Getting Involved at McMaster Part Five: Writing for Your Faculty Paper

"Getting Involved at McMaster Part Five: Writing for Your Faculty Paper", July 2007

Previous to reading the above heading, you may have thought the only newspaper on campus was the Silhouette. Wrong, my children, wrong. Most of the faculties at MAC offer a publication, and as an undergraduate student, you are able to write for them. Not only is this a good way to get involved, it also improves your writing skills.

For students that want to pursue a career in the health care field, research or ethics, then writing for the McMaster Meducator is for you. Starting in only 2001, the Meducator is full of information on medical topics, some of which may even be controversial. According to their website, there are currently staff positions available for this upcoming year, so contact them and see if you can get involved!

Those crazy and ingenious Arts Sci students have a publication called the Agora. Although it reminds me very much of the components of a nice sweater, the Agora is not the downy coat produced by the Angora rabbit, or mohair; the fiber produced by the Angora goat. The Agora is amazing poetry and short stories, photos from Arts Scis' global travels and other impressive artwork, the stop-motion chalk extravaganza that is the Agora introduction, and more. Unique to the rest of the faculties, the Agora is compiled on a CD, and can actually be mailed anywhere in Canada. Get those creative juices flowing, Arts and Science students!

And in case anyone was wondering what an agora actually is (because I had no idea), I hunted down the definition on Wikipedia: “An agora (αγορά), translatable as marketplace, was a public space and an essential part of an ancient Greek polis or city-state. An agora acted as a marketplace and a forum to the citizens of the polis. Agora also means a place of assembly in any Ancient Greek state. It is sometimes used in modern language to refer to a crossroads, either metaphorically (the point or concept which links, or is the crossroads of multiple related concepts), or literally, a point at which many physical roads or paths meet.” Now you know.

Once wrought in controversy, the Plumbline is the newspaper of the engineering students. Although it has been toned down in the last few years, the Plumbline is a humourous publication, where you will find everything from distasteful jokes to informative editorials between the cover of this journalistic masterpiece which has managed somehow to survive the test of time. Originally first published in 1968, and moving to a newspaper format in 1971, the Plumbline has become synonymous with Eng at MAC.

The Bottom Line is the undergraduate newspaper of commerce students. With a tagline of “Commerce Students with Something to Say”, the newspaper values editorial pieces. The paper wants articles of reasonable length (I don’t really know what that means either), which are in regards to being concerned/happy/angry/cheesed off about something. Get mad, and get writing, Commies!

Like many of the other faculties, the publication of the Hummers (Humanities students), Between the Lines, is filled with a wide variety of submissions. Common ones include poetry and opinion pieces, as well as photography and artwork. If you have an artsy fartsy side, then submitting work to Between the Lines is your best bet.

In past years, Science had a paper called the Incubator. However, for the last few years, the publication did not run. But, I may have good news for you, Science students! I got the inside scoop, and they are thinking about starting the Incubator up again. Talk about it to your Faculty Reps, and hopefully the Incubator can be hatched this year!

Lastly, I am going to talk about The Frontline, the Social Sciences newspaper that I am currently the co-editor of. (This is not a shameless plug, I promise!) Because of the diverse nature of Soc Sci students, The Frontline encourages contributions from many different topics, be they politics, photography, art, what it’s like to go on exchange, editorials, personal stories, upcoming events…really the list can go on forever. New this year, and unique to any of the other faculty publications, we are currently running a contest for incoming first year students, which closes August 1st. The contest itself was even mentioned on the McMaster Daily News webpage! First Year students, look for the Fall issue of The Frontline in your MAC Pass, and everyone else look near the MSSS office in KTH.