Submission Guidelines
Last updated: September 2025
We accept a wide range of content, most typically campus news articles and opinions. Comics, artwork, short stories, periodicals, and advertisements are all accepted. For formatting purposes, we recommend that poems not be submitted unless the author is open to possible changes to make the lines format properly.
We aim to publish everything that is sent to us. We do not allow political or otherwise prohibitive opinions or biases to dictate what we publish. Members of the Olin community (directly or by association) are encouraged to submit any kind of opinion piece. However, we reserve the final right on determining publishable content. Anything submitted that is harmful or disrespectful toward other community members, endorses hate speech, is not the author’s own work, or primarily serves to negatively impact the community may not be published.
In general, 600 words is one page, 1300 words is a spread. We aim for articles 600-800 words or shorter. Text with word counts in increments of 300 words helps with formatting. If necessary, superfluous words may be cut to make a submission fit within the allotted space, and if the author cannot be reached the changes will be printed without deliberation. Please include the title of your piece in your submission. Most articles will be edited like traditional newspaper articles: short paragraphs, short descriptive title, and little if any formatting. If you give your article an “artsy” name, we will likely replace it with something more self-explanatory. Too much specific formatting makes the layout difficult, so please be kind to us and keep the bullet points to a minimum.
Deadlines
Frankly Speaking is usually distributed on the first weekday of every month. The editing and printing process is finalized the night prior. In general, first draft submissions should be made one week prior to the first weekday of the upcoming month. However, if an article idea comes to mind two days before printing, it’s worth reaching out to the editors to see if it can be published.
Anonymity
We need to know why: If you’d like to publish an article anonymously, you need to send a well-articulated reason why it should be anonymous. We will publish articles anonymously to protect the identity of people describing sensitive experiences. We will not publish articles anonymously solely because the author is expressing an unpopular opinion, or if the author is admitting to activity that is illegal in the eyes of the federal government. If you are submitting an article to a distributed publication you should be willing to take ownership of your words unless there is a legitimate privacy concern or associated risk determined to be beyond typical criticism or dissent. Any articles that admit to illegal activity can result in an investigation and as a rule, we will not publish these pieces.
We need to know who you are: Even if your article will be published anonymously, we as editors need to know who has written it. We might need to contact you about some of your content, and in the rare case there is an honor code violation, there needs to be a way to hold our contributors accountable.
Affiliation and Legal Disclaimers
Frankly Speaking is neither endorsed by nor affiliated with Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. That being said, the paper is printed on school owned equipment with school bought paper and ink at the discretion of the administration. We welcome debate through opinion pieces and will print those opinions as long as they are not harmful. Examples include: administrative policy opinions, opinions on laws (both local and federal), opinions on classes, opinions on music, etc. Examples of things we will not print (and why): admittance of illegal activity from a federal perspective (the school receives federal funding and an author claiming to have committed a felony would require an investigation), hateful opinions of any kind (that’s hate speech), plagiarized content (plagiarism is illegal), etc.
Article Genres
Not every submission has the same needs. Below is a classification of the types of articles we receive in Frankly Speaking, and any special guidelines, formatting, or other notes that differentiate them from each other. The article genre will be listed under the author’s name in print.
News (Fact-Based Reporting)
Impartial information about current events.
The title of a news article might be “Adam Savage’s Recent Visit To Olin”. (please?)
Special Guidelines: In addition to our overall guidelines, news articles must abide by the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, which can be found here: https://www.spj.org/spj-code-of-ethics/
First-Person Experience
A subjective, non-fiction account and/or reflection of personal experience(s).
Opinion
Persuasive in nature.
The title of an opinion piece might be “Why You Should Enter The Dining Hall Waste Station From The Right Side”.
Other Notes: Opinion writers must look particularly closely at our overall guidelines due to the sometimes inflammatory nature of opinion pieces.
Narrative
No explicit takeaway.
The title of a narrative piece might be “My Study Abroad At Clown University” or “The Sweet Adrenaline Of Midnight Dodgeball”.
Other Notes: Narrative pieces are the most likely to contain sensitive information, so writers should especially review our guidelines around anonymity and illegal activity. Reach out to the executive editor with any questions or concerns at any time in the submission process.
Review
A critical evaluation of a book, movie, or other piece of media.
The title of a review might be “Trolls 7 Is The Movie Of The Summer” or “The Magic Treehouse, 12 Years Later”.
Format: The title, year, and author (if applicable) will be listed at the beginning of the review.
Informational
Explaining something.
The title of an informational article might be “Some Lesser-Known Olin Library Resources”, “The Physics of the ‘O’ Wind Tunnel”, or “How to Score Free Food at Babson”.
Interview
A transcribed or written conversation to learn more about someone or a group.
The title of an interview might be “Getting to Know the OSCOM Team“, “We Asked Acronym What They Really Think of Your Coffee Taste”, or “A Brief Sit-Down With Olin Man”.
Format: Interviews are often quite long in print. Either plan for something short, or select a few questions for the paper with the full-length version available on the website.
Other Notes: Transcriptions will typically be heavily edited for clarity and length. It’s easiest for all parties if you try to do this yourself before submitting, and far enough in advance to review it with your interviewee.
Fiction
An imagined story.
The title of a work of fiction might be “Turtle’s Adventures Through the Galaxy” or “The Midnight Haunting of 4E”.
Format: Since it’s more difficult to condense fiction into a specific word count, stories longer than two pages (~1300 words) will be continued on the website linked with a QR code at the end of the printed preview. We recommend submissions under 3500 words.
Poetry
Literary style emphasizing artistic qualities of language.
Format: To preserve spacing and line breaks, poems are typically either given their own page or contained in a large gray box, often in our secondary font. We cannot guarantee all stylistic elements of a poem will be preserved. The title will begin with “Poem:”.
Special Guidelines: While most submissions require a descriptive title, poem titles are permitted to be creative or seemingly unrelated, though please refrain from being generic (e.g. “A Random Sonnet”).
Entertainment
Activities, satire, goofs and gaffs.
Games/Puzzles
Format: Preferably, your game/puzzle can be played on paper, but if not, a graphic for the starting configuration would be one way to display for print. Regardless, we include the digital file and/or an interactive web version in the email to make it easier to play.
Other Notes: Games that work well in print and Frankly Speaking include crosswords, word searches, sudoku, Mad Libs, and Connections.
Satire
Format: Satire can look like any other type of article, and will be formatted as such, aside from its label.
Other Notes: “Satire requires a clarity of purpose and target lest it be mistaken for and contribute to that which it intends to criticize.” Be clear about who your audience is, the message you’re trying to send, and remember to be respectful.
All set? Click here to submit!
(The link above will direct to a form for submission. Contact mfahey@olin.edu with any questions.)