Script:
Listen to a conversation in the office of a campus newspaper.
W: Excuse me. Do you work for The Hilltop Journal?
M: Yes. I’m Dan Mac Gregor, the managing editor.
W: Nice to meet you. My name is Rhonda Davis.
M: Hello, Rhonda.
W: —and I’m interested in writing for the campus paper.
M: Are you in the journalism program?
W: No, but I’m an English major with an interest in the performing arts. I’m interested—I’d like to write arts reviews, stories about ... uh ... concerts and films and events in the arts. I’ve already done a lot of this kind of writing.
M: Hmm. We’ve already got a couple of journalism students who write reviews.
W: Do you have to be a journalism major to write for The Journal?
M: Strictly speaking, no. But it helps to be endorsed by a professor in the journalism department. It’s like this. You see, we’re not a big paper to start out with, and the administration just cut our funding, and there are lots of students who want to write for us, so I’m afraid it’s pretty competitive.
W: Really? I guess I didn’t know the full situation.
M: Yeah. We all wish it were different, actually, but you could still try. I mean, you could talk to one of the journalism professors, and show them some of your writing. If they endorse it, you could come back here. I just couldn’t guarantee anything at present. Like I said, our budget was cut, and we had to reduce the size of our paper.
W: Well ... OK, I thought I’d try. Thanks.
M: Wait. Before you go, here’s something else you could try. If you really want to write reviews, you should send something to The Clarion.
W: The city newspaper?
M: Yeah, that’s right. They sometimes print reviews by students. And if they print a few of your stories, they might end up offering you a regular column. It happened before to students from this college.
W: Really? The Clarion. Well, that’s good to know. What would I do, just send something, like, to the editor?
M: Send it to the features editor. That’s the person who edits the Living section, where they print the reviews.
W: Thanks! I really appreciate the information.
M: Do book reviews interest you? Because I think they were looking for a person to review books by local authors. They might have found somebody already for that, but anyway, you could ask about it.
W: Actually, I would be very interested in writing book reviews. As an English major, I’ve got a lot of experience with that!
M: I can imagine.
W: Thank you so much. You’ve been very helpful.
M: No problem. I wish you luck.