Reporting and WritingIt’s important that staff members realize that being a reporter is a two-part process. They must write about what they have learned, not about something they think they know or what someone else on staff told them. Someone shouting “Did anyone go to homecoming?” is not an example of reporting, but rather of rear-end reporting. What happened at the school based on what the yearbook staff saw or heard is a poor excuse for reporting and writing.
Reporting First, find out background information. This could be done by looking at previous years newspapers and yearbooks. Next, find out what is new and who was affected by it. If it’s an event, be there, if at all possible. Collect the color, the sights, the sounds, the smells. Get specific detail — 350 couples, $12 tickets, $1,087 raised for Muscular Dystrophy. Get memories, quotes that show reaction and emotion. Make the reader want to read on. Telling them what they already know is a waste of space. Remember, no one opens the yearbook to find out what the theme was to home- coming or to see if the football team won state. It’s important that you tell stories that show rather than tell the reader what happened. Writing Here’s an example of a “who cares?” story. Art students do pottery, drawing and painting. “I took art because I like to draw,” art student Alexis Hernandez revealed. Some students think art is fun. “I think art is fun,” Hernandez added. Snore. Instead, help them see, smell, hear, touch and taste it. Here’s an example of a well-written story from McKinney High School. This sports story does not tell of the entire season but rather picks one important part of the season. The scoreboard tells the story of the season. The story could be on a player who didn’t get to play all season because of an injury and then the team aligning itself behind him to get the coach to put him in so he could say he played his senior year. Or it could be about a couple of injuries that the team overcame or didn’t. Lion and Bronco fans were on their feet as Boyd’s offense ran onto the field following a timeout. The Broncos stood on the Lions’ 12-yard-line. With 1:20 remaining, a touchdown would seal the game for Boyd but a defensive stop would force a fourth down. Boyd quarterback Jacob Coffey took the snap from under center and pitched left to running back Bryan Maxwell. Maxwell took the pitch, found a crease between his guard and tackle and shot out of a cannon into the south end zone. Lion fans could only hang their heads and reach for their car keys as they watched Boyd score two fourth-quarter touchdowns to take a 12-7 lead. Trailing by 6 with 1:15 left in the quarter, the kick return unit headed out to the field in an attempt to set up the offense with decent field position. Sophomore kick returners Robert Rad- way and Dario Jackson adjusted their alignment to field what they thought would be a squip kick, but a confident Bronco kickoff team decided to kick deep instead. “It was such a nervous feeling being on the field for that play,” Robert said. “Before we went out on the field Coach told me I was going to run it back, and when they kicked it deep, I knew I had a chance.” Robert fielded the ball on the 17-yard-line and fired off behind a Dario Jackson block. The front four on the kick-off team opened up a seam on the left side of the field. He burst through the crease leaving all Broncos behind except for the kicker. As soon as I got to the kicker, it was over,” Robert said. “I broke his tackle and blew right by him.” With the crowd and the sideline go- ing crazy, Robert high-stepped into the end zone untouched for the score. “The best feeling was getting into the zone because we had to win the Battle of the Blue,” Robert said. A huge swing in momentum hushed the Bronco nation, and Robert’s kick return proved to be too much for Boyd to overcome. On the final drive of the game, Cof- fey hurled a ball into the Lions’ second- ary in desperation only to be picked off by safety Matt Hanson. “It was nice being the guy to put the nail in the coffin,” Matt said. “But our kick return is what won the game.” Joe Arriola (Class of 2007)
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Headlines
• Use primary and secondary headlines.
• The primary headline should attract the reader’s attention and the secondary should tell what the story is about.
• Headlines sell the story. Make sure they do and that they are accurate.
• Pull the reader’s attention to the copy and spread content. This is the verbal chance to hook the readers into the page.
• Tie in with the action in the dominant photograph.
• Identify specific content of the spread without using labels.
• Use action verbs in present tense and active voice.
• Look for clever plays on words.
• Use single quote marks.
• Avoid articles (a, an, the).
• Use comma in place of “and.”
• Eliminate unnecessary words.
• Avoid crossing the gutter.
• Avoid label headlines.
• Use numerals for all numbers in the headline.
• Don’t repeat words from the main headline to the secondary one.
• Avoid headlines that start with “students” or “seniors” if it’s in the senior section, “team” if it’s in the sports section or “club” if it’s in the clubs and organizations section. Every headline could start with one of these.
• Headlines do not state opinion.
• When writing multi-line headlines:
• Keep verb phrases on the same line.
• Keep adjectives and adverbs on the same line with the word they modify.
• Keep prepositional phrases on the same line.
• Keep words that go together on the same line, like first and last name.
• Keep your school name and mascot out of headlines.
• The primary headline should attract the reader’s attention and the secondary should tell what the story is about.
• Headlines sell the story. Make sure they do and that they are accurate.
• Pull the reader’s attention to the copy and spread content. This is the verbal chance to hook the readers into the page.
• Tie in with the action in the dominant photograph.
• Identify specific content of the spread without using labels.
• Use action verbs in present tense and active voice.
• Look for clever plays on words.
• Use single quote marks.
• Avoid articles (a, an, the).
• Use comma in place of “and.”
• Eliminate unnecessary words.
• Avoid crossing the gutter.
• Avoid label headlines.
• Use numerals for all numbers in the headline.
• Don’t repeat words from the main headline to the secondary one.
• Avoid headlines that start with “students” or “seniors” if it’s in the senior section, “team” if it’s in the sports section or “club” if it’s in the clubs and organizations section. Every headline could start with one of these.
• Headlines do not state opinion.
• When writing multi-line headlines:
• Keep verb phrases on the same line.
• Keep adjectives and adverbs on the same line with the word they modify.
• Keep prepositional phrases on the same line.
• Keep words that go together on the same line, like first and last name.
• Keep your school name and mascot out of headlines.
Example Headlines
Play on words and then a subhead that tells the reader what the story is about.
Look at dominant photo and see if you can come up with a visual/verbal link. If the dominant is a picture of the flag team perhaps
“Flying Colors” would work as the dominant. A secondary could be “Flag squad takes first in state for third consecutive year.” Another example, a dominant of a field trip at a petting zoo could have “Talk to the animals” or “Wild and woolly” or “You quack me up. ” A secondary headline could be “AP biology finds trip to zoo a hands-on experience".
“Flying Colors” would work as the dominant. A secondary could be “Flag squad takes first in state for third consecutive year.” Another example, a dominant of a field trip at a petting zoo could have “Talk to the animals” or “Wild and woolly” or “You quack me up. ” A secondary headline could be “AP biology finds trip to zoo a hands-on experience".