Office Space: How Heaven Has Changed
CURRENTS Article Jeffrey Lott, longtime editor of the Swarthmore College Bulletin, offers some parting advice, remembrances, and a few things he'll be glad to be rid of in this essay that looks back at his experiences over the past 20-plus years.

Write-Minded: Crystal Clear Communication
CURRENTS Article Tips for avoiding jargon in writing.

Fanning the Fire
CURRENTS Article Every institution has stories to tell, but is your alumni magazine engaging readers with the right ones? This article looks at the importance of storytelling and examines how an editor can make a case to administration that interesting articles are the key to alumni engagement.

Advance Work: It's Not What You Think
CURRENTS Article Take a look at donor and alumni profiles from a different perspective. What should they not be about?

Closing Remarks: Novel Ways
CURRENTS Article Branding is commercial storytelling, and campus communications and marketing pros should consider using the elements of fiction--character, plot, dialogue, scene, place, point of view, and sensory detail--when they are writing and telling their institutions’ stories. The author describes how campus writers can persuade readers of an institution’s virtues and still tell a compelling story.

AdvanceWork: We Hereby Resolve
CURRENTS Article Communications and marketing professionals share some lighthearted, work-oriented resolutions for 2004.

Get Real
CURRENTS Article Alumni magazines face stiff competition for readers' attention, primarily because many readers don't take them seriously. A seasoned alumni magazine editor offers 10 ways to help make them into publications that readers respect and want to read.

Burden of Proof(reading)
CURRENTS Article With the advent of desktop publishing, the ability to make changes up to the very last minute has resulted in a loss of quality control. The author offers tips for editors and designers on making the publications process more efficient.

Closing Remarks: Advancement's Siren Song
CURRENTS Article In this Closing Remarks column, a university editor and publications manager shares her feelings that, although advancement professionals are often underpaid, they are rewarded by a deep sense that what they are doing is important and intrinsically worthwhile. Further, the profession is great fun—especially for editors.

AdvanceWork: Make It Personal
CURRENTS Article Tips for pitching successful commencement stories

Write-Minded: Style Matters
CURRENTS Article A campus editorial style guide can improve the overall quality of an institution’s communications. This article offers tips for creating a style guide that staff and colleagues will find helpful.

Write-Minded: The Learning Curve
CURRENTS Article The editor of the alumni magazine at Northfield Mount Hermon School describes what she learned in her first months and years on the job. She offers some tips for generating fresh story ideas, such as keeping files of newsworthy alumni, looking for human-interest stories, borrowing elements of fiction, using a variety of genres, and searching creatively for writers.

Tech Support: My Word, Not Theirs
CURRENTS Article Some features of Microsoft Word can be more of a nuisance than a help. This article tells you how to banish the “office assistant,” turn off autocorrection functions, and eliminate the colored lines that flag possible grammar and spelling errors.

AdvanceWork: The Well-Stocked Editor's Desk
CURRENTS Article Where do alumni magazine editors go to check facts, figures, and style issues?

Write-Minded: Talk Amongst Yourself
CURRENTS Article Keiger, a magazine writer, explains how keeping a story journal for a large writing project helps him record and examine observations, impressions, research findings, questions, and other details that contribute to a finished article.

Write-Minded: Global Vision
CURRENTS Article Cultural, historical, linguistic, and legislative factors affect how people interpret what you write. When writing for an international advancement audience, keep in mind these possible sources of confusion: 1) terminology, because the same word can mean different things in different countries; 2) titles, which vary within and between countries; 3) idioms and jargon, which can be hard for people from other cultures to understand; 4) differences in educational and legal systems; 5) sweeping generalizations, which can be offensive or inaccurate; and 6) references to location and money.

Closing Remarks: Desperately Seeking Sizzle
CURRENTS Article A free-lance writer describes how he finds inspiration in even the least promising subjects for alumni profiles.

Write-Minded: Fact Check
CURRENTS Article Writers can fact-check articles without surrendering control to sources and subjects. Keiger recommends preparing a fact-check list for each person who supplied information. The document should include a list of all factual details, paraphrased quotations, and judgments the author expects to make. Keiger does not promise to make changes other than correcting factual errors, but he agrees to discuss significant problems.