<p>dear parents,
i'm a freshman at a top college and i would like to start a blog that has content from my student body regarding issues on campus/in the real world. if you were to read something like this, what would you like to read about? i must point out that this is not a "school newspaper" style blog, its more op-ed. </p>
<p>thanks for your suggestions,
me.</p>
<p>I'd rather read the online version of the school newspaper.</p>
<p>actually, one of my D's schools has student blogs on-line that you can link from the school's website, and although I think they're more geared toward prospective students, I've enjoyed reading them.</p>
<p>I'm glad that you asked. I'd like to hear about what students are doing in class and in their extracurricular activities in the campus and community. I'd like the blog to include the kind of telling details that would make the blog interesting to people in general, not just to people who happen to know the blogger.</p>
<p>My S's college website has several student bloggers, and unfortunately, I find their blogs to be very dull because they provide details about their lives, but not things that would be interesting to people in general. For a student who recently returned from a semester studying abroad wrote only a few lines about their study abroad experience, and instead wrote more about their travels when they returned home to their family and girlfriend.</p>
<p>What I would have liked to have learned about instead would have been descriptions of the content of their academics during their study abroad program and what their day to day life was then: Specific anecdotes about what it was like adjusting to a new culture, making friends, what their classes were like, how they related to the students' general college experience, etc.</p>
<p>Bloggers for colleges need to be aware that many people are reading their blogs to find out what their own lives or their kids' lives would be like if they were attending that college. I want to know what kind of interesting things happen in classes, what kind of assignments the student gets, what happens during extracurricular activities. "I had a great time over the weekend" or "I was really busy this week studying for midterms" is too general. </p>
<p>The bloggers need to write for their prospective audiences, not for themselves. Doing these kind of blogs is different than writing a diary, which is just for one's personal use.</p>
<p>The student perspective is one that like hearing. Like NSM I want to hear about classes and student life. Also I would like to hear stories that illustrate a message. Not the "don't procrastinate" message but the..."this is how I dealt with my procrastination and what ended up happening"message. I also would like bloggers to represent a wide spectrum of students so that the frat blogger, the athlete, the student government guy, the community service junkie and the substance free blogger would all be represented. </p>
<p>I hope it works out for you and thanks for asking us.</p>
<p>Think of today's bloggers as yesterday's newspaper columnist from the lifestyle or community section. </p>
<p>A typical article may take an ordinary looking person on campus and show the unusual thing about them, or the flip side - an unusual person you might run into on campus and show how they are just like anyone else.</p>
<p>Write about a local tradition and how it evolves with each passing class.</p>
<p>And for the truly difficult assignment, find a person, place and tradition that would otherwise seem unrelated and show how they work together in the rythm of life on campus.</p>
<p>And while not every article you write will strike a chord with most of your audience, there should be frequent enough items of interest where most will check back from time to time, and over time they will become more interested in the things they may have ignored earlier.</p>
<p>That is how you build your audience (in both senses of the phrase).</p>
<p>this is all great advice. i was hoping to cover some of the things many of you mentioned....mainly the unheard of, edited material that is not covered in the school newspapers- what happens in classes, dining hall gossip, etc. </p>
<p>i was hoping to keep posts under 100 words....something short and sweet, but not too long. What do you guys think? should i focus on quick snippets or more lengthy investigations into matters? or maybe a combo of both?</p>
<p>As a future parent of college student(s)..I'd be interested in hearing about safety..maybe something that would make me feel better about the students living in a safe environment (lol..this is paranoid, but I'd still be interested).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>