Grabbing Your Readers Attention with Quick Reads Infographics Grabbing Your Readers Attention with Quick Reads
Forget the Facts, Get the Memories When I talk to most yearbook staffers about copy they are quick to tell me that the people at their school want less of it. I think what they really mean is that the copy in their yearbook is basically BORRRRIIIINNNNGG! But ask any student how many pages of writing their best friend wrote to them last year when signing their yearbook and they will probably tell you anywhere from half a page to three or four pages. And if you pursue this they will tell you, “but our friends were writing about our memories.”
The Point . . . Stop writing yearbook copy that is mostly fact-based and start writing copy that is memory-based. It’s the difference between listing the teachers who teach science in your academic section and writing about how gross it was to cut open a frog in biology class. It’s the difference between telling me the plot of the advanced drama play and telling me the crazy stuff that occurred while the school staged the play. One is fact, the other memory. People are bored by facts alone, but they are delighted by their memories.
3 Minute Rule Students should be able to read good yearbook copy in three minutes or less. Yearbook readers will not invest hours in reading your copy but they will read short and sweet QuickReads.
Telling Stories in a New Way Infographic = a visual representation of information or data. a good infographic is worth a thousand words fun, quick way to learn about a topic without a ton of heavy reading. telling old stories in new ways.
Check original for bold face copy issues Modular Storytelling // Oct 5-9 West Shore Jr/Sr High School, Melbourne, FL
Alternatives to Traditional Copy Advice Behind the Scenes Breakdown By the Numbers Charts/Graphs Checklist Compare and Contrast Diagrams Dos and Don’t’s Expanded Captions Factoids Favorites FYI Box How To’s List Map Minute by Minute Multiple Perspectives Narratives Opinion Polls Photo Diary Profiles Pros and Cons Q&A Quiz Quotes Rating Recipe Schedules Scoreboards Sidebars Social Media Posts Step by Step Surveys Terms and Definitions This or That Timeline Top 10 (or other number) Who Know Best Voice Boxes
And Now . . . A TON of examples
True Modular
1 Content Spread w/ Infographics
1 Content Spread w/ Infographics
Multi-Content Spread w/ Infographics
Multi-Content Spread w/ Infographics
Spot the Infographic
Spot the Infographic
Spot the Infographic
Spot the Infographic
Spot the Infographic
Spot the Infographic
Spot the Infographic
Spot the Infographic
Spot the Infographic
Your Turn Pick one of the different ways we’ve discussed Alternative Coverage to show how you can cover one of the following in a new way: Back to School Best Friends Band Class Math Class Complete a rough sketch of what it might look like in your yearbook.
Example Subject: Band New Story Angle: How you have to hold your mouth to play an instrument. Visual: A series of pictures where students demonstrate how they hold their mouth in order to play their instrument. Verbal: Get the students to try and describe how to hold their mouth to someone that does not play the instrument. Complete a rough sketch of what it might look like in your yearbook.