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PawPrint Submissions |
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body of an e-mail to Ms. Forsythe. Include the following where applicable:
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After your idea is approved, your rough
draft should be typed in MS Word, 12 point Times New Roman. Save
the draft in your folder. The finished rough draft should be
e-mailed as an attachment with the subject line "PawPrint article
for ____ (insert the current month)" If your article requires further revisions, I'll send an e-mail with the requested changes outlined. Make the changes and send the revised version as an attachment with the same subject line.
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Every issue will include a list of upcoming events for the month and the Character Counts students of the month, so you'll have to dig a little deeper for story ideas.
Here are some suggestions to get you started:
- October - 10 best questions a parent can ask a teacher during Parent-Teacher Conference or vice versa
- Places to go on Fall Break
- November - Thanksgiving traditions, December - Christmas traditions
- Who can you interview that has an unusual story to tell? What about the people who 'service' the school each day - Mrs. Damron, Mrs. Maudena, the cafeteria ladies, etc.?
- How about students with a great story - who's done something other teens don't do, or been out of the country, taking an unusual course or pursuing a different hobby, etc.
- The most read story on the website is about Mr. Stroup as the Motorcycle Man - what other interesting facts can you dig up about a faculty member?
- What about things like favorite classes? Cafeteria food? Fashion trends? What are your friends talking about?
- Vehicles on campus, parking rules, taking the driver's test, scariest driving moment, etc.
- Favorite places to go on the weekend, places to eat, etc.
- What do you buy the most of, or what do you spend the most money on at Wal-Mart?
- Pro & con views on an issue - keep it balanced
- living in a digital age - technology issues, things you "can't" live without, how technology has changed since your parents were in school, your grandparents
- Special things going on in vocational/technical clubs or classes? Just what DO they do out in that greenhouse? Down in the shop? at the hospital?
- Senior Projects - is anyone doing something unusual? What problems / successes are students having?
- Sports - check this link for a lot of ideas
- Responses to national and state events - what do our students think about Michael Vick and dogfighting? Are professional athletes role models, overpaid for what they do, or are worth every penny they make? Try to stay away from real hotpoints, like the war in Iraq, that may cause too much controversy.
- College - former students and success stories, how to finance college, what are the top schools our students attend? What are the options for someone who doesn't want to go to college - technical schools, trade schools, etc? What about the military?
- Alumni success stories - MCHS opened in the fall of 1969, which means nearly 8,000 people have graduated in the past 38 years. What are those people doing? How many are still here, and how many have moved away?
- Freshman experiences
You can also find ideas in local newspapers, magazines, and online sources. There are several sources listed in the Journalism Toolbox on the Journalism home page., or look at online news sites such as msn.com and yahoo.
| Changes in attitudes | |
Take a different approach to the 5 Ws and H.
It was Journalism 101. Who, what, when, where, why and
how.
We were taught:
This simplistic formula is a great place to start. It's worked fairly well for generations of journalists. The problem occurs when the reporting ends with those 5Ws and H. |
Your readers are too smart and too busy to
waste their time if that's all they will gain from reading your
newspaper. Each of us, editors and reporters alike, must apply a second 5Ws and H test to each story and assignment.
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