I’m an editor with Speak Up (www.speakup.com.br), Brazil’s longest running English language magazine. It covers general interest and entertainment news mostly, includes vocabulary glossaries and is read by Brazilians trying to study English.
I want to give the kids at BGSU the chance to contribute freelance stories to Speak Up. They would work directly with me as an editor, and I’d help them develop their own story ideas that meet our demographic, or would pitch them topics we want written about.
Story topics that may interest us would include travel destinations like Cedar Point, the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame or others outside of Ohio, as well as stories involving the intersection of business and trade between Brazil and the US, Brazilians studying in the US (or other exchange student groups), and other trends they find that connect Brazil and the US.
Stories would involve writing (usually 500-700 words), taking or collecting photos for use, and often recording 2-3 minutes of audio from a Q&A interview they conduct in person, or by phone. Our magazine comes each month with a cd-rom that includes audio narrations of all the stories, most of which feature a Q&A with a source from the article.
I would work with the student on all the aspects of this, so they know exactly what is expected and how to do it well.
Unfortunately, I can’t offer them any pay for this freelancing. It’s simply not in the magazine’s Brazilian budget, because nearly all the stories we get are for free from a similar “parent” magazine in Europe.
What I can offer is an opportunity for the student to greatly diversify their clip portfolio beyond the local publications they’re used to writing for (they’ll receive article pdfs). I’ll give them detailed editing feedback, the opportunity to work audio recording into their portfolio of experience, and the chance to learn from me how they can develop for themselves opportunities as a freelancer, both in the US and abroad.
Those interested can visit http://speakup.com.br/ to see the magazine’s web site, and this section of my portfolio site, http://bobmoser.wordpress.com/category/speak-up/, where I have a few pdfs of articles I’ve done in the past for Speak Up, on topics that interested me.
Please share this with your students, and have them contact me if interested.
—
Bob Moser
Journalist – São Paulo, Brazil
Contributing Editor – Speak Up (www.speakup.com.br)
E-mail: bobmoser333@gmail.com
Skype: bobmoser333
Web site: http://bobmoser.wordpress.com