Caption Writing 101

 Here are the basics of yearbook caption-writing.

1. Every caption needs to start with a lead-in phrase. This is your mini-headline for your caption; it is designed to grab a Joe Yearbook Reader's attention and let him understand what's going on in the photo in very brief detail. Set off your lead-in from the rest of your caption by putting it in bold.

2. After the lead-in, your caption needs to have one present-tense sentence describing the action in the photo. This is the sentence that captures that photo's moment in time.

BEWARE OF THE PARTICIPLE PHRASE FRAGMENT!!!

wrong-   Mr. Malone sitting at his desk.

correct-  Mr. Malone sits at his desk.


3. Every subsequent sentence (2-3) in your caption should be in past-tense. The reason for this is that the action in the photo has already become a thing of the past once your readers get their yearbook. You write about that action in the proper tense to maintain consistency.

4. Every caption should do a few key things:
- Describe the action taking place in the photo.
- Identify every person in the photo by name and grade, up to 5 people.

 examples: Tierney DeWitt (12) and Mallory DeJong (12)....  

or 

Senior girls Tierney DeWitt and Mallory DeJong...

- Go beyond the photo by providing additional details about the event or program the photo highlights.


Example:



Community Service
Following the heavy summer rains, Zach Howard (11) and ? (?) lend a hand in flood clean-up as part of the CERT program.  CERT stands for ?.  They are also helped fill sand bags and learned important skills to aid in times of crisis.

Thursday

Ad Sales Reports

Each group will share out how their sales went.

Checks will be turned into Mack to photocopy.

Then each group will plan tomorrow's attack plans.


Heads Up: Tuesday we have a big lesson. I will tell you more in class.

Prom Special

Tierney and Mack,

Let's work on a deal for the hair/nail/tan/dress places. We could post a list of places in our display case around prom and winter sports week.

Thoughts?

Mallory's ASN

Mallory,

ASN- Look through the Farm Safety Show photos. Pick the best. I am hoping for 10-12 good ones.

Send a copy of them to the Stacia.

Monday, Sept 20th

Thanks for all the hard work on Friday. All but five of the letters were mailed out. FANTASTIC!

FIRST-

Open GOOGLE DOCS and notice that you now have access to a new folder. This is a drop box or shared folder that everyone has access to. What a project is completely edited, it goes here.

Drop your completed first yearbook assignment in the SHARED FOLDER entitled “YEARBOOK 2011”. Get this done by NO LATER THAN Tuesday at the start of class.

We will be placing them on the pages of the virtual yearbook at YEARBOOK AVENUE.

Second-

Get into your AD SALES TEAMS. And be ready to learn about pitching the sale...

Friday, Sept 17th 2010

Today we are breaking into four or five ad team groups. We will address envelops to send to the businesses we will be visiting next week.

This HAS TO GET DONE TODAY!

Stay focused.

You will also get your field trip forms.

Sept 16th Assignment

Today we will start with a class project.

Cully Spears to the front of class.

Then we will break into a couple groups to do group projects.

We will have groups of four.

Please get your cameras to Mallory to get the images uploaded.

Group 1

Gym shooting practice. Take the three cameras.

Group 2

Sponsor Lists

Group 3

Ad sales practice

Group 4

Ad letter writing

ASN:

Add a comment to this post saying what your idea is for an Sept./Oct story.

ASN:

Make a list of the photos you need for your first story.