Summer is coming, and you could spend it any old boring way — loafing around your hometown, toiling away in Summer classes, working your butt off at an internship or backpacking through Europe on a cliched mission for self discovery.
Or you could apply to write a weekly column for the largest student-run newspaper in the U.S.!
The Alligator prints biweekly during Summer semesters — Tuesdays and Thursdays — and is looking for highly opinionated Carl Hiaasens, Maureen Dowds or Dave Barrys to inform, educate and aggravate our readers with well-written columns about — well, whatever you want.
Whether you’re a political aficionado or a pop-culture junkie, we want to hear from you. The best part is, you don’t necessarily have to be in Gainesville. Our regular columnists usually submit their copies through email, so if you’re holed up at home in, say, Tampa or writing from your tablet on the beaches of Cancun, you’re still eligible to contribute columns.
If you’re interested in becoming a columnist, you should submit a resume, a brief cover letter explaining why you’d be a good fit for the position and a short explanation of your political persuasion — conservative, liberal, libertarian, socialist, etc., to opinions@alligator.org. The deadline to apply is May 11 — Mother’s Day. Only UF and Santa Fe College students are eligible for columnist positions, which are unpaid.
Please keep in mind that Republican and Democrat are parties, not ideologies.
If you have been previously published or keep a blog, please send three examples of your work. If you have not been published before, you may send two 500- to 600-word writing samples demonstrating what your work for the Alligator would be like.
Applicants should be able to produce articulate, thought-provoking analyses and commentary on current events. Anything is fair game: domestic and foreign politics, pop culture, health, environmental issues, personal finance, sex and relationships, issues facing minority communities and campus and local politics.
We’re looking for strong writers familiar with basic elements of style and who have a passion for deadlines and AP Style. A sharp sense of humor helps; after all, you’ll catch more flies with one-liners than with vitriol.
And if you don’t make the cut? Never fear! We still strongly encourage you to submit guest columns and letters to the editor. If you have questions about submitting guest columns or letters to the editor, feel free to email opinions@alligator.org.
Alligator columnists earn more than just a line on their resume: As a columnist, you have the opportunity to build a professional portfolio of published clips to show future employers your ability to communicate clearly, write with authority and poise, meet deadlines and work with editors.
Plus, you can mail your grandma clips to show off to her book club friends. Everyone wins.
[A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 4/22/2014 under the headline "Wanted: Summer 2014 columnists and cartoonists"]
