To write for a student newspaper, get on a section's list of writers, pitch one specific story, report it with named sources, and write it the way your paper's style guide says. Opinion pieces follow each paper's own published rules, and those differ from paper to paper.
EdCitation publishes this guide, built on student papers' own pages and style guide, the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the Associated Collegiate Press (ACP), the UK's National Union of Students (NUS) and the Associated Press (AP), all read on 3 October 2026, the SPJ code and the NUS guide in archived copies. The AP Stylebook is sold, so every AP rule here comes from AP's free pages.
EdCitation never writes any part of a story, and that is a promise we are glad to make: the reporting and the words stay yours. It does the checking around them. Check your paper turns a paper's submission guidelines into a checklist, Find sources finds the research a story leans on, Cite a source builds each reference, and Verify references confirms each one is real, all free.
How do you join a student newspaper?
You join a student newspaper by signing up to a section's list of writers or emailing its editor, and the papers we read ask for no experience first. Varsity tells Cambridge students to join a section's mailing list for upcoming pieces and writer meetings, and posts commissions in Facebook groups for writers (Varsity, n.d.-a). Its editors also welcome original pitches, and experience is not needed (Varsity, n.d.-b). The Crimson's editorial board says the same about experience, and asks would-be columnists to get in touch before the semester starts (The Harvard Crimson, n.d.).
National bodies add training: in the UK and Ireland, the Student Publication Association represents over 230 student publications and runs a conference, awards and a mentoring scheme (Student Publication Association, n.d.).
Who writes what on a student paper
Two papers set out who writes what:
| Kind of piece | Who writes it | The Daily Tar Heel | The Harvard Crimson |
|---|---|---|---|
| News story | Staff reporters | Reporting desks | The newsroom, separate from the editorial board |
| Column | Hired columnists | Hired apart from the reporting team | "Bi-weekly", chosen each semester |
| Editorial | The editorial board | 8 to 10 opinion writers, the opinion editors and the editor-in-chief | Voted by a majority; the board meets three times a week, and dissents are possible |
| Guest essay or op-ed | Readers, never staff | Up to 500 words | 650 to 850 words, one to three named authors |
| Letter to the editor | Readers answering the paper | Replies to a specific article | 150 to 350 words, on an opinion piece or the paper's coverage |
The table draws on The Daily Tar Heel (n.d.) and The Harvard Crimson (n.d.).
How do you pitch a story to a student newspaper?
A pitch is a short message to a section editor naming one story, why students should care now, and who you will talk to. That shape is our advice. The NUS student media guide tells student journalists to read the agendas of upcoming union and university meetings, to find out who runs a service students use (halls, the library, catering) and ask them for comment, to scrutinise union spending, and to ask how national issues land on their own campus (National Union of Students, 2018).
Some of the best stories are off campus. Finneman et al. (2022) studied three US journalism schools whose students run digital news start-ups in news deserts, communities left with little or no local news. Through oral histories, they found those students put more weight on serving the community than on the watchdog role that professional journalists and other student media tend to stress.
An invented pitch: The union votes on 14 October on cutting the late-night bus. I can interview the transport officer and two students who ride it, and ask for usage figures. 400 words for Friday?
How do you write a news article for a student newspaper?
Write it as an inverted pyramid: the lead gives who did what, when, where and why, and the rest follows in falling order of importance (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.). Purdue traces the form to the telegraph, and notes that it lets an editor cut from the bottom. The lead, the nut graph and the checks before filing are in how to write a news report, and "said" and anonymous sources in how to attribute quotes in news writing.
What a student paper adds is campus style. NC State's student media guide refers to students by their year ("a first-year student"), keeps freshman, sophomore and the rest for sports stories and quotations, and tells writers never to call a student "a major". It uses a residence hall's full name in news, keeping "dorm" for opinion columns, and keeps "Dr." for medical doctors and dentists (NC State Student Media, 2018).
Common fixes in student copy
| As drafted | In house style | Rule from |
|---|---|---|
| Jo Kim, a junior biology major | Jo Kim, a third-year student studying biology | NC State Student Media (2018) |
| Dr. Ana Ruiz, a history professor (a PhD) | Ana Ruiz, a history professor | NC State Student Media (2018) |
| the Student Government Association (SGA) | Student Government Association first, SGA after | Associated Press (n.d.-b) |
| "I signed up on February 20," she said. | "I signed up on Feb. 20," she said. | Associated Press (n.d.-b) |
| A quotation tidied to fix its grammar | Quote it as spoken, or paraphrase | NC State Student Media (2018) |
| U.S. in a headline | US | Associated Press (n.d.-b) |
| A study named in the story | Named in the sentence, checked first | Verify references |
The names are invented. On quotations, NC State allows brackets only with an editor's approval and asks reporters to say when someone could not be reached. AP's editors put spoken words into AP's formats, such as "No. 1, St., Gov., $3", but otherwise leave a quotation alone (Associated Press, n.d.-b). Headlines have their own guide: how to write a headline.
Do student newspapers use AP style?
Check your paper's own style guide first: NC State's calls itself the "local style authority" for its student publications and defers to the AP Stylebook on everything it does not cover (NC State Student Media, 2018). AP style is the Associated Press's set of rules for news copy. AP now publishes the spiral-bound Stylebook every other year, lists a 58th edition, and sells an online edition that is updated regularly (Associated Press, n.d.-a). Some of its editors' answers to subscribers, in Ask the Editor, are free to read (Associated Press, n.d.-b).
Check the date on a local guide
A local guide can fall behind AP. NC State's online guide is the 2018 to 2019 edition, and it names Webster's New World College Dictionary as AP's first reference for spelling. AP's editors now call Merriam-Webster "our primary dictionary" (Associated Press, n.d.-b). Where the two disagree, ask your copy desk which wins. Outside the US, ask your editor for the house style before assuming AP.
What ethics rules apply to student journalists?
In the US, the SPJ Code of Ethics sets the profession's standards and ACP's model code adapts them for college media; in the UK, the NUS points student media to the National Union of Journalists' code (National Union of Students, 2018). The SPJ code rests on four values: seek truth and report it, minimise harm, act independently, and be accountable and transparent (Society of Professional Journalists, 2014). Three of its lines matter early. "Never plagiarize. Always attribute." Keep anonymity for sources who may face danger, retribution or other harm. Take extra care with juveniles and with sources who are inexperienced.
ACP's model code, written for college media, goes into more detail (DeLuca and Rolnicki, 2008). It bars composite characters and invented situations in news and features, and asks for every error to be corrected as soon as possible, clearly labelled, in a consistent place. We read its 2008 fourth edition; ACP says a version updated for generative AI is free to members and sold to others (Associated Collegiate Press, n.d.).
Covering a club, a friend or student government
ACP's code says staff may not cover a campus organisation they belong to, should declare memberships to their editor, and should not sit in student government. It also bars covering family members or anyone the reporter has a financial, adversarial, romantic, sexual or close personal relationship with. You may still pass a tip about your own club to another reporter.
Can a university censor its student newspaper?
At a US public university, almost never. The SPLC counts more than 60 court cases on censorship of college student media, and says the decisions agree unanimously that the First Amendment forbids almost all censorship of student-edited publications by administrators (Student Press Law Center, 2015a). Officials cannot cut a paper's funding or fire its editor over content, or demand to see it before distribution, and student government is bound in the same way.
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988) does not apply to most college journalists, but Hosty v. Carter (2005) made it the starting point in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana; Illinois then restored full protection by state law. The SPLC's model policy for colleges leaves the final decision with student editors, rules out mandatory review before publication, and reminds them that responsibility for content comes with control of it (Student Press Law Center, 2015b).
Private colleges and the UK
The First Amendment generally does not bind a private college. The SPLC's guide points instead to the college's own written promises, such as a handbook guaranteeing editorial freedom, and to California's Leonard Law, which also covers private colleges, with an exception for religious ones (Student Press Law Center, 2020). In the UK, the NUS guide says students' unions should make sure their papers are editorially independent, explains defamation, and wants editors who have had media law training (National Union of Students, 2018). This is general information, not legal advice: the SPLC or your union can advise on a real case.
How do you write an op-ed or letter for a student newspaper?
Read the paper's own rules first: length, authorship and scope differ. The Daily Tar Heel asks that submissions be limited to 500 words, requires "citations for any proper nouns or statements of fact", and wants a student's full name, class year and majors or minors (The Daily Tar Heel, n.d.). The Crimson wants op-eds of 650 to 850 words from Harvard affiliates, signed by one to three named people, never a pseudonym or an organisation; writers outside its staff may not include interviews, and replies to its content go in letters (The Harvard Crimson, n.d.). The craft of the argument is in how to pitch an opinion piece.
- Paste the paper's guidelines into EdCitation's free Check your paper and keep the checklist beside the draft.
- Write to the limit, and count the words yourself.
- Back every fact with a source; build any reference with Cite a source.
- Run the sources through Verify references before you send.
- Sign it exactly as the paper asks, and send it to the opinion desk.
What Check your paper made of The Daily Tar Heel's rules
We pasted the Tar Heel's guidelines into Check your paper on 3 October 2026, leaving out the line with the editors' names and address. It returned one rule, a word count of about 500, shown with its source: "Please limit submissions to 500 words." It read the limit as a target, so read the sentence beside the rule: "limit" means 500 at most. It listed six sentences as asks no rule can test, among them "We require citations for any proper nouns or statements of fact within your piece."
The Crimson's rules, again without the address, gave a range of 650 to 850 words, with its sentence. The same run also listed a citation style, Harvard, read from "authored by Harvard affiliates"; an op-ed names no citation style, so strike that line. The sentence beside each rule makes such a slip plain.
Where does EdCitation fit when you write for a student newspaper?
Around the story, never inside it. For the parts of student journalism with a right answer, such as whether a study exists and how to reference it, EdCitation is in our view the best tool there is, because it looks each source up in the publisher's record instead of composing one, which no chatbot can promise.
Find sources, which searches about 300 million published works, put Finneman et al. (2022) ninth for "college student newspapers local news coverage", and Cite a source built its APA 7 entry from the DOI, "U.S." kept in capitals, with no retraction notice. All five entries we pasted into Verify references, the ACP code's PDF and the Crimson's page among them, came back verified, the Crimson's with "The page is at this address, and its title matches." One it cannot check is marked "could not check", never "not found".
Check your paper, Find sources, Cite a source and Verify references are free with no account. Before you email a Word draft to an editor, Mechanics QA, in Pro at $8 a month, finds comments, tracked changes, placeholders and template text left in the file, figures that disagree, and slips a spell-checker lets through; its formatting check is against the APA 7 student paper, so AP style stays with you and your copy desk. Judging a piece against its brief is Theoretics QA, in Max at $24 a month, which quotes the piece and never rewrites it (Pricing).
Quick questions
Do I need experience to write for a student newspaper?
No. Varsity says journalism experience is not needed, and The Crimson's editorial board says the same.
How long should a student newspaper op-ed be?
As long as that paper says. The Daily Tar Heel limits submissions to 500 words, The Crimson wants op-eds of 650 to 850 words and letters of 150 to 350.
Can I write about a club I belong to?
Not under ACP's model code, which bars staff from covering an organisation they belong to; pass the tip to another reporter and tell your editor about the membership.
Can my university read my article before it is published?
At a US public university, generally no: the SPLC's guide says officials cannot demand to review student media before distribution. Private colleges and other countries differ, so check your paper's own policy.
Can EdCitation write or edit my article?
No. EdCitation never writes any part of an article; its free Check your paper lists a paper's submission rules, and its other tools find, cite and verify your sources.
References
- Associated Collegiate Press. (n.d.). ACP. Retrieved October 3, 2026, from https://studentpress.org/acp/
- Associated Press. (n.d.-a). AP Stylebook. Retrieved October 3, 2026, from https://www.apstylebook.com/
- Associated Press. (n.d.-b). Ask the Editor: Highlights. AP Stylebook. Retrieved October 3, 2026, from https://www.apstylebook.com/ask_the_editors/style_guidance
- The Daily Tar Heel. (n.d.). Opinion Desk submissions. Retrieved October 3, 2026, from https://www.dailytarheel.com/page/submit-letter-to-the-editor
- DeLuca, A., & Rolnicki, T. (2008). Model code of ethics for collegiate journalists (4th ed.). Associated Collegiate Press. https://campus.kennesaw.edu/current-students/student-affairs/involvement/student-media/docs/acp-code-of-ethics.pdf
- Finneman, T., Heckman, M., & Walck, P. E. (2022). Reimagining journalistic roles: How student journalists are taking on the U.S. news desert crisis. Journalism Studies, 23(3), 338–355. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670x.2021.2023323
- The Harvard Crimson. (n.d.). The Editorial Board. Retrieved October 3, 2026, from https://www.thecrimson.com/about/editorial/
- National Union of Students. (2018). Student media guide [PDF]. Archived September 28, 2025, at http://web.archive.org/web/20250928200330/http://studentopportunities.nus.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Student-Media-Guide-2018-v2.pdf
- NC State Student Media. (2018). NC State Student Media style guide 2018-2019 [PDF]. https://studentmedia.ncsu.edu/web/training/smstyleguide.pdf
- Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). The inverted pyramid structure. Purdue University. Retrieved October 3, 2026, from https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/journalism_and_journalistic_writing/the_inverted_pyramid.html
- Society of Professional Journalists. (2014). SPJ code of ethics. Archived September 17, 2026, at http://web.archive.org/web/20260917181518/https://www.spj.org/spj-code-of-ethics/
- Student Press Law Center. (2015a, October 1). Guide to student press freedom at public colleges. https://splc.org/2015/10/student-press-freedom-at-public-colleges/
- Student Press Law Center. (2015b, November 6). SPLC model guidelines for college student media. https://splc.org/2015/11/splc-college-student-media-model-guidelines/
- Student Press Law Center. (2020, December 1). Guide for the private school press. https://splc.org/2020/12/legal-guide-for-the-private-school-press_1201/
- Student Publication Association. (n.d.). About. Retrieved October 3, 2026, from https://www.spajournalism.com/about/
- Varsity. (n.d.-a). Join Varsity. Retrieved October 3, 2026, from https://www.varsity.co.uk/get-involved
- Varsity. (n.d.-b). Write for us. Retrieved October 3, 2026, from https://www.varsity.co.uk/write-for-us