scene with specific details that help readers see the big picture. “Don’t
write about journalism students working hard on nights before a dead-
line. Tell me about the night Don Schmidt had 24 pages lined out on a
table and accidentally spilled a bottle of India ink over all the pages,”
Wall said.
Status details are the difference between generic soda and Perrier.
They are tools that make the distinction between blah and the colors of a
Van Gogh painting. For instance, you might write, “A new student came
to class today wearing jeans, a T-shirt and a chain at his neck, and he was
blond.” Maybe that new student was wearing Levi 501s, a clean white
T-shirt tucked into the jeans and a fine gold chain. His short, platinum
blond hair was styled precisely. Or maybe that new student was wearing
a black Harley-Davidson T-shirt over frayed plain-pocket jeans, as well as
two or three heavy chains, including one with dog tags. His shoulder-
length hair was blond at the roots but was obviously growing out from
having been dyed black. Very different personalities can be revealed
through status details.
Another way to take readers to the scene is to use the names of
songs, movie titles, personalities and current events. Sidebars with Top
10 lists of the year’s most popular movies, favorite actors and actresses,
or most-listened-to music at your school can be created from student
surveys.
Whether it’s the lead, the status details or using said instead of
descriptive verbs like exclaimed or shouted to show the way in which
someone speaks, all the same guidelines that apply to news and feature
writing apply to yearbook writing. The following guidelines also apply
to yearbooks:
- Leads should not begin with a person’s name or the name
of the school. Also avoid beginning with “The goals of,”
“The purpose of,” “This year” or a date. - It is redundant to use both this year and to give the year.
The cover identifies the year, and by its description a year-
book is the story of a year—this year. Report about this year.
Don’t rehash last year or make predictions about next year. - Avoid words that imply opinion, such as diligently, dedi-
cated or hardworking. Instead, show what makes a person
or team dedicated (for example, “Practicing six hours a
day for six weeks.. .”). Don’t let subjective adjectives and
adverbs sneak in. “A beautiful pass” would be more objec-
tive as “a 75-yard touchdown pass.” “It was an awesome
concert” could read “Complete Music, a five-piece band
from New Meadows, played.. .” - Weed out weasel words, such as many, various, wide variety,
numerous, some, a lot, and few. Instead of “Many attended
the musical,” say “More than 400 attended the musical.” - Never use the name of the school or the school mascot
to refer to students—for example, “The Vikings ate in a
new cafeteria.” Students know their yearbook is about
their school. The name of the school, its initials or mascot
should be reserved for writing about competitive situations
such as sports.
YEARBOOKS AND MAGAZINES^413
OutTake
Leaving a Mark, Seven
Times Over
Carol Jong wanted to leave an
indelible mark on the University of
Kansas. She did so, seven times.
One of the university’s year-
books featured photos of Jong
in seven different looks—and
in seven different places under
seven different names.
There is Buffi J. Baker in busi-
ness, Bertha Heffer in engineer-
ing and Violet Couleur in fine arts.
Jong can also be found posing as
Anne U. Rissom in allied health
and Dorrie N. Collum in archi-
tecture, not to mention her own
Carol Jong picture in liberal arts.
Jong’s roommate tried to
join in the prank by submit-
ting fake photos, but all her
fakes were caught and rejected
by the Jayhawker staff.
“We wanted to leave our
mark at KU,” said Jong. “Since
we’re not athletes or student
presidents or anything, we
wanted to be remembered
for something special.”
The yearbook staff
was not amused.
“It’s a great joke as far as
she’s concerned,” said Jeannine
Kreker, assistant editor. “But
as far as Kan sas alumni and
everybody who’s going to look
at this book years from now is
concerned, it makes us and the
university look pretty silly.”