New Semester, Old Lessons

Let's start out the Fall semester with a simple reminder: You are reporter or editor at a student newspaper writing for students about things that interest students. So write stories you would want to read. A common problem in stories written by college students everywhere is that they forget their audience. Make your story interesting enough that even you would read this story. How do you do that? Here are five simple things to remember during the reporting and writing process.

1. Find a student perspective
   
2. Use a student in the lead, or least make one of your early sources a student
   
3. Answer the questions that a student would have when reading about the topic
   
4. Don't get bogged down in the minutia of what the official sources want you to think is important
   
5. Students have short attention spans, so write to a length that they are actually going to read.