Trip Report Guidelines for Torque

If asked or you have volunteered to write a trip report for publication in the bi-monthly RRCV Club magazine ‘Torque’ here are few ideas to help you construct your piece of writing.

In broad terms….

• tailor the length to the length of the trip. That is, a day trip report would be considerably shorter (one to two pages plus photos) than an extended outback touring trip (2-3 paragraphs per day plus photos) occurring over several weeks.
• a record of ALL the tracks and roads travelled is not required. A report which includes trip highlights and some of the more unique or interesting things that happen on the trip makes for better reading for other club members.
• it is worth noting in your report things such as a great riverside picnic spot, good campsite, amazing view or other natural feature that other members, not on the trip, may like to visit at a future date.
• Torque is circulated outside the RRCV so be mindful of your audience and choice of words. Adverse commentary, ‘in-jokes’ and stories of behaviours that do not reflect well on our club should be left out of your report - use the the old adage “if in doubt leave it out”.
• it is often nice to include the perspective of a passenger, either child or adult.
• do not worry about the formatting or layout of your report – a simple Word or text document is best for importing into our magazine layout software.
• pictures are welcome (essential really!), but please DO NOT embed or format them into your document. Photo files (preferably .JPGs) should be sent as separate attachments.
• the higher the resolution of a picture the better. Pictures taken on cameras and smart phones are usually fine but please avoid using images from websites as they can be quite grainy when printed.
• if you want particular pictures to appear in specific places then each image needs to be numbered and its preferred location within the text very clearly marked. If captions are required on images then they must be short and supplied with their associated image. NB: the location of images within reports may be affected by other factors but every effort will be made to locate them where indicated by the writer, BUT remember the instructions need to be very clear.
• please avoid using footnotes or live web links in your article as they can create some formatting problems. If you directly quote material from another publication please ensure it is identified/credited appropriately.

And finally before sending it to editors@rangeroverclub.org.au

1. please read your document out aloud to either yourself or someone else – it’s amazing what you pick up through this process.
2. Torque copy deadline is the 15th of the month prior to publication (eg15 June is the deadline for the July-August edition) so please make every effort to send your completed report through in time for publication in the agreed edition.