Writing Articles

If you’d like to write for College Magazine, the first thing you should do is get on our radar by submitting a writing sample. [Click here to submit your writing sample]. Then, while you’re waiting to hear back from our editors, visit the articles section of our website and read our content. This is the best way to get to know us, and getting to know us is the best way to deliver content that we’ll want to publish. With that said, these are some of the characteristics we look for in our contributor’s articles. Consider them Spark Notes.

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•    College Magazine articles both inform and entertain—This doesn’t mean that your article has to be a well-footnoted treatise, nor does it mean that it should contain a mini-stand-up routine. When readers finish your article they should #1: know something that they didn’t know before, #2: feel compelled to share it with their friends and #3: want to read another article written by you.

•    College Magazine articles are true—We do occasionally run editorials or self-consciously silly pieces, but far more often, College Magazine articles reflect some true aspect of college life. This means your article should be well-researched and checkable. Most involve interviews with more than one person in order to gain different viewpoints on a subject. Don’t be shocked, but you may have to do some serious research. This can run the gamut from seeing a live concert for our local band reviews to clicking through state legal websites to find out how many fake ids were confiscated that year to tracking down students with the most unusual majors.

•    College Magazine articles reflect life on campus, not just life on your campus— For some stories, a “slice-of-life” approach, focusing specifically on one person or one group on one campus, works well, but for many others, you will have to stretch your limits some and investigate what is going on at other campuses around you. Don’t limit your reporting to your campus alone.

•    College Magazine articles are a team effort—We have a staff of editors who will work with you to craft the best possible article for our readers. Be prepared to revise your article. Be receptive to their feedback, but don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself—if you feel strongly about a part of your article that doesn’t need changing, let us know. You’re part of the team too, no less or more so than the editors.

Anything Else I Should Know?

•    College Magazine publishes content in three different ways—Your article may be featured on one or all three of them. #1. Print: Distributed on campuses in the Washington-Baltimore area September, November, February and April.  #2. Online: Where our content becomes interactive and expands to video, comments, voting, and blogging. #3. E-newsletter: Articles brought to students inboxes every three weeks [Click here to get our e-newsletter]

•    Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines—Yes, we take them seriously. If you can’t meet them, then don’t write for us. When you’re assigned an article, your editor will give you a due date. You’ll have 10 days for 150-400 words, 12 days for 400-700 words, and 15 days for 700-1000 words. That said, we recognize that you’re a student: your editor will work closely with you to ensure that your assignments at any one time can be varied to fit in with your school work.

Great. Sign me up….Now what am I signing up for?

•    Contributing Writer—This is where it all starts, writing articles for College Magazine on an article-by-article basis. Contributing Writers are the foot soldiers of the College Magazine Army. To get here, you submitted your writing sample online, heard back from our editors, selected an assignment from our article list, and submitted your article on deadline. Our editors will work closely with you to answer any questions along the way, provide constructive feedback and help improve the quality of your writing. Each Contributing Writer is a potential Staff Writer.

•    Staff Writer—If you’ve been published twice with College Magazine and have proven to be reliable, then we’d love to have you join us as staff writer. Staff Writers are College Magazine Marines—highly motivated, loyal and lethal. You are the student that takes initiative and craves the challenging articles. You are professional, competent and a team player. We’ll ask you to brainstorm and pitch your own ideas for the magazine; since we expect you to put in more work, you’ll get more power to shape the magazine.

•    Feature Writer—College Magazine’s Special Forces. You can be nominated for this position if you are a staff writer who has created a professional-quality body of work and has impressed not only your own Editor, but also the editorial staff as a whole. As a feature writer, you are responsible for writing cover stories—which includes extensive interviews with the cover student, organizing the cover photo shoot and formulating complimentary pieces: sidebars, web tie-ins, video interviews everything.

•    Editor—Best not to think of them as Commanding Officers, but rather as logistical specialists. Editors manage the big picture: assigning articles, offering the writers feedback on them and recommending eventual destinations. If you are currently an editor for a college level publication, you may apply for this position. Staff Writers and Feature Writers may also apply for an editor’s position. E-mail our editorial department at editorial@collegemagazine.com with your resume and cover letter telling us why you would rock out as a College Magazine Editor.

•    Editorial Intern—Selected candidate who is pursing a degree in journalism, English, or communication and has previous experience in writing for a college-level publication. The editorial intern receives course credit and dedicates ten hours a week to College Magazine assignments. The responsibilities include working with contributing writers, writing and editing articles, recruiting new writers, writing press releases, creating media attention and fact-checking stories for accuracy. Also assists the Editor-in-Chief to maintain a fresh article list, prospect potential cover stories, develop a layout for each issue and assist Feature Writers. Students must apply for this position by submitting a resume, cover letter and writing sample to editorial@collegemagazine.com.