Columbia Daily Spectator
Opinion Section Columnist Application
Spring 2008

The Spectator accepts columnist applications from students at any school affiliated with Columbia University, including graduate schools. Columns are published every two weeks and writers are expected to edit with a deputy opinion page editor before publication. Deadlines will be strictly enforced.

Please type your answers to these questions and e-mail the finished document to specopinion@columbia.edu by January 11.

Please include your phone number in the application.

1. What do you want your beat to be and what makes you qualified to cover it? Why is the Spec the best publication for your column?

2. While we address many issues of national and international importance, the Spectator’s primary role as a newspaper is to examine the problems and hot topics on campus. As a columnist, how will your beat relate to the Columbia community? If you can, name one or two issues, events, etc. that occurred on campus last year that would fall under your beat.

3. Keeping up an 800-word column every two weeks can be challenging in the midst of a busy semester. What makes you think you're capable of handling it? It is also difficult to consistently come up with creative ideas. Please give five fleshed-out column ideas. (More than five welcome)

4. Who are some of your favorite writers (journalists, poets, novelists, etc.)?

5. Please attach a full-length (800 words) sample column. Please take this question seriously—we would like to see the quality of work you intend to publish. This sample must be wholly original and may have not been previously published.