Executives interested in writing for our magazine contact our Editor-in-Chief, B.J. Sullivan via Email.

Fall 2009 Editorial Guidelines

So you want your work to be read by hundreds of thousands of college students and scores of corporate executives across the country? This document contains the basic framework, in terms of both content and style, for all student editorial submissions to Business Today. If you are interested in writing for BT this spring, please look over the guidelines below, then peruse the editorial calendar—which you will find on the following pages—to see if your personal interests align with our editorial objectives. The calendar has been created as an inspiration, rather than as an inflexible list. If you would like to tackle one of the questions we have posed, we would welcome that. But if you have other relevant ideas, perhaps tangential to the questions we posed, please pitch us the article so that we can work with you to fit it into our editorial scheme. Below are a few very general editorial guidelines that we hope you keep in mind when writing for
the magazine:

1. Readable Style. We’re a student publication, not The Economist—while our articles are succinct and
sophisticated, they are best received when written with a sprinkling of personality. Write like you’re having
a sophisticated conversation with a friend, not like you’re writing a final paper for a scrooge of a professor.
Please look at our website, www.businesstoday.org, and read through some old articles to get a sense of the
tone we strive for. The standard length of an article is typically 1,400 words, but we are flexible on this
front if you give us a clear projection of word count in your article pitch.

2. Relation to Students. Every article must somehow relate to, and be of interest to, college students.
We are a student magazine, and we always take into account that our main audience is students. A question
you should ask yourself is: Would my roommate be interested in this? Also, a good rule of thumb is that
every article must mention the word “students” at least three times. Especially when you’re tackling big,
important, global issues, try to take an angle on the story and craft a narrative around the student
experience within the greater context.

3. Reliable Sources. Articles should contain some supporting facts and statistics, but these facts should
only come from credible sources, such as government and university websites. Each source should be
clearly identified in the sentence in which the fact appears (ex. “The number of women entering the
workforce increased 15% between 1990 and 2000, according to a 2002 report by the US Census Bureau.”).
Although we do not print footnotes or a bibliography, we do need a list of all the sources referenced to in
each article for our records. Generally, popular magazines and newspapers should not be used as sources.

So you want to write for Business Today? If you feel compelled by the topics in our editorial calendar,
send us an email at magazine@businesstoday.org. Please include the topic you wish to cover, an outline of
your argument, a projected word count, and some of the sources you expect to use (including interviews
you plan to conduct). We will then work with you to make any necessary adjustments before you begin
your draft. Additionally, if you have any original article ideas, either for this issue or for one in the future,
email us and we can work with you on developing the idea.

First article submissions for the fall issue will be due on August 10th.