Temporary Reporter/Writer Intern

Boulder, Colorado

CU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. We are committed to creating a workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and we encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

Research

Writing

Editing, Updates, and Posting

Assignments. Stories and other tasks (e.g., posting book notices, will be assigned by the editor. Each assignment will include a deadline. The expectation is that the deadline will be met; if circumstances, such as delays in interviews or unforeseen obstacles in background research, prevent a deadline's being met, the expectation is that the writer will discuss this with the editor before deadline.

Regular meetings. Each intern will meet with the editor once a week at a mutually agreed-upon time to discuss story progress, new assignments, suggestions on written submissions etc.

Background research. Most story assignments require writers to conduct background research before interviewing sources. Pre-interview research is important for several reasons, as faculty members are busy and should not be asked to provide information that can be gathered independently. Writers represent the dean's office and should be well informed when conducting interviews. Research helps writers develop stronger questions and produce higher-quality stories. Background research may include: reading and highlighting relevant journal articles; reviewing publicly available information (e.g., through Google searches) to identify documents, publications, or statements made by the interview subject; searching for articles, news stories, or other public materials related to the subject of the story; gathering context and background information that will inform the interview and writing process.

Interview requests. Interview requests should be made with minimum standards of professional decorum. In practice, this means that an interview request should be made in formal, not informal language. Faculty members should be addressed as "professor" or "doctor" until the faculty member signals that it's OK to address them less formally.

Each interview request should clearly state your affiliation with the magazine, the topic you want to discuss and the length of time you anticipate the interview will last. If you do not know if the faculty member is familiar with Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine (some are not), it is advisable to include a sentence summarizing the publication (see above).

Each interview request should begin with a formal salutation (e.g., "Dear Professor Smith") and end with a respectful closing, such as "Sincerely."

Remember that, while most faculty members and students are happy to discuss their work or accomplishments, some do not like publicity, have had an unpleasant experience with another reporter and/or are simply too busy to meet with you. It's a good practice to thank the prospective interviewee for considering your request.

Interviews. Preparation for an interview is critical to a successful interview. You do not want to ask basic questions that could be easily answered by a cursory review of an abstract or published biographical sketch. Prior to an interview, the interviewer should have a list of questions based on the background research the interviewer has done.

While having a list of questions is important, it is equally important to be willing and able to depart from a pre-set list of questions mid-interview. Remember that you are not the expert in the field; the interviewee is, and she is best able to steer the interview in the direction she feels is most relevant.

Also remember that the quality of an interview is often affected by the rapport between interviewer and interviewee. It's a good idea to begin an interview by thanking the interview subject for her time and to make some brief small talk, which can be as simple as, "How are you today?"

Writing and editing. The form of writing you will use most often is called "inverted pyramid" style writing. This is newspaper writing, and it is called "inverted pyramid" because the most important facts are placed at the top of the story. In theory, each subsequent paragraph contains either less-important information or elaboration on the summary on the top of the story.

In some cases, as in long feature stories, we will choose not to adhere to inverted-pyramid writing, instead opting for narrative or other means of introducing the story. Regardless of how a story is begun, the reader should have a clear idea of the topic of the story within the first two sentences.

Editing is part of the writing process. Before submitting a story, a writer is expected to review, hone, polish and try to perfect a story as much as possible. This means, among other things, asking oneself if the story is clear, if it contains unanswered questions, if there are undefined terms, if it is tightly focused, if it contains no surprises for the reader and if its grammar and punctuation are correct.

Once the story is submitted to the editor, the editor will review the piece, generally making any suggested changes in track-changes mode in Word, then sending the piece back to the writer for discussion, revision and review. At that point, the writer will submit the piece to the subject or subjects of the story for review. This is done to help ensure that each piece is accurate and free from critical omissions.

Photos or other graphic illustrations. The writer will be expected to ask subjects of stories if they have any photographs or other illustrations that would help readers understand the material in the story. Additionally, the writer will be expected to ask for "mug shots" of each subject. If a subject has no photos, we can arrange for photos to be taken. Resize and post images and streaming video as appropriate.

We anticipate that this position will last through the end of the semester in late December.

The hourly rate for this part-time position is $18.90

Be creative. Be impactful. Be Boulder.