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______________________________________ May 2008 Tip Communication: Journalism Education Today Since JEA published a series of articles on typography by Laura Schaub and Brian Willson Bradley Wilson, C:JET editor, has put that series of articles, and the accompanying exercises,
April 2008 Tip The Wheel The National Scholastic Press Association started a a new feature this month on its Web site called The Wheel. NSPA said it named this section of resources The Wheel "because it’s a place to find that perfect sample, the definitive model. Whether it’s a policy or a form, chances are someone has created what you’re looking for." Resources in The Wheel are mainly those items that help student media organizations function, the elements that help students and advisers be successful. So why reinvent the wheel?" NSPA has granted permission to use information in The Wheel in educational student media environments with proper attribution. The first items posted included a yearbook distribution letter, a set of sample obituary policies and guidelines, and a contract from the Student Press Law Center that clarifies student copyright and the license to use the work in the newspaper, yearbook or magazine. Be sure to check this site regularly for new postings. NSPA's website is www.studentpress.org.
February 2008 Tip Ways to Improve Your Newspaper or Yearbook THSPA evaluated 23 newspapers and 22 yearbooks this year. Following are 10 tips that would help publications receive a higher evaluation next year. They are not that difficult to accomplish. 1. Leave writer's opinion out of copy. Let the facts speak for themselves. Use direct quotes where the individuals quoted state their opinion, but dig deep for meaningful, unusual comments. Each staff should make as its goal for 2008-2009 to move up at least one rating category over this year's rating. It's not impossible to do. Extra attention to details could pay big dividends. Little things mean a lot.
January 2008 Tip RTNDF offers several opportunities The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation is offering several projects for high school journalism students. RTNDF is also partnering with the Library of Congress to have high school students conduct video interviews with World War II veterans for the largest archive ever created. No broadcast experience is needed. For more information, check out the Veterans History podcasts at www.hsbj.org. The third project RTNDF is offering is its Think Globally, Report Locally contest. Students will take a world issue and localize it, using B-roll from the United Nations Foundation. A teacher and two students will win a VIP trip this summer to the United Nations in New York for the Youth Leadership Summit. The deadline is April 15. Details are at www.hsbj.org. RTNDF also offers training, grants, toolkits, station partnerships and teaching resources. The RTNDFTEACHER listserv offers new and veteran advisers 24/7 support. Check out the High School Broadcast Journalism website at www.hsbj.org. Register and clidk the red "Teacher" button.
December 2007 Tip AP Stylebook When making a decision about style, it is usually best to follow the AP Stylebook guidelines. Dwight Bitikofer, publisher of the Webster-Kirkwood Times indicated in a recent column that another paper in the St. Louis area was using "website' as one word and without capital letters, even though the Associated Press says "Web" should be capitalized since it refers to the formal name World Wide Web. That is why "www" begins each Internet address. The AP says publications should use "Web site" instead of "website." Bitikofer also pointed out that AP style says "Internet" should be capitalized, since it is the formal name for "a decentralized, worldwide network of computers that can communicate with each other." The AP Stylebook also says in subsequent uses the capitalized word "Net" is acceptable for "Internet." In addition, Bitifkofer says he thinks an AP stylebook belongs on every teacher's desk and on every student's desk. That might not be necessary, but there should be more than one copy available in each classroom for ready access. Bitikofer gave the following examples of commonly mis-used words and styles cited in the AP stylebook: numerals capital capitol fewer, less last lay, lie The AP Stylebook contains an alphabetical listing of common words, names and terms. It also includes a punctuation guide, a spelling guide and a grammatical guide. It's a beneficial tool for all publications. The key to style, however, is to be consistent. It's best, however, to decide to be consistent by following AP guidelines. Those of you who have sent your publications to THSPA to be evaluated may have noticed there is a statement in the evaluation booklet about following AP style rules. If you're not doing so now, you should start.
November 2007 Tip Apply for Outstanding Teaching I have been told that no journalism teacher has ever won this award. 1. Humanities Tennessee accepting nominations for 2008 Awards of The awards are available to all 3rd-12th grade Tennessee teachers who 2. Humanities Tennessee invites students in grades 4-12 The contest invites students to write letters to authors--living or
October 2007 Tip Homer Simpson on Grammar The Simpsons' movie this year was a hit with teenagers, •analogy There are also a lot of links to other sites that might help
September 2007 Tip Chip on Your Shoulder Chip Scanlon, who writes the Chip on Your Shoulder column for the Poynter Institute, discussed when writers should use "says" instead of "said" in an August column. Chip said feature writers often use "says." Scanlon said "says" allows writers to get closer to a goal set by the late John Gardner, novelist and writing teacher. Gardner thought "says" conveys "dramatic action, as in a scene, that creates a 'vivid continuous dream' and keeps a reader reading, especially when the story represents a narrative reconstruction of events." When a reader watches a story unfold before his eyes, Scanlon says the present tense "says" is preferred. Scanlon also says, however, that "some editors and other critics abhor its (says) familiarity, considering it the kind of overindulgence that feature writers revel in." These editors and critics, Scanlon says "argue for the second choice, stressing that stories, wherever they appear in a newspaper, occur by temporal default in the past, and thus call for the verb tense that conveys summary narrative. The first shows, the second tells." The bottom line, howwever, Scanlon says "depends -- on your intent, your paper's style, your editor's preference and how those verbs of attribution sound on the page." "The debate over says vs. said" Scanlon says, "is less contentious in broadcast writing. "Says" is preferable in most broadcast news programs because it makes it sound as if the event is happening at the moment. Scanlon did not talk about which to use in yearbooks, but generally, since yearbooks are history books, "said" would be preferred. In newspaper writing, the key is to be consistent. "Said" might be the best in news and sports stories and "says" might work best in feature stories. That would be consistent, even though you're not using the same word in all stories. To avoid confusion, perhaps you shouuld always stick to one or the other.
August 2007 Tip Looking forward to looking back
Now is the time to be thinking about coverage ideas for your publications for the coming year. It never hurts to take a look backward 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or 100 years ago when thinking about possible story ideas. You can take these U.S. News & World Report in its Aug. 13 issue, went back 50 years to take a look at 1957. The magazine called it "A Year That Changed America." One major event that occurred in that year was integration of public high schools throughout the United States following the Brown v. Topeka Supreme Court decision a year earlier. You might consider an article about how integration works at your school. Other events occurring in 1957 included the launch of Sputnik. You might do a survey to find out how many of your students know what Sputnik was and tie that into the most recent space adventure that occurred this week. Do your students and teachers think they will ever go into space or would they even want to? Tang hit store shelves in 1957. Do your students and faculty members drink Tang? If they do, why do they like it? U.S. News & World Report also said "the modern concept of global warming began with a 1957 article in the journal Tellus by oceanographer Roger Revelle and Hans Seuss, a chemist, who made the then controversial cliam that humans were pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere faster than the oceans could absorb it." Do your students and faculty members think there is such a thing as global warming? Did the heat in Tennesssee in August affect sports practices or any other school activities? Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel in 1957. Did any student's grandparents own one? Do a survey to find out how many students have ever heard of an Edsel. Then do a story on modes of transportation students use today. IBM employees developed Fortran (stands for formula translating) in 1957. This system sped up the programming process many times over and opened up computer programming to a much wider audience. How many of your students use computers daily for homeword and/or for socializing? Before Fortran, programmers had to enter all numbers and letters by hand which meant even simple calculations took hours. In 1957, Wham-O manufacturing Co., patented the Pluto Platter, a flying saucer. It later changed the name to Frisbee. How many of your students play Frisbee? Do any play Ultimate Frisbee? It was also in 1957 that the U.S. Surgeon General announced that "excessive cigarette smoking is one of the causative factors of lung cancer." How many of your students smoke? How many of your faculty members? Have any stopped smoking? Are any trying to stop? Tie all of this in to the Tennessee law that will take effect in October that forbids smoking indoors at most public places. According to U.S. News & World Report "the strong, straight lines of Helvetica shape corporate logos, government tax forms and exit signs" as well as "warning messages on cigarette packs." How many of you use Helvetica in your publication? Can your readers tell you what typefaces you do use? Does the typeface make any difference in readership? Composer Leonard Bernstein produced West Side Story in 1957. Viewers called it a modern day Romeo and Juliet. How many of your students have seen the movie? How many have read Romeo and Juliet? What comparisions do they see? Are there gangs in your school? Dr. Seuss published Cat in the Hat in 1957. How many of your students have read that book or any other Dr. Seuss book? Do they read them to younger siblings today? What is their favorite Dr. Seuss book? The Beatles also formed in 1957. Do students still enjoy music by the Beatles? What is their favorite song by the group? How many can name the four members? It's easy to look at local, state, national and international stories and localize them for your publications. Localized stories work well for broadcast shows, newspaper articles or yearbook copy.
July 2007 Tip Let the Walls Talk…Roy Peter Clark Check out Roy Peter Clark's column at Poynter.org, entitled Let the Walls Talk. In that column, Clark talks about seeing the future of newspaper writing, and his name is Ben Montgomery. "Among his other accomplishments," Clark said, "young Ben is the founder of Gangrey.com, an amazing Web site devoted to good writing as a way of forestalling the death of newspapers. Visit that site and you'll find a brat pack of hot young writers sharing stories and ideas about their craft." Even though Clark says he has seen "the future of newspaper writing," what he says in his column could also be the future of yearbook writing and broadcast writing. Writing is writing. Check out the Gangrey.com site as well. There are some interesting stories there.
June 2007 Tip Al Tompkins on writing short Check out the Poynter.org website for Al Tompkins' columns. On June 17, he had a column entitled "Veteran Radio Reporter Shares Secrets to Writing Short." Even though these are tips for writing short for radio news, all writers, including newspaper and yearbook, could learn how to keep their writing brief but interesting, by reading this column. While on Poynter.org, sign up to receive Al's Morning Meeting by e-mail. His Morning Meeting column contains story ideas, which can be localized.
May 2007 Tip CubReporters.org Check out he website, CubReporters.org. It's a site that will give your students tips on how to be better writers and on how to find jobs in the journalism field. Even though they might not be interested in going into journalism as a career, the tips on how to get a job are valuable tips on how to get any kind of job. There is also a list of all colleges and universities in the United States that offer journalism programs. If students click on "Links," they will find several articles, including 20 Tips for Better Interviews, 50 places to shop for stories and 12 quick tips for being a smarter reporter. Checking out the information on this site will help your students become better journalists.
April 2007 Tip JEA's Cornerstone Award Guidelines Principal Questions Your principal needs to answer several questions, The questions are as follows: 1. Does your school promote First Amendment rights, Obviously, how you answer the questions will determine whether your school will be considered for the award. Clarkrange held a Constitution Week in September. The social studies and journalism departments joined together with the media specialist and administrators to plan the week. Students were encouraged to memorize the First Amendment. Those who did had their name entered in a drawing for a $30 prize. A voter registration booth was also set up at the school, and 26% of those eligible to register to vote did so. In addition, the drama club performed short skits about five important Supreme Court cases. The club performed the skits at 7:45 a.m. each morning in the cafeteria, and often there was standing room only to view the skits. The outcomes of the cases were not given, and teachers were then encouraged to lead a discussion in which students could state their opinions. The results of the cases were read over the intercom at noon. The highlight of the week for most students, according to Carolyn, was a Constitution scavenger hunt. Patterned after the TV show "The Amazing Race," the contest pitted teams of students against each other to decipher clues and find letters. Teams were allowed to hunt at designated times during the school day and before and after school. When all the letters were found and unscrambled they spelled "Bill of Rights." The final "treasure" was a copy of the Bill of Rights buried in the courtyard. The winning team members each received a $20 gift certificate. "Observances such as this let our students know just how
March 2007 Tip Poynter Institute's NewsU THSPA members can teach students more about journalism by using NewsU is a project of The Poynter Institute for Media Studies NewsU currently offers about 30 courses, but it hopes to offer more than 100 in the next five years. Some of the new courses in store for 2007 include topics in photojournalism, audio storytelling, difficult conversations (for newsroom managers to coach their staff members), obituary writing and ethical decision-making. The site also plans to begin offering courses in different languages. “NewsU is focused, flexible and mainly free training,” said Vicki Krueger, an editor with NewsU, in a news release from Poynter. “Our courses address specific tasks and take just an hour or two to complete. Because they're offered through the Internet, you can take them anytime. And you can do a little bit at a time or take the whole course at one time.” Once enrolled in a course, students are always enrolled and can use it as a future reference. Because the faculty at The Poynter Institute and other professional journalism organizations design the courses, they all offer quality training. Teachers can easily use NewsU in their classroom for classroom activities, supplemental learning or extra credit. “We have a tool that helps teachers ensure students are active in the course,” said Krueger in the same Poynter news release. “Each course has a feature called Course Report. It keeps track of how long a person has been active in the course (not just how long it's been open in a browser window). Then the student can see how long she or he has been in the course and e-mail that information to the teacher [as] verification that they've done the work.” To find out more about News University, visit the Web site at www.NewsU.org. NewsU is a partnership between the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
February 2007 Tip Twenty Tips to Improve THSPA evaluations of overall publications are complete for the 2006-2007 school year. Schools will receive their certificates at the March 6 conference. Following are 20 suggestions for improving next year's publications. Each publication in the state should be an All-Tennessee publication. 1. Follow AP style rules. Abbreviate months of six letters or more when followed by a specific date. For example: Oct. 6, not October 6. Notice you do not need th, rd, st, nd after the date, and you do not need the year, if the event falls within the year of publication. Even though you publish a story in January about something that happened in December, you do not need to say Dec. 5, 2006. Just say Dec. 5. 2. You do not need to use the word "on" in front of dates. Just say, "It happened Dec. 5," not "It happened on Dec. 5." Go through your publication and eliminate all unnecessary words like "that" and "the." They're sometimes necessary, but not always. 3. Write in active voice--not passive. It'susually more natural, and most of the time it is shorter. Brevity is an important part of journalism. For example: "Jack Jones, center, made the five-foot jump shot." Don't say "The five-foot jump shot was made by Jack Jones, center." You will notice the active voice sentence is two words shorter. 4. Identify individuals the first time they're mentioned in copy. Normally, you would identify students by the grade they are in, and you would identify teachers by the subjects they teach. However, identifications depend on the situation. If a student is a sports player, then identify him/her by his/her position on the team. The second and succeeding times you use a person's name in a story, use the last name only, unless there are two people in the story with the same last name. 5. Normally, you will spell out numbers nine and below, and you will use cardinal numbers for 10 and above. However, AP style does say there are times you will always use cardinal numbers. Those times would include ages and street addresses. Get an AP style book and have staff members use it. It is their journalistic bible. 6. Hyphenate compound adjectives. W it takes two words to describe the noun, those two words are a compound adjective. For example: He made a 10-yard run around right end. It is not a 10 run, nor is it a yard run. It takes both words to make it a 10-yard run. 7. Avoid using photographs with weak centers of interest. Zero in on one to four individuals for best results. When you get a large crowd in a photo, it's often hard to see faces well, and there's no focus point for the reader. Get in close. 8. Face your photos toward your story--not off the page. 9. Avoid posed photos. Action photos evoke the best memories and tell more of the history of the event or the history of the year. 10. Don't be afraid of large photos. A large photo creates an impact. If you're doing a photo spread in a yearbook or a photo page in a newspaper, have one photo that is at least twice the size of any other element. At the same time, don't be afraid of small photos. Postage-stamp size photos work well as long as you can see faces. It does little good to use a photo where faces are too small to be seen. 11. Crop photos tightly--normally within two picas of the center of interest, unless the subject is moving. If the subject is moving, sometimes the foreground he's moving into can add impact to the picture. Crop group shots at the waists of bottom rows and just above the heads of top rows. This tight cropping works best when there is an even number of people on each row. 12. Write leads which grab the reader. Use strong description. Set the scene. Make the story come alive visually. 13. Dig for outstanding quotes--the types that make the reader react. Play on his/her emotions. Find those anecdotes that will make a person laugh, cry, frown, grimace. Do use quotes--at least three in each article. Let the reader tell most of the story in his/her own words. 14. Keep writers' opinion out of copy. If you want opinion, let it be the readers' opinion through their quotes. Let the facts speak for themselves. Just make those facts come alive visually. 15. Keep your paragraphs short--normally 40 words or less. Short paragraphs look more enticing to the reader. Long paragraphs turn the reader off. Avoid one-paragraph stories. 16. Bury attributions in the middle or at the end of quotes. For example: "The Tennessee women are playing awesome ball again this year," said President George W. Bush. "They're my favoirite women's team to watch." 17. There is no better attribution for "said" than "said." Why use words like "remarked" or "commented." They're longer, and they don't say any more than "said." On occasion, another attribution might work better. For example, if someone "screamed," then say "screamed." That gets a message across better than "said." Avoid using "when asked," "continued," and "concluded." It's obvious the reporter asked the interviewee a question. If the interviewee says something, then it's obvious he continued, and if there is no more, it's obvious he concluded. Don't writte down to the reader. 18. Study professional publications for design ideas. Use graphics well, but use them sparingly. Don't use too many boxes. Keep the lines around your boxes thin--normally no more than one point in size. Do use a graphic device to highlight your caption openers. Use bullets, initial letters, mini headlines. Break up long gray areas of type. Try to avoid making the reader jump over an element to continue reading copy, however. Any time you stop the reader, or make him jump, he may not continue. Always be reader friendly. 19. Newspapers need at least one staff editorial based on a major news story in each issue. One person still writes this editorial, but the opinion expressed should be the opinion of the majority of the staff. Professional papers run two or more staff editorials in each issue. There's no reason why student newspapers should not do the same. 20. Watch agreement between noun and pronoun. Words like "team," "staff," "chorus," band," "faculty," and "administration" are singular. Follow those with a singular pronoun--it or its--not they or their.
January 2007 Tip A Good Time for a Recap January is a good time to recap the top stories of 2006
December 2006 Tip www.poynter.org If you haven't yet checked out www.poynter.org for great ideas, You should also check out the articles written by various Chip Scanlon is another great Poynter columnist. Check the Poynter website often as it is updated daily.
October 2006 Tip Teacher Scholarships Available There are several scholarships available for teachers to use to attend summer workshops or take journalism classes. Don't miss out on applying for these scholarships. Quill & Scroll offers a $500 scholarship each year, and last year no one applied. The National Scholastic Press Association offers two scholarships--the H. L. Hall Fellowship for yearbook advisers and the Melinda R. Foys Fellowship for newspaper advisers. For each award, a $500 fellowship will be given to a qualifying teacher for a credit-bearing, university or college-based summer course in advising school media, or in a news-editorial program. Yearbook or newspaper advisers who do not have a college degree or a minor concentration in journalism and will advise a yearbook or newspaper during the following school year are also eligible. JEA also offers scholarships for teachers who want to attend its Advisers Institutes during the summer. Google any of the organizations, and you can get more details, including deadlines, for each scholarship.
September 2006 Tip JEA's CORNERSTONE AWARD Don't forget about JEA's Cornerstone Award. Some schools use Constitution Day (Sept. 19) as a time to do their promotion. Others use Scholastic Journalism Week in February. It's not necessary to use a special occasion. You just have to verify any attempts the school makes during the year to promote the First Amendment. A survey sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation was released Sept. 18 indicating that 72% of the respondents have taken a class dealing with the First Amendment. This is an increase of 14% since 2004. The survey also indicated that 45% (up from 35% in 2004) believe the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees and 30% (down from 32%) said the press has too much freedom. In addition, 69% (down from 70%) said musicians should be allowed to sing songs with lyrics that may be offensive to others, and 54% (up from 51%) said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval. Furthermore, 64% (up from 58%) said high school student newspapers should be allowed to report controversial subjects without the approval of authorities. Go online to www.firstamendmentfuture.org for complete survey results.
National JEA/NSPA Convention The national JEA/NSPA convention will be in Nashville, Nov. 9-12. Following is a message from Connie Fulkerson, __________________________ I hope you will take a look at the updated You can search the membership directory, The bookstore is completely updated with a Because of the system we're using, the member prices You should have received a card with your member number In the Awards section, all the forms are online and you will be Oct. 1 is the deadline for Rising Star Award, We're still working to improve the site, Connie Fulkerson
Summer Skills Start thinking now about having your students attend a summer workshop to hone their skills. MTSPA will co-host a workshop, June 4-7, with Lipscomb University at Lipscomb. For additional information about costs and room and board, contact Jimmy McCollumn at jimmy.mccollum@lipscomb.edu. Also, don't forget the workshop for advisers at the You should also get your undergraduates excited now about the national JEA/NSPA conference at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Nov. 9-12.
March 2006 Tip Great tips on writing, leadership, Check out Poynter.Org for great tips on writing, leadership, Chip Scanlon, writing instructor at Poynter, discussed in one of his recent columns a new book by Arthur Plotnik, entitled "Spunk & Bite: A Writer's Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language and Style." Scanlon says the book should challenge the best-selling "Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. It might be worth your time to check it out. Plotnik, Scanlon said, "zooms in close, helping writers deconstruct their Scanlon said Plotnik's approach reminds him of a framed message "If writing a book is impossible, write a chapter. This formula might work for those students who Good luck!
February 2006 Tip Noun/Pronoun Agreement When writing for print or broadcast, be sure there is agreement between nouns and pronouns. Collective nouns, such as faculty, band, choir, team, committee, group, orchestra and crowd take singular pronouns when referring to the group as a unit. For example, you would say "The team won its game," not "The team won their game." To avoid confusion, if you are referring to the team members, perhaps you should use the word "members" or "players" instead. If you did, it becomes clear, you should use "their" after "members" or "players." USA Today in its Feb. 8 edition had the following sentence: "An analysis of state foster care rolls shows roughly one in eight children in state custody at the end of 2005 was removed from their homes because their parents were making, selling or addicted to methamphetamines."
January 2006 Tip Scholastic Journalism Week Scholastic Journalism Week is coming up in February. You should also check out other websites for lesson plans and other materials. Sandy Woodcock, from the NAA Foundation says the Foundation has an eight-unit curriuclum of lesson plans entitled "N the News." Its address is www.naafoundation.org. She also said the Don't forget about JEA's and NAA's new Cornerstone Award.
December 2005 Tip Ask a Reporter The New York Times has a regular feature called Ask a Reporter where a professional journalist answers questions from high school students. Warren Hoge, the Times London bureau chief, responded. "I confess to you," he said "that I still have exactly the same problem you describe. So does every other writer I know, ranging from ones who write long books to those who write short stories. It's called writer's block, but it's not really depressing to admit to it because we have so much company. "I guess there's no solution, but the one I believe in is just start writing, "One last piece of advice?you'll never find the language gazing out the window. In my career as a New York Times correspondent, I have had offices overlooking Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Buckingham Palace in London, Pennsylvania Avenue in Washinton and Times
November 2005 Tip Coverage Ideas Yearbook, newspaper and broadcast students are always looking for coverage ideas. Think anniversaries. November is the 60th anniversary of the Slinky, according to Reader's Digest. Probably, there are still some high school students who play with Slinkies, or they may have younger brothers and sisters who do. Anyone who has ever played with a Slinky probably has a good anecdote to tell. Dig for those memorable, unusual quotes that play on the readers' emotions. To find coverage ideas, look through newspapers and magazines. The Nashville Tennessean carried a story, Oct. 31 about the 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which polled 1,540 students in 450 high schools in the state. Results of that survey showed that 74.9% of the respondents had tried alcohol, 41.9% had tried marijuana, 5.6% had tried methamphetamines, 61.7% had smoked a cigarette, 12.2% had sniffed glue or "huffed" spray cans; 5.3% had used ecstasy; 54.7% had had sexual intercourse and 3.9% had used steroid pills or shots without a prescription. If this type of story is not too sensitive for your medium, you might conduct your own survey and compare the results to this statewide one. If this type of story is too sensitive for your medium, then look for other national surveys on less controversial topics, and then conduct a survey of your students to make a comparison. A good place to look for national surveys is in USA Today in their Snapshot infographics in the lower left corner of the front pages of most of their sections. Often those Snapshots deal with teen-related issues. Another coverage idea might be teenagers and blogs. USA Today had an interesting article featuring that topic in its Oct. 31 issue. According to the article at least 8 million teens blog, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That project released a report on teens and blogging, Nov. 2. Look for it.
Constitution Day Carolyn Woodward, MTSPA member and an adviser at Clarkrange High School, helped organize a celebration of Constitution Day at her school. Clarkrange actually turned the celebration into a six-day event. Even though Constitution Day has passed, it's still not too late to consider entering JEA's contest for the Cornerstone Award, an award that is worth $2500 to the winning schools. Schools must demonstrate they have held special activities to foster the First Amendment. Information about the Cornerstone Award is on JEA's website at jea.org. By congressional mandate, all schools which receive federal funding must celebrate Constitution Day Sept. 17 every year. This was the first year for the event. Because Sept. 17 was on Saturday this year, schools could celebrate Sept. 16 or Sept. 19. Clarkrange kicked off its celebration Friday, Sept. 16. If you didn't celebrate this year, consider doing something for next year. Following is the schedule Friday, Sept. 16 - Watch National Treasure. Monday, Sept. 19 - Red, White and Blue Day. Any student who wore only red, white and blue received a Tootsie Roll Pop. Tuesday, Sept. 20 - Treasure Hunt. This was really a two-day activity. The first day students were given a question guide to answer that provided clues for day two. The second day they used those clues to follow directions and find a treasure. Wednesday, Sept. 21 - Students who memorized the 1st Amendment were given a piece of green paper they could redeem for a prize at any store in the world (in other words, a crisp new $1 bill). Thursday, Sept. 22 - Drama students, dressed in period clothing, Friday, Sept. 23 - Students produced an art show depicting historical scenes or patriotic themes. In addition every morning there was a You Be The Judge contest. "We had a ball with this thing!" Carolyn said.
Lesson Plan Ideas Check out http://www.jmc.kent.edu/asne/resources/index.htm if you're looking for lesson plan ideas. Teachers who attended the ASNE workshop at Kent State in July developed these lesson plans as part of their required projects. Another great resource for teachers and students is www.highschooljournalism.org. This site, which ASNE hosts, also provides lesson plans as well as helpful tips for producing a publication. ASNE has also teamed up with the Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services to offer stories, photos, graphics, illustrations and Web content to high school newspapers. About two weeks of material updated daily is accessible. ASNE says the content is meant to supplement, not supplant the work of the high school newspaper staff. It also says schools who use this service avoid violating copyright laws. There is a one-time application fee of $50 which covers administrative expenses. For more information, advisers may contact Diana Mitsu Klos at For more information about the convention, go to jea.org. Don't forget the convention will be in Nashville in November 2006.
Top 10 Ways to Be An Effective Adviser 10.
A Possible Story Idea
Check out your schools to see what percentages of your teachers are males. Localize the above information by interviewing your teachers and students about the issue. Are there more males in some academic areas at your school than others? Why? The Poynter post said one of the reasons colleges of education historically have a tough time luring men to the profession is because of dated notions that teaching is women's work. Interview some of your parents to see if they believe that notion. Another reason Poynter cited is that teaching is not lucrative enough for men to be able to provide for their families. How do teacher salaries compare to salaries of other professionals in your area? This could make a great story. Good luck
Editorial Writing Few MTSPA members entered the editorial writing contest this year. Perhaps that's because the rules state editorials should be non-bylined and be the opinion of the newspaper staff. Some schools entered bylined editorial columns, and those were disqualified. Professional papers do not byline their editorials. Neither should schools. The difference between an editorial and an editorial column is that the view in an editorial should be the view of the majority of the staff, and the view in the column is one person's opinion. All school newspapers should have at least one non-bylined editorial in each issue of the paper based on a major news story. When writing editorials, be sure to avoid poison IVY. "I" means first person. Do not use it in editorials, unless you use "we" to refer to the newspaper staff. Do not use "I' or "our." "V" stand for verbosity, which means wordiness. Generally, editorials should be kept to 300 words or less. "Y" stand for second person "you." Since editorial writers should avoid first person and second person, that means they should write in third person. If writers avoid poison IVY and make a solid stand with good supporting points based on research, they will write a strong editorial. Go for it!
Using Attributions All direct quotes in broadcast and print stories should be attributed. Statements of fact should also be attributed if it's not clear to the reader where the information came from. The best attribution is usually "said." It's a short four-letter word that takes little space. Avoid using words like "commented" and "stated." "Commented is longer than "said" and "stated" means someone made an official statement. Students The only time the writer should use an attribution rather than "said" would be if another word fit the situation better. If the interviewee responded by yelling or screaming, then use "yelled" or "screamed." That will rarely happen, however. Bury attributions in the middle or at the end of quotes rather than starting the sentence with the attribution. It is also best to say "Principal Jack Berry said..." rather than "said Principal Jack Berry. Writers would say "he said" and "she said," not "said he" and "said she." For consistency in style put the name or the pronoun in front of "said."
Font Selection Just because there are a lot of fonts available doesn't mean publications should use all of them or even several of them. Generally speaking, most newspapers should stick to one font for body copy and one or two fonts for headlines. Regardless, all fonts used should complement each other. Use special fonts only if they fit the content of the article, and even then they should complement other fonts. Jack Kennedy, a journalism teacher in Colorado, said his staff has selected Myriad Pro and Minion Pro as its one sans serif (without hooks on the ends of letters) font and one serif (with hooks) font. A "Pro" font means the entire family of the font is available from Light Condensed through Regular Black and letters may be italic (slanted) or Roman (straight). By using a variety of approaches from the same family, you can get complementary contrasts in your fonts. Selecting the proper font can give your publication personality. Don't merely copy what other publications are doing. Choose carefully.
ACT/SAT Practice Tests
Get Active! To make your writing more concise and more clear, write in active
September 2004 Tip Twelve Steps to Writing Great Captions 1. Research! Research! Research!
May 2004 Tip Several journalism organizations have web sites
April 2004 Tip Jill Geisler, leadership instructor at Poynter Institute, says news Always remember that attitude determines altitude.
March 2004 Tip
February 2004 BonusTip The Journalism Education Association has named
February 2004 Tip This tip is from Jack Kennedy who teaches at Heritage High School in Littleton, Colorado. He is also vice president of the Journalism Education Association. Although it's Jack's tip, most writers would agree that "said"
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