COMPLETING YOUR COPY WITH CAPTIONS AND HEADLINES (Lesson 1) Renee Burke, MJE, Yearbook Adviser, Boone High School

Completing Your Copy with Captions and Headlines Before anyone reads your well-crafted story on a yearbook spread, their eyes will be drawn to your headline and captions. Photos will draw their attention first, so it’s automatic that people will read the accompanying captions to learn more about the people and what they are doing. Cleverly written and well-designed headlines will attract readers to a spread almost as much as the dominant photo.

Completing Your Copy with Captions and Headlines You may hear that students don’t read the copy in the yearbook. They will if you begin writing enticing headlines and informative captions. Improving your copy in these two areas will lead readers to want to learn more from the story. This unit will focus on how to write better captions and headlines, including practice to improve your skills.

Completing Your Copy with Captions and Headlines Your journey to writing great caption and headline copy that readers will enjoy starts now. In this unit you will learn to: Write great captions using the ABCD formula Write intriguing headlines that are vivid and descriptive while staying factual

Lesson 1: Writing Great Captions Objectives – In this lesson, you will learn: How to write quality, informational captions that identify people and events How to write informative captions creatively so people will want to read them

Lesson 1: Writing Great Captions Each year when schools are planning coverage and how to best write a story, there are always yearbook staffs who say, “Why do we write body copy? No one reads it.” While it may be true that not everyone reads it immediately, people will read it when they are reminiscing or before a reunion. However, you cannot use that same defense against caption writing. Photos are the largest, most-seen graphics in the yearbook. If the photo has stopped the reader, he will read the caption to know the story.

Lesson 1: Writing Great Captions Captions are small bits of information given to the reader in digestible chunks. They tell the reader all the factual information they need to know about the photo. To make it more personal, you can include a quote from someone in the photo. So, all of the good rules you’ve been taught will still ring true for caption writing. You still need to attend events, interview those involved and stick to the facts. Once you know the 5Ws and H – Who, What, When Where, Why and How – captions write themselves. Pull out a few yearbooks for students to look at, without reading the captions, or project images from past yearbooks without the captions. Ask students if they can really tell what is going on in each photo without the information from the caption, starting with the names of the people in the photos.

Lesson 1: Writing Great Captions Taking aim. All captions need to explain the who, what, when, where, why and how to put the reader in the moment the photo was taken. In this case, the caption should put the reader into that moment of the game. A quote about what the player was thinking would be a nice touch as the last sentence. Sidney Taylor

Writing a Caption is as Easy as ABCD For the video that goes to this lesson, go to walsworthyearbooks.com/greatcaptions

Lesson 1: Writing Great Captions Answer the question. In this case the question is, what is he doing? The student is testing electrical boards to ensure they were safe to use and would turn on the light bulb. Hannah Leyva

Lesson 1: Writing Great Captions • List three to five words that grab the reader’s attention and link the photo and caption together • Lead-in states the obvious in an unobvious way • Include the five Ws and H • Use a variety of adjectives and adverbs • Be descriptive • Use strong, visual specific nouns • Consider the action before and during the photo and reaction to the event Review this list of “Do’s” with students to make sure they understand each of these points.

Lesson 1: Writing Great Captions • Use colorful, lively, visual action verbs • Write in present tense, active voice (unless changing tenses to make it logical) • Be factual • Use a variety of sentence patterns • Identify all people in picture (up to seven) • Use complete sentences • Use first and last names Do list continued

Lesson 1: Writing Great Captions • Don’t state the obvious • Don’t begin leads with names or overuse the same lead pattern • Don’t use label leads (example: basketball girls, swimmers, etc.) • Don’t use an excessive amount of –ing verbs • Avoid “During” to begin your lead as it’s overused Review this list of “Don’ts” with students to make sure they understand each of these points.

Lesson 1: Writing Great Captions • Don’t use “Pictured/Showed Above,” “Seems/Attempts to” • Avoid using “to be” verbs • Don’t use “gag” or joke captions • Don’t comment or question the action in the picture; you are telling the reader what happened, not conversing with him The “Don’t” list continued. walsworthyearbooks.com/yearbooksuite

Lesson 1: Writing Great Captions How does it feel? You probably know what it is like to stick your hand inside a pumpkin. Let your caption help readers experience what is going on in the photo, in this case, feeling the slime like this student did. Morgan Rollins

Lesson 1: Writing Great Captions Special considerations: • Identify both schools’ players and opponents by jersey number and name • State position of the player(s) • Consider plays leading up to the action • Tell the result or outcome

Lesson 1: Writing Great Captions Special considerations: • Begin with name of group • Identify from left to right, but don’t write that as part of the caption • Give clear row designation in a different font than text (CHEERLEADING Front: Name Here, Name Here. Row 2: Name Here, Name Here. Back: Name Here, Name Here.)

Lesson 1: Writing Great Captions • Attend the event and know what you are writing about • Write the caption as soon as possible after the picture was taken • Identify everyone in the photo • Describe what is happening in the exact moment of the photo • Give your photo a timeframe • Avoid passive voice • Don’t add unnecessary phrases such as “left to right” or “pictured above” • Check and recheck the spelling of the names and text • NEVER make up information – it is journalistically wrong!

Lesson 1, Activity 1: Critique Captions Take a newspaper section, magazine or go to an online news site. Find three photos with captions. Write down the captions and answer these questions. 1. Critique the captions. How could each caption be improved? Is anything missing from the captions? 2. Rewrite the captions with the information provided in the current caption and/or the accompanying story. Remember to keep them factual. CAPTION 1: ............................................................................................. CAPTION 2: CAPTION 3: Provide students with newspapers or magazines and have them cut out photos and captions, or let them go to online news sites and copy captions.

Lesson 1, Activity 2: Write the Captions On the following slides are two photos with background information provided so you can write the caption. Remember your ABCDs. Write your caption . Make sure students have their caption checklists handy when evaluating their peers’ captions.

Lesson 1, Activity 2: Write the Captions CAPTION 1 – MUSICAL CHAIRS Juniors Jessica Peterson (left) and Mary Lopez (right) Participate in blindfolded musical chairs at the first pep rally of the year It was 97 degrees outside and two people suffered from heat exhaustion This was a competition between the classes Occurred on Sept. 6 “I couldn’t see so I sat really quickly on someone and when I looked, it was Mary [my best friend], so it was the perfect person to sit on. It just stunk I was still out,” Peterson said. “The music ended so quickly. I just sat as quickly as I could. I thought it was so funny that Jessica ended up on my lap,” Lopez said. The seniors won this event. Blake Waranch

Lesson 1, Activity 2: Write the Captions CAPTION 2 – ACTOR Junior Clark Thornton plays a townsman who has an ailing back. This was the drama department’s production of Anatomy of Gray. The production ran Oct. 4, 5 and 6 at 7 p.m. in the school’s auditorium (unnamed). Debra Christopher, a former student, directed the play. This program earned the troop four Critic’s Choice Awards and 10 Best in Show awards at the district competition. “Being able to play a crazy man was so much fun,” Thornton said. “Through staging, I get to see every actor almost as a unique chess piece, and it’s the director’s job to play the game with the pieces and play it well,” Christopher said. The setting was Gary, Indiana, in the 1800s. Photo provided by Boone High School

Lesson 1, Activity 2: Write the Captions Now that you’ve written a few captions, swap with a peer. Evaluate and critique each other’s caption writing using a Caption Checklist. See how much you remembered. CAPTION 1 – MUSICAL CHAIRS __ Makes a creative caption/photo connection (Attention getter) __ Present tense sentence identifies who (everyone in photo) and describes what is happening in each photo (Basic info) __ Past tense sentence takes reader beyond moment of photos (Complimentary info) __ Quotes are interesting and not just facts (Direct quote) __ Caption is factual __ Avoids editorializing, school name, and terms like: this year, apparently, seemingly __ Written in third person (no you, us, we, our) __ In active, not passive voice verb __ Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are correct __ Doesn’t begin with name or -ing __ Overall captions are positive and interesting. Make sure students have their caption checklists handy when evaluating their peers’ captions.

Lesson 1, Activity 2: Write the Captions CAPTION 2 – ACTOR __ Makes a creative caption/photo connection (Attention getter) __ Present tense sentence identifies who (everyone in photo) and describes what is happening in each photo (Basic info) __ Past tense sentence takes reader beyond moment of photos (Complimentary info) __ Quotes are interesting and not facts (Direct quote) __ Caption is factual __ Avoids editorializing, school name, and terms like: this year, apparently, seemingly __ Written in third person (no you, us, we, our) __ In active, not passive voice verb __ Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are correct __ Doesn’t begin with name or -ing __ Overall captions are positive and interesting Make sure students have their caption checklists handy when evaluating their peers’ captions.