To: The Chief Editor

Proposal for the electronic version of the ridge

I am pleased to inform you that after much discussion with my teammates, we have come up with some ideas for The Ridge. We believed that an electronic version of The Ridge would definitely add life to the campus, by providing the students easy access to latest happenings in the campus.

  Firstly, we would like to consider the fact that students from NUS come from all walks of life and have diverse interest, thus we should be able to cater the needs of the majority by having topics covering different interest.

  I would like to suggest that we have a homepage, which serves as an index, to allow students to navigate to their topics of interest. I feel that the existing content, which consists of 5 categories, namely-news, culture, features, sports, lifestyle, analysis, wired and last fling can be retained, with new subcategories added to it. An example of that would be to have fashion, food and hangouts under the category of “lifestyle”. A short write-up on each subcategory can also be provided next to the icon on the web, so that readers can target more accurately on what they want to find. This index page should have user-friendly features such as keeping the scrolling short, as well as keeping information to a minimal to serve its purpose.

  The current printed magazine only allows a few pages to be written on each topic. On the web, we can have more pages written on each topic as well as providing hyperlinks to related topics on the web. At the same time, we can allow more features writers to display their talents at one go, as we are not limited by space. This allows more student writers to feel more “connected” with the university, as they see their article being published. The overall increase in content will also help to boost readership.

  At the same time, an electronic bulletin board, for students to feedback or comment can be incorporated. This mode allows students to voice their opinions and get almost an immediate response from the editor than through the conventional way. A chat room can also be incorporated to allow students to communicate with one another, fostering a sense of  “belongingness.” The Webmaster may also be present in the chat room at allocated hours, to allow students to communicate with him/her directly. This faster mode of feedback mechanism allows the editors to revamp their website, according to the needs of students.

  I believe that the bulletin board and chat rooms complement each other, allowing the student to choose either mode according to his/her preference.

  Lastly, to boost up readership, we can also bring in some exciting contests. Some examples include solving on-line puzzles, voting for beauty pageants and creative writing, where prizes are awarded to winners. I believe that interesting contests like this will encourages active participation. This could be done at a zero cost by getting sponsorships for the prizes. In turn, the sponsors can get to advertise free in the web pages.

  I hope that you will be interested in the above ideas and respond to me as soon as possible.

  Yours truly,

  Linda Tay