JRN 200: Getting Your Out-of-Class Story Published

Now that you've done a genuinely-reported real story, let's take the next step and get your work published.

In this class, if you get an out-of-class story published by any existing campus or local media, and if you email me a link proving that you've been published, then per the syllabus your final class grade will go up by 0.15 points for every published story.

That means if you get all three published, your 3.5 final grade would turn into a 4.0.

The benefit to you is two-fold: first, you get a better grade. Duh.

Second -- and probably more important to your long-term prospects -- you start building a portfolio. This is very much a field of demonstrated ability; that is, an employer doesn't want to see that you're capable of doing something; they want to see that you've already done it.

Like, write a real story and get it published.

Plus, then you get to add to your resume a line that you worked as a free-lance contributor to whatever publication in the fall of 2013. Even if you get just one story published, that is an accurate line in your resume.

So, where do you get your work published?

Not The State News. Sorry, folks. The paper doesn't take free-lance news submissions. But there are several online campus news organizations that do consider such work -- and which have historically published JRN 200 stories -- including:


Spartan Edge, at spartanedge.com

The Big Green, at thebiggreen.net

Uloop, at msu.uloop.com/main/

People have also had luck at other student-run and professionally-run news organizations. In the past, I've had a few people have luck in getting their hometown newspaper to run their stories, especially if the topic related to issues in their hometowns. I can think of a couple of times where the MSU Greek community newspaper, the Odyssey, did publish JRN 200 work.

So, let's try to contact some media organizations and get you officially stamped as a published journalist. If you need some help in brainstorming where to try and get published, please see me during my office hours.