CHAPTER 11-1

Briefs: Possible topics for short articles

Ideas for short, entertaining, tightly written articles (fewer than 600 words) are all around you. To help stir your creative juices, consider this list.

1. Compare the five most popular majors on campus with the five most in-demand job skills in the marketplace. Do you find any correlation?

2. Ratemyprofessors.com allows college students across the United States to praise or denigrate their instructors. What effect (if any) do the “reviews” have on students and teachers? Do they hurt or help? Do students check the website before signing up for a class?

3. Living well on the cheap: Research and create a list of freebees for students who are on a tight budget. Include church suppers, rent-a-dress opportunities, free films at libraries, no-admission days at museums, discounted concert and theater tickets, film festival specials and websites for reduced flights. Plan to publish the feature at the beginning of the school year to benefit students unfamiliar with the community.

4. Five questions that employers are the most likely to ask job candidates.

5. Many A-list celebrities are having twins (Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Mariah Carey, etc.). Is this trend evident on your campus? How many sets of twins are enrolled? Do they think alike? Look alike? Room together? Choose the same majors?

6. Left-handed people supposedly make up 20 percent of the population. Talk to several lefties—faculty and students. Is it true they’re more creative? Are they drawn to certain professions/majors? What accommodations does your university make for lefties (desks, sports equipment, musical instruments)? (Hotbox possibility: Three of our past four presidents have been lefties. Name them.)

7. Many employers are impressed by résumés that indicate a job applicant has engaged in volunteer activity during their college years. Research and write about opportunities for students to engage in community service. A sidebar might be a short interview with a corporate recruiter for thoughts about which type of volunteerism is most impressive.

8. Weekend warriors: Interview a male and a female member of the National Guard who are paying their ways through college by serving in the military.

9. Superlatives can result in fun stories. Identify/interview students on campus who are the oldest and the youngest, have traveled the furthest to enroll, have had the most majors, etc.

10. Second acts: Find and interview three people who have returned to campus to retrain for an entirely different career than they’ve had. Some people seek a new career that is more fulfilling, such as teaching or the ministry. Others retrain to prepare for a better-paying or more secure profession.