier than ever to add your voice to Onward State. From Community Content to submitting tips and links, read on to find out how.

The Community section is your place to speak to the Onward State, and Penn State, community. A Community post is just like a regular post on our site, except submitted by you, our readers. Community content can be opinions, news stories that Onward State hasn’t covered, or a combination of both. When you submit a post and make an account on the site, all of your posts will be easily found on your member page. Here’s an example, and you can customize your picture and add contact info too.

We’d like to keep the Community section as a place for discussion and ideas and not, as former Community Manager Evan Kalikow warned, the “Onward State Free Promotion Corner.” While a press release may be a good way to announce your event, it probably won’t be very interesting to read. A good post is not a copy and paste deal, but rather hooks readers by adding a new perspective to current events. Here’s a guide to some ways you can make your post stand out from all the rest.

You can write a post about anything you want that relates to Penn State or the Penn State community. About two weeks ago, former Onward State writer Ariel Abramowitz wrote about the experience of graduating, and it got at least 897 shares. Full Ammo Improv alumnus Ryan Simmons promoted their latest show with a funny interview. During UPUA election season, John Hanson wrote an interesting piece about the effects of the Greek endorsement on the UPUA presidential election. If you feel passionate about something and want to get your writing out there, go ahead and submit!

And hey, if your post is good enough, we might even hire you. It’s happened before.

You’ll also notice in the “Community Tools” bar options to submit “Press Releases and Tips” and “Links.” If you have anything that you want to let us know about, send it in, and we’ll either send our writers out to cover events or link to content elsewhere on the web.

Community is all about sharing, and we want your voice to be a part of Onward State. Submit today.