Unit 5: Writing Recap

Lesson 1: Interviews and recording notes

Step 1: Prepare

• Research
• Develop questions.
• 5Ws and H

Step 2: Develop questions

• Write down questions.
• Avoid YES/NO, general, leading, and feel questions

Step 3: Interview time

• Have a conversation and take notes on everything.
• Observe the room/setting you are in (put it in your notes)

Step 4: Take notes

• Audio recordings will work, but also take notes. Sometimes audio is hard to hear and transcribe.
• Direct quotes are the only thing you need to write word for word.
• Summarize other stuff.

Step 5: Make it a conversation

• Follow the path your questions mapped out.
• You can ask stuff not on your paper.
• If you hear something of importance that you did not consider right it done.
• Mark ALL important info

Step 6: Keep it fresh

• Transcribe while fresh in your mind
• Prepare to write while your notes are still fresh.

Lesson 2: Writing copy and sidebars

Step 1: Find your story

• Focus on people
• Brainstorm ideas
• Talk to your peers, teammates, classmates, teachers
• Look at sample books

Step 2: Research

• Online, newspaper, statistic books, coaches, teachers, attend event

Step 3: Interview

• Be selective not convenient

Step 4: Write

• Freewrite in a word doc to get started

Step 5: Rewrite

• Read your freewrite, and then clean it up.
• Reorganize it for better flow, delete repetitive information.

Step 6: Proofread

Step 7: Make Corrections

The rest of the story

• Secondary coverage or sidebars allow yearbook staffs to combine design, graphics and words to present information in a visually interesting way. (see lesson 6 in PPT)

Lesson 3: Writing captions and headlines

Step 1: Select pictures

• BE PICKY, not convenient and get them approved.

Step 2: Research and Interview

• What is going on in the picture?
• Who are the people? Talk to the people, they love to share their story and talk about themselves.

Step 3: Write

• Use a thesaurus to get the right verb

Step 4: Rewrite

• Read all your captions. Same=BORING.
• Rewrite a few to improve your spread.

Step 5: Proofread

• Ask other teachers, parents, classmates.
• Have more than one person read it.

Step 6: Make corrections

• Review copy and make necessary corrections to fix any errors that may have occurred.
• Review suggestions to see if they improve your copy.

Writing headlines

• Need subheading
• No punctuation and sentence case (first letter capital, unless proper noun)

Successful headlines

• Active verb
• (Noun > Verb > Noun)