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.
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Coverage
It was during our third deadline last year that it became painfully clear to me that if I had to read another boring yearbook story, I was going to – kill myself? No, that would have been too drastic. I was going to take a break and go to the lounge for a snack or two? No, the same boring stories would be on my desk when I returned.
For yearbook journalists, a primary objective is to tell the complete story of the year and infographics are an effective method of increasing in-depth coverage.
With the trend in yearbooks moving toward less copy, strong captions for the pictures play a more important role than ever before. Today’s captions answer the important 5Ws and H questions (Who?, What?, When?, Where?, Why?, and How?) for the reader instead of a brief identification of the subject and an obvious description of the action. Captions report on behind-the-scenes information to supplement, not repeat, the body copy.
Writing copy – good copy – can be the most burdensome part of producing a yearbook. It often involves laboring for hours over a single caption; tearing through the thesaurus to find the perfect word; struggling to gather effective quotes; never settling for “good enough” if there is something better. Mentally exhausting? Yes! And yet, the essence of excellent yearbook writing can be summed up in one simple word: detail.
