On July 29, I posted the first of a two-part series on how college students who are thinking about becoming professional writers can improve their chances of realizing their dreams. The subhead of the first article was entitled “How College Students Should Improve Their Writing At College.”
This article is about how prospective writers in college can launch their careers via internships at professional publications.
How College Students Should Improve Their Writing Off Campus
In Part I of this two-part series, I gave college students advice on how to improve their writing and reporting skills while working for their college newspaper or magazine and how to build a portfolio of clips that will demonstrate their skills in various writing styles and writing about a multitude of topics.
Now, my advisees need to take the next step — trying to impress people off campus aka employers.
The first thing that students with an excellent portfolio of college publication clips should know is that there are plenty of internships available for people like them. Prospective journalists should first seek a part-time internship during the school year or a full-time internship during the summer. The focus should be on applying to community newspapers and/or small publications that cover a specialized topic such as business or sports.
Smaller publications are more likely than larger publications to give inexperienced writers a chance to write. Thus, the best route for college students is to first work for a small publication. Learn as much as you can with an eye toward working for a medium-sized publication. That means studying those publications and meeting people from those publications while you’re on your small newspaper beat.
Unfortunately, larger publications are more apt to make interns do work that won’t improve their writing and reporting skills. Thus, college students need to be more selective about accepting a position with a large publication.
Large publications have more openings. Some won’t help you, but some are great opportunities for prospective journalists. Large publications oftentimes prefer interns who recently graduated college, but they will also hire students who are between their junior and senior years. You have a better chance of getting hired if you worked for small and medium-sized publications earlier in your college career.
Publications are also more likely to hire students who have won writing awards. College students shouldn’t be shy about entering their best clips in contests, particularly contests judged by professional writing organizations such as the Society of Professional Journalists. I judged a contest last year. So did editors who might be looking for future employees.
Taking the initiative at professional publications is crucial. Waiting for assignments is bad. Offering story ideas is good. Showing a willingness to try to write the kinds of articles that professionals write is better. You’ll fail, but learning from failure will make you a better writer.
Collegians should also explore writing for websites, but they should know that high-quality print publications run a large percentage of the better websites and many of them don’t regard many smaller websites as credible. Starting your own blog can also give you an opportunity to show your writing skills, but the companies that are most likely to offer decent paying jobs might not look at self-edited clips.
Students who have specific post-college goals should focus on their specialty. Students who want to be a real estate writer, for example, should seek an internship with a specialized real estate publication and should also consider working for a real estate company rather than a general interest newspaper.
Writing versatility is less important for specialists. Writing technically detailed articles is more important. Writing flair is less important. Writing depth is more important. Writing for publications with a large readership is less important. Writing for publications that pay specialized writers well is more important.
There’s one other thing college students should know — although many publications don’t pay students and interns well, a large percentage of editors genuinely prefer working with young people to working with grizzled veterans and are very willing to help them build an excellent portfolio.
The above photo shows Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford playing The Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward in the movie “All The President’s Men."
I looked up their early experiences. Bernstein wrote for a college newspaper and dropped out to work full time for a New Jersey newspaper. Woodward was a communications officer in the Navy before becoming a reporter.
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