I’m a photographer for the paper at my college and from time to time I write an article. I had an interesting idea for a weekly section that my editor said would probably work if I wrote up a proposal for it. In my intro to journalism class we were covering the method of reporting where the reporter actually takes part in or does whatever they are reporting on and reflect on what it was like rather than just stating facts about the subject.
I want to be the campus guini pig, for lack of any other way to describe it.
I’ll have people suggest something for me to do through my newspaper e-mail address and either the most interesting or most crazy response I get I will do (of course within reason). I will then write about what whatever I did and what it was like then finish with a thumbs up or down on whether I would suggest for others to do it.
Suggestions I’ve had for my first assignment:
Rock Climbing
Hockey
Eating nothing but corn chips for a couple days
drinking a lot of beer then writing about something complex. Not correcting the typos.
Before anyone mentions it, I know my writing style is quite terrible. I have run on sentences and random misspellings (see the sig). All of my writing is heavily edited for those problems.
Spend a week blind or confined to a wheelchair.
Live on the street for a week.
Live for a week only on checks; don’t buy anything for cash or with a credit card.
Spend a day speaking only in rhyme.
Pick a television channel and watch it for twenty four straight hours.
Pick an issue that’s important to you but may seem trivial to most other people. Make your best possible argument to bring some people over to your side of this issue.
Spend a week as a stripper. Live only on your earnings.
Since this is college, attend classes that you would normally eschew. So, if you’re an engineer, take business or art. Learn what the students who are very different from you think of your major.
Hm, Shibb, that is a really good idea, I might contact some professors that teach topics nowhere near my major and ask if I can sit in on a week of their class.
To Nemo all I can say
Speaking rhyme all of my day
Would probably make me a nut
I’d quickly go into some rut.
clayton_e, I caught the last half of a show on the Discovery Channel last night, No Opportunity Wasted that kind of had the same premise. What I saw was a TV producer learning how to ride a bull in three days, but it was a similar sort of thing (but televised) as you’re proposing. I liked it and I would watch it again, and I think your column would be interesting as well. How well can you write about your experiences? Take lots of pictures too!
Take it up a notch - a few years back I was on tour with my group and I lost a bet to my drummer. I had to speak only in Haiku for a two days. Except for onstage, where I could also speak in limerick.
It was really hard.
Some suggestions for you:
I like the week in a wheelchair idea a lot.
How about a week of vegan living?
Take a week and listen to a genre of music you can’t stand exclusively - hip-hop, country, opera, whatever - and write about your experiences with it.
Wear the costume of your rival school’s mascot everywhere for a week.
Live in a tree for a week.
I like the ideas, I’ll probably need to use at least one or maybe two until I start to get responses from the students.
I actually work at the library and last year I worked at one of the dining halls. The vegan week sounds like an awesome idea.
I’ve done this. I am very anti frat but a friend of mine was pledging at one and invited me to hang out at a party. There was their regular party then their after party and we didn’t have to leave between because of his pledge status. I sat on the couch there hanging out and talking with people from about 9:30 at night until 5 something in the a.m. That really was an odd experience.
Any other ideas? I have a great start so far with the ones you have all suggested.
If you’re single, ask out as many girls as you possibly can within a week. Walking around campus, in the grocery store, in the bookstore, etc. Set a very difficult goal for yourself (i.e. getting three different phone numbers/day), perhaps with some sort of punishment if you fail as an added incentive. Then write about the interactions, focusing on the most memorable, biggest failure and biggest success.
Your column would be like Supersize Me except smaller and in print! And possibly less ick-inducing.
I think it’s a great idea and am surprised nobody thought of it yet at your paper. These types of articles are one of favorite to read and I can’t be the only one.
I can’t think of anything right now for suggestions but you’ve got a lot of great ones already. If it works out, please do post a link to the paper. Good luck!
sure, I’ve been thinking about it but I really can’t think up a name.
And thanks all, the ideas for the first one are great, I gotta start with a crazy one.
