Columbia Scholastic Press Association

Newspaper Page Editing (section 2)

This sequence begins with a review of interviewing techniques.

Students will then have the opportunity to actually interview someone and then write a feature story from that interview. We will look at different kinds of feature style leads and move into how to use quoted material and look at transition devices for journalistic writing. We will give students a chance to edit each other's copy. Students will also learn proper editorial writing, and how to handle sensitive issues.

The second part will deal with design and photography. We will look at Tim Harrower's suggestions for correct newspaper design as described in his book, The Newspaper Designer's Handbook, using horizontal modular design. We will look at basic photographic principles and how to correctly place photos on a page with correct cropping. Students will get a chance to actually cut and paste a couple of pages.

The third part will include a variety of subjects, including high school press law and ethics, news values, news sources, beats, headline and caption writing, and staff motivation and morale. Students will also evaluate another student's school newspaper.

Sequence assignments

• Students will write a personality profile feature story based on an interview.
• Students will write an unsigned staff editorial that they could use in their first issue in the fall.
• Students will design two different pages by cutting and pasting a page similar to the one they will be editing in their own newspaper.
• Students will write an original journalistic piece of writing from something from the week for a writing contest piece. The writing can be a news story, sports story, feature story, review, editorial, or personal column.
• Students will compile a list of story ideas for their page/pages of their own newspaper at least 50 original story ideas.
• Students will make a list of all stories that belong in the first issue of their paper.

 Sequence accomplishments

• Knowledge of high school press law and ethics.
• Correct journalistic writing principles and interesting lead writing
• Correct editing skills.
• Attractive scholastic newspaper design
• Proper caption writing
• How to handle sensitive issues
• Good photographic skills
• How to promote staff morale and motivation
• Correct interviewing skill and techniques
• How to critique a student newspaper
• How to write a personality profile
• How to write an unsigned staff editorial

Sequence instructor

Merle Dieleman recently retired as a teacher of language arts and journalism at Pleasant Valley (IA) Community High School. He advised the Spartan Shield newspaper and the Valenian yearbook from 1984-1999. Dieleman has served as the president of CSPAA and the IHSPA (where he currently serves as vice-president). He received the Gold Key from CSPA, the Iowa High School Journalism Teacher of the Year Award, the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year (1996), the Pioneer Award from the NSPA, the Lifetime Achievement Award from JEA and the Charles O’Malley Award for Excellence in Teaching from CSPA. He has been inducted into the IHSPA Hall of Fame.

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