Are you a nursing student? A business student? In a trades program? Studying technology? What are the major magazines, newspapers, blogs, journals, and books in your industry? Begin your writing journey there.
Talk to your professors and ask them what they’re reading. Find out what the key industry magazines are locally, nationally, and internationally. Remember, this is all about starting with one small article and then the next, and the next. This will allow you to build your resume with one bite-sized article at a time. Imagine the links to your articles on your resume. It’s a powerful upper hand.
Think of those school papers you are writing. You could take one of those, write a Coles Notes version of it, and voila! You have a small article written for publishing. It’s that simple.
Once you have become familiar with the industry news and articles in your area of study or interest, choose one that is not so intimidating. For example, if you are a Human Resource Management and Leadership student, you might look at PeopleTalk magazine. This magazine has easy-to-read articles that use simple and common language. Once you get your feet wet and publish a few of these articles, challenge yourself to step it up. Writing for academic journals involves a little more research and the writing tends to be more statistic-heavy. But, hey, maybe that’s a style you prefer to write in.
This really is all about you and your reader. What is your comfort zone? What is your writing level? From there, find your target audience, and write in a way that reaches those readers. Once you’ve researched the style of other writers in that genre, you will start to notice a similar theme and voice, which will likely also give you a clue about the reader.
Finally, enlist others to help you. Ask the magazine or blog owner what they are looking for. They will most likely provide the answers to your questions better than anyone else.