Walsworth’s 2019 Photo Contest is here!

The 2019 Photo Contest will run from Wednesday, Feb. 27, through Friday, March 29. Photographers will compete in 10 categories, with $100 Visa gift cards being awarded to the winners in each one.

Photo by Brooklyn Harrell

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Copywriting

January 28, 2019 / Copywriting

Write the Story, Not the Facts

Are your readers actually reading your yearbook? In many cases, the answer is “no,” and with good reason.

Most yearbooks are not written to be read. Yearbook copy tends to be a collection of non-compelling facts put together too lazily and too hastily, without regard for the reader. While that is a harsh indictment, it is often true and it is nothing new.

Hey, you worked hard on the yearbook — wouldn’t it be nice if people read it? Instead of dull and lifeless facts, stories should be a collection of interesting people caught in defining moments — moments that reveal character and personality.

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October 30, 2018 / Copywriting

Your attention please – study these types of story leads

Good leads begin stories. Bad leads can finish them. If the first couple of sentences don’t make the reader feel helplessly curious and compelled to continue, your body copy won’t be read. Yearbook leads don’t sum up the entire article like newspaper leads. Instead, they give the reader a tempting taste of what lies ahead without necessarily addressing the main point of the story. They can tease, mislead, startle, amuse – anything that will invoke the reader’s curiosity. Study the following types of leads. Learn to write more creative and effective leads – leads that are real attention-getters.

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February 23, 2018 / Copywriting / Coverage

Yearbook staffs shouldn’t slough off the colophon

You’d be surprised how often it happens. You pick up a yearbook, see a cover design you really love, or flip through and eye a font you like, then flip to the back looking for the colophon to read the specs and… nothing. A number of yearbook staffs get overwhelmed with the workload when pages…

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November 30, 2017 / Copywriting / Coverage

More ways to say it with sidebars

There are lots of ways to be informative. Pie charts, bar graphs, quotes, polls, and lists are all ways to convey information. The key is to use them to impart information that is important to the students. A bar graph for a survey question on whether students were happy the football team won the homecoming game does not make for compelling reading.

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March 29, 2017 / Copywriting / Spring 2017 / Theme

Storming the brain for a good idea

If we could momentarily suspend reality to see a goal, we would have a handle on brainstorming. But in a world consumed with promposals and calculus tests, closing our minds and tuning out the usual barrage of text messages that steal our focus might pose a challenge. So how does one suspend reality? It’s a…

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September 28, 2016 / Copywriting / Spotlight

This I Believe – I believe in yearbook

A writing assignment for an AP Literature class turned into a heartfelt essay about the meaning of yearbook. Emily Fogleman spent three years on the yearbook staff at Southern Alamance High School in Graham, North Carolina, serving as editor-in-chief in 2016, her senior year. Last spring, her AP Literature class was assigned to write an…

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