When yearbook editors sit down to create their ladder, the concept of market research probably never crosses their minds.
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Coverage
Is your school nearing its anniversary date? A time to reflect? How about your yearbook? Is it reaching a milestone?
When advisers pull their school’s older yearbooks off the dusty shelves, they are likely to find spreads of photos, many with no cutlines. Few of the pages will even provide a block of copy detailing a school event. Very few of the yearbooks produced 20 or 30 years ago included stories on substance abuse, teen pregnancy or homosexuality. These topics were generally taboo for discussion, let alone potential issues for yearbook coverage. It is not that sensitive issues did not exist, they were just not the subject of routine yearbook coverage.
For decades, yearbook advisers have been pulling their hair out trying to lead staffs in the appropriate direction when it comes to deciding on and developing a theme. The introductory brainstorming questions are ones experienced advisers have permanently etched in their brain.
No doubt about it, developing questions is the reason most journalists put off interviewing – they cannot think of what to ask. Here are five tips to help your staff get past “question block.”
YES/NO QUESTIONS
Never ask them, even if you follow up with “why?” They only give you weak quotes that force you to use awkward transitions. Check your questions and rewrite them to eliminate yes/no questions. A questions is yes/no if it begins with any of these words: do, does, did, have, has, had, can, could, should, will, would, was, were, might, must.
Sami A. Slaquer
8:30 a.m., somewhere on the West Coast – Sami is assigned the hottest story of the year – an investigative piece on the new speed bumps that are causing damage to cars in the school’s parking lot.
“A yearbook shouldn’t be full of topics,” according to Brady Smekens, adviser of the Deka yearbook staff at Huntington North High School, Huntington, Ind. “Rather, it should tell the story of students. In the process, the topics get covered.” The list of story ideas on this page and continuing throughout this section will help editors brainstorm for coverage unique to their school and the current year.
My mind was firmly entrenched in the third paragraph when my name was called. “Not now,” I whined as I scurried to finish an article in People magazine before having my teeth checked. Of all the days for my dentist to be on schedule! I had just found the ultimate story – an intriguing topic covered from an unusual angle and including a smattering of opinion, as well as multiple methods of reporting the facts.
The old saying is that a good story will write itself. That is a myth. Really good stories, regardless of the topic, are the result of a focused angle, in-depth interviews and a creative writing style. Take a look at the following two examples of a personality profile written about a high school custodian. Although they were both written about the same individual, they were obviously the result of different reporting styles.
