Magazine Project Instructions!

You will be writing your own magazine. You may work with up to two other people for your magazine or you may work alone, but each member of the magazine will be required to complete various articles and features. See rubric below for length details.

 

The magazine you are writing for should be more intellectual and studious than a simple advertising magazine, sports or fashion magazine. Aim more toward The Atlantic, Harper's, Time, or The New Republic and less on GQ or Teen.

 

First you have to decide on your target audience. Who are you writing for essentially? What genre will your magazine cover? Will this be a travel magazine, or a health magazine, or a news magazine, or an artsy-fartsy magazine, etc.? This will help determine the kind of feature articles and advertising or photographs you can use.

 

Your magazine must:

• Have a front and back cover.
• Your cover page must have the title of the magazine, a eye-catching dominant graphic (often showcasing what feature(s) are in this issue) and might include eye-catching text.
• The back cover is typically an ad, but you can also use the space to include information about the next issue or include another dominant graphic.
• Your first page should be a table of contents indicating title, page #, and name of the author of each of your feature articles. Your title page could also include a photo or advertisement. [generally ads appear wherever there is space to put them]. 
• Each magazine author should contribute 3 feature articles. One of these will be your human interest feature. The other two can be chosen from the other types of features.
• Each feature article should be between 1,000 - 3,000 words in length
• Each feature article should include an interesting, clever headline
• Each feature article should include the writer's by-line 
• Each magazine should include at least 1 shorter article (if there are three people in your group, that's 1 each, or 3 shorter articles). Shorter articles can be about practically anything appropriate to the magazine. Short articles should be between 300-500 words.
• Articles can be informative, narrative, persuasive, editorial, or best of
• Each magazine should include one of the following per writer (up to 3):
• poetry
• an interview script
• a short story or vignette
• music, game, theater, or movie review
• advice column
• puzzle (crossword, for example)
• jokes or cartoon
• advice column
• editorial
• recipe
• fashion tips or how to tips (remember your audience!)
• Each page should include a header/footer with page #'s and the title of the magazine
• White space should include advertisement. Use graphic and text boxes for photographs, pictures, scans, etc.

Deadline will be discussed in a class or two. The more you use your lab time effectively, the more time you will be able to use the lab. If the class isn't working, your deadline will be earlier than you might expect!