1. Grabbing Your Readers Attention with Quick Reads
Infographics
Grabbing Your Readers Attention with Quick Reads

2. 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.”

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Check original for bold face copy issues
Modular Storytelling // Oct 5-9 West Shore Jr/Sr High School, Melbourne, FL

7. 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

8. And Now . . . A TON of examples

9. True Modular

10. 1 Content Spread w/ Infographics

11. 1 Content Spread w/ Infographics

12. Multi-Content Spread w/ Infographics

13. Multi-Content Spread w/ Infographics

14. Spot the Infographic

15. Spot the Infographic

16. Spot the Infographic

17. Spot the Infographic

18. Spot the Infographic

19. Spot the Infographic

20. Spot the Infographic

21. Spot the Infographic

22. Spot the Infographic

23. 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.

24. 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.