By: Arianna Pazmino
Arianna going through the Sandspur, a student run newspaper at Rollins College
Since its first issue in December of 1894, The Sandspur has been the oldest continuously running student newspaper at Rollins College. Its legacy reflects the voices of generations of students, serving as a record of the evolution of student writing and ideals. What had initially begun as a literary journal featuring poems and essays, over the years it transformed into the student newspaper we read today. With access to decades of archived issues and more recent publications online, I noticed that the tone of student writing seemed to shift across time.
My name is Arianna Pazmino, and I am a psychology major with a minor in history at Rollins College. I was honored to be the first recipient of the Undergraduate Archival Research Grant, an opportunity that allows currently enrolled students to conduct original research using the Olin Library’s Archives and Special Collections.
My journey into the archives began through Dr. Claire Strom and Professor Rachel Walton’s Public History class, where I was first introduced to the process of working with historical materials. What started as a course requirement quickly became something more, opening the door to a deeper interest in archival research and the stories within it.
Women at Rollins Exhibit
The Sandspur provides a particularly unique perspective. Because it is written by students for students, it captures not only what they cared about, but how they chose to express those ideas at different points in time. What began as an exploration of content eventually revealed a pattern. Student editorials are more than just opinions; they are a glimpse into how students communicate, argue, and engage with their college community throughout history.
Some editorials and opinion pieces felt almost formal, creating a sense of separation between the journalistic piece and its reader. Others spoke directly, casually, even conversationally, reading in the same manner as one would speak in daily conversation. This shift did not occur from one single editorial to the next but rather emerged gradually over the years and decades of publication.
This project sets out to explore that change systematically.
By analyzing a range of editorials, I aimed to trace similarities and differences in sentence structure, tone, and the use of colloquial expressions. To carry out this analysis, I began collecting editorials across a full century, selecting five editorials per decade from 1920 to 2020. For consistency, I focused on spring issues, mainly those published in March, and after careful reading, chose the longest available editorial in each one. The articles were then transcribed and analyzed manually, allowing for the examination of both structure and style across time.
After this data collection was completed, I began counting sentences, clauses, and what are called T-units, essentially one main idea with everything attached to it. This process revealed patterns that are easy to miss when simply reading. Alongside structure, I also tracked the use of personal voice in the form of first- and second-person pronouns, as well as the appearance of contractions like don’t or can’t.
Going into this project, I expected to find that student writing would shift from structured and academic language to a more casual and conversational tone. While that change was certainly present, what I found was more complex than I had anticipated. Rather than becoming simpler, the writing became more structurally dense, with sentences containing more embedded ideas even as the tone grew more personal. It evolved in a way that balanced complexity across decades.
What I found was more complex than I had anticipated. Rather than becoming simpler over time, the writing became more structurally dense, with sentences containing more embedded ideas and layers of meaning. At the same time, the tone shifted toward a more conversational style, with increased use of personal voice and direct engagement with the reader.
In other words, The Sandspur editorials did not become easier by simplifying their structure. Instead, they evolved in a way that balanced complexity with accessibility. Writers continued to express complex ideas but did so in a way that felt more personal and engaging to the reader.
This means that the change in writing over time is not a shift from complex to simple writting, but rather a transformation in how complexity is expressed. Earlier writing often relied on distance and formality, while more recent writing maintains structural complexity but presents it in a more direct, reader-oriented way.
For example, earlier editorials often relied on long, formal sentences with little direct engagement with the reader. In contrast, more recent editorials may still contain multiple clauses and embedded ideas but are more likely to include phrases such as “we believe” or “you can see,” directly involving the reader in the argument. This shift shows that while the structure of writing remained complex, the relationship between the writer and reader became more immediate and conversational. Writing did not become less complex; it became differently complex.
While this study focused on how students wrote, it would also be valuable to explore what they were writing about. Changes in topic, audience, and historical context may have influenced stylistic choices across decades. Examining content alongside structure could provide a more complete understanding of how student voices have evolved over time.
What made this project especially meaningful to me is how it connects my academic interests in psychology, linguistics, and history. I have come to appreciate the importance of preserving these materials and the role they play within the institution. The opportunity to uncover how students have expressed themselves over time, and how communication itself continues to evolve, has been a meaningful journey. I believe this research not only contributes to our understanding of linguistic change but also highlights the importance of student voices in shaping and reflecting cultural shifts through language.
I am incredibly grateful for the education I received at Rollins College and to the team of the Olin Library Archives and Special Collections for making this work possible, as well as to Dr. Jennifer Queen and Dr. Martha Cheng for their guidance and support throughout this project. This research project has inspired a future career in research that I hope to pursue.
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