three students sitting at a table and looking at a pile of yearbooks

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Jill Chittum

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Copywriting

November 20, 2020 / Copywriting / Design / News / Photography

Yearbook staffers from Walsworth Yearbooks schools Cactus Canyon Junior High School in Apache Junction, Arizona, and Woodland Junior High School in Fayetteville, Arkansas, appeared in all three categories when the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) revealed the Finalists in its 2020 middle school contests earlier this month. In the middle school Photo of the Year…

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November 19, 2020 / Copywriting / News

Yearbook staffers from Walsworth Yearbooks schools McKinney High School in McKinney, Texas, and Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, Kansas, were named Finalists by the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) in its 2020 Story of the Year Contest earlier this month.   Elizabeth Long of the Hauberk staff from Shawnee Mission East was named…

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October 29, 2020 / Copywriting / Coverage

Are you wondering how you’re going to fill your yearbook pages during this crazy pandemic? What can you put on all the spreads that normally would be filled with hundreds of school events and activities? It’s easy. Tell the stories of the people in your school community with individual profiles. All you need to do…

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October 10, 2019 / Copywriting / National Yearbook Week

So you’re ready to Level Up your writing. Congrats! The fact that you’re reading this blog already means you are taking steps in the “write” direction. In the yearbook world, we know that any story worth telling is worth telling well. Sure, a picture may be worth a thousand words, but a picture with words…

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January 28, 2019 / Copywriting

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

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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