Anyway, Ms. Webster had a devious plan to make us read it for summer reading. But obviously that plan is off.
So I'm posting this assignment I had to do last year that lists the main points of the book. Read them and try to remember them when you're out writing stories.
Being a teenager is anything but boring. It's full of stress, heartbreak, homework, laughter, hope, apathy, fatigue and passion. But for some reason most high school publications are bone dry and boring without a drop of soul in them.
That shouldn't be the case. Every high school's newspaper should be as unique as the students it writes about. The Oak Leaf should be clearly identifiable as the ORHS newspaper without us ever using the words "orhs" or "wildcat".
Focus on people, not statistics. Nobody thinks numbers are more important than people.
Good writing is fun to read, partly because it's fun to write. A forced article won't be any fun for anybody to read. Even when you're writing about something boring, you have to find something that's fun or interesting or significant about it and latch on to that. Make it the focus of the article.
Good writers know the rules of writing. They also know when to break them. Good writers are confident with their abilities and don't use unnecessarily long words or try to make themselves seem smarter than they are. They do the research they need to make sure their articles are entertaining, informative, and true to life.
NO TWO ARTICLES SHOULD ever SOUND ALIKE.
Focusing on an event like "a test" is not telling a good story. We call our articles stories for a reason. They're stories! They're meant to be told in an entertaining way, complete with an interesting main character and a unique voice.
Reporting takes time. It takes time to gather facts, interview people, and figure out what the essence of a story is. Then it takes time to write multiple drafts. And deadlines come toward you fast. So journalists can not afford to procrastinate.
No comments:
Post a Comment