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The Development and Layout of a Journalistic Piece
The Process
Developing an in-depth journalistic article is hard, I won't lie. But that's why I follow a developmental process for my work. As talkative as I am, when I try to write a piece, I end up distracting myself with all of the ideas I want to implement. So, here's how I avoid a fuzzy brain and produce my pieces:
Picking out the Topic
I could be driving home or walking to my car after leaving class and I could think of an article idea, so I jot them down. Or I'll see a sign/flyer or hear something through the high school grapevine, and I'll make a note of it.
So, with a plethora of ideas, when it's time to write a new piece, I decide which topic I can best develop. This applies just to my opinion and feature articles, as those don't have as big a demand on timeliness as news and sports articles do. If what I'm writing is either of the latter, I quickly collect my information and began to report on the event or the game. But if I have to cultivate a strong idea in an opinion or feature piece, I pick out my topic and then I figure out my angle.
For example, here is a profile feature I wrote about a graduating editorial board member of ours, Joey Rose. Traditionally, when seniors graduate after serving on The Clypian, the have a profile written on them. So, when Joey told me she was graduating early halfway through our senior year, I knew I needed to begin planning her feature.
As she's graduating, I wanted to come at the article from a nostalgic angle, reflecting on how's shes grown while on staff and how she's impacted our community with her journalistic efforts.
Knowing Joey for many years, I know she is a strong-willed person and is a strong believer in free expression and the first amendment. That's how I knew gI had to open the article with a head-on quote from Joey on student's self expression. It sets the tone for the article and introduces what the premise of the piece is about, which is her views and work in journalism.
Create Visuals with Words
Now that I know my angle and I have developed my introduction and established the overall tone and message of the piece, it's time to focus the piece around quotes. Obviously, the piece cannot be solely quotes, but they provide inside and direct context from the feature themselves, so they should be a dominant feature.
What I like to do is ask thought-provoking questions that I know will help my reader visual the feature and further understand what I am writing about.
For example, I asked Joey "How do you get your work done? Is there a system you have established or is there a place you like to work? If so, why? She spoke about nuzzling up on her couch and listening to music. But at the end of her answer she said "Music keeps me motivated in the moment. Also I can't stand the silence while I work. I would go insane." This funny quip she gives in her interview helps create a visual of her working and getting into the motion of her work. All journalists have strategies and habits they use to produce their work, so using this quote shows the reader how she accomplishes her tasks, and it adds credibility and character to her work.
Transitions and Subsections
When writing a profile feature, or any piece for that matter, transitions are key. They keep the article on track while smoothly introducing new ideas to build off of what was previously written.
Let's look at the flow between these quotes and sentences. Each chunk of text builds off the quote and expands into the next. The first paragraph introduces the the award-winning story that she wrote an what it was on. Then the next paragraph adds onto it, with the last sentence prompting an opinion and needed input from Joey. Then, after she talks about her accomplishments as a journalist, I write about another award she she has won. There is no repeated information or regurgitation of information, which benefits the article flow. The use of a transition word with "Likewise" prompts a connect to a new idea.
Additionally, this chunk of text is under the subheading "Rose on Feature Writing and Creative Passions" and doing this helped guides the reader throughout the story and help simplify what the purpose of what you are writing is.
End with a BANG
After building a profile and successfully conveying the information and emotion of the feature, I like to end with a thought-provoking quote to engage the reader even after they are done reading. In this story with Joey, I did with this final section.
Here, Joey talks about her coverage of Black Americans and the general Black history. But let's look at the final quote I used. It brings up bold ideas of knowng your worth and voice even though society may not percieve you in a positive light. It ties back into the central idea of the piece, a reflection on her as a journalist, but It also adds to the newly introduced idea of her grit when fighting for her rights.
Powerful Opinions (Personal and Editorial Pieces)
With the discovery of power behind my voice, I've learned to write sharp, opinionated pieces about health crises, gun violence, and funding issues in my school district. And with the title of Editor-in-Chief, I am in charge of writing and editing our staff editorial pieces. While they are overseen and collaborated on with the entire editorial board, I oversee them mainly.
Personally, I know that I am now not scared to share my thoughts on the state of my society, in fact I find that it is my civic duty to do so with the reach of my platform.
Over the four year's I've been a student journalist, this opinion piece I wrote "Guns Have No Mercy" contends for my overall favorite. The piece is blunt with my upfront hatred of guns and weapon culture in America. It details the Evergreen High School and the Minnesotan Catholic school shootings that happened in 2025. Children were killed at both shootings. And at the time of writing it, per CNN, 2025 was on route to becoming the fourth deadliest year in American history in terms of school shootings.
What's good about this piece is that it flaunts my opinion clearly and it is well organized with subheadings and evenly broken-up paragraphs.
More so? It is statistically backed, it isn't just thousands of words worth of my own opinion. My sources show that hundreds of thousands of students are victims and witnesses to gun violence. And further, my sources have high credibility. I use sources like CNN, USA Today, AP News and The Washington Post.
What I also like doing in my opinion pieces is employing em dashes to add emphasis to certain statistics or parts of my sentences. While the use of em dashes have become unpopular due to AI abuse concerns, I know that the journalism I produce is purely my own, so I continue to sprinkle them into my writing.
Another tactic I like is to integrate questions into my opinion pieces. While I do it to prompt the point I am about to make, it also gives the reader a chance to form their own opinion while reading my article. It keeps the reader engaged and entices them to continue reading the rest of the article.
Overall, this piece means so much to me. I believe there is no place for weapons in a successful, healthy and happy America and this piece is how I conveyed that to the community.
If it isn't apparent yet, I heavily dislike the Trump administration and our current government. But I don't cover what I do because of that, I do it because of how they affect our society. In this editorial piece, which won an "Honorable Mention" in Editorial writing from the OJEA Media Olympics, I discuss the implications of our nations influence on vaccinnes. The view of modern heath and vaccinations from our government was in direct correlation with an uptick in measles cases, causing a nation-wide health alert.
I wrote the piece to wake our communities up about the unjust ways our government is serving us and how they need to fight the fear with facts. As well as this, I wrote it to alert my community to take caution of their health. As a journalist with a platform, it is my duty to speak out for my community, so they can make fully formed decisions.
Sports Coverage in Online Publishing
Partly out of interest and out of necessity for wide coverage, I've also spent a great deal of time writing sports features and sports news articles. I've covered sports like volleyball, football, baseball and track and field.
In all honesty, at The Clypian we do a great job of covering sports through social media, but we lack it in print. To the best of my ability, I've tried to step up and facilitate the category as we often struggle to find reporters who will consistently edit and cover sports.
Typically my sports coverage is just for my high school sports teams, altough I once branched out and covered the OSAA 6A Football Championships. I did more than just brief overview, I conducted play-by-play coverage of the game, and provided pre-game analysis on both teams season at that point in the season. For my efforts, I won "Superior" in Sports News from the OJEA Media Olympics.
While I've yet to win any other sports writing awards, I've provided consitent coverage for various seasons of sports, take a look:
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