5.3 Writer's Workshop: Professional Writing

Writing Goal: E-zine (an electronic magazine)

Magazines tell stories; they tell stories about things that are happening in our communities, in the lives of people around us and in the world.

An E-Zine is an online magazine - it's really just a website that focuses on a particular theme or topic.

• Click here to read the Wikipedia definition for an eZine.

Let's look carefully at some online magazines. It is a chance for you to begin reflecting on what kind of website you would like to produce.  Before you begin to make these decisions, you need to reflect on how a website can be organized and what its components should be. Examining what others have done is a good way to begin.

• Canadian eZine  It has a little bit about everything Canadian.
• Can-Teen An eZine for Canadian Teens covering a variety of topics including Movie Reviews, Sports and The Outdoors.
• The New York Times Upfront  A news magazine for teens.

There are many ways to create an eZine. An eZine can be very sophisticated or it can be more like a newsletter. You can do whatever you wish, but you are going to create a glorified newsletter-type eZine that will include pictures and articles written by you.  You need to consider the important aspects of your novel that could be included in an online magazine.

There are many different aspects to producing a magazine including research, writing, editing, designing, advertising and publishing. Throughout this course you have learned many of these skills, now it's time to put them into action!

Workshop Overview:

• Identify the purposes of a news article
• Apply the Who -What -When -Where -Why -How writing technique
• Write an effective lead
• Use basic editing principles
• Apply basic layout principles
• Produce an e-zine

   Writing Targets:

• Write a lead sentence that introduces the information in an interesting way.
• Include purposeful and accurate information, supported by appropriate resources, to fully explain the topic.
• Write a conclusion that ties the information together.
• Include appropriate vocabulary related to the topic.
• Vary sentence structure, using linking or transitional words as appropriate. 

You are a news reporter who has been following the recent events in your novel. You've decided to create an online magazine to present your research and opinion to share with other people. 

Your online magazine MUST have the following:

• A title banner with the creative name of your magazine, the date, etc.
• A main article that covers a major aspect of the novel-the main conflict, the main characters etc.
• 2 other small articles, one should discuss how a character overcame a problem and demonstrated resilience (consider an interview)
• An advertisement with prices and items appropriate to the setting of the novel
• An editorial written from the perspective of a real or made up character from the novel
• A picture with a caption (can be hand-drawn or from the internet)
• Look at modern day magazines for formatting ideas

• Remember, news articles are written in 3rd Person- don't use "I" or "me" except when directly quoting someone
• News articles answer the questions- who, what, where, when and why?
• Remember, your task is to report on the details, however, you can add extra details not covered in the book to enhance your work
• Interview a minor character for their perspective on the events in the novel
• Include extras such as classifieds, current events, sports or a travel section, that are appropriate to the setting and to the novel.
• Add extra pages if you need more space.

Before you get started, take a moment to complete a mini-lesson on adverbs. Go to Adverbs on the main list.

Return to this book module when you are done.

Development

*All necessary information needed to understand the story is present

*Ideas and actions are fully developed and explained

Organization

*Ideas are organized logically (Beginning, Middle, and End)

*Topic sentence (the story lead) introduces the topic

*Sufficient, appropriate details fully support the topic

*Concluding sentence ties the story together

Attention To Audience

*Enough information is presented so reader can understand the topic

*Story answers questions the reader might have

Language

*Vocabulary is appropriate for the topic

*Precise, appropriate, and descriptive language adds meaning to the story

*Variety of sentence structures and use of linking words or phrases, as appropriate,

*Make the story easy to read and understand

Open your writer's notebook and complete 5.1 The Main Article Notes

All news articles are based on gathered facts and opinions. It is important an article not only have people's opinions but also facts that support their claims. Think about the topic of your main article for your ezine and complete some research so that you can include facts about the subject.

Why is it important to take notes? Most of the information you'll have will be in fully formed sentences and paragraphs. If you just copy that information, or change a few words it's called plagiarism which is considered stealing. You're taking someone else's work and submitting it as your own. In most schools, if you copy information you will get a mark of zero and may even fail the course.

In order to demonstrate what you've learned about a topic, you need to submit your own work in your own words. There are two things you can do to help you put it into your own words. First, use more than one source. If you have selected your topic carefully you should be able to find more than one place to get information. Secondly, take notes. Once you've taken the notes use the information to form your own written work. 

Open your writer's notebook and complete 5.2 Research.

There are certain elements that are common to almost all articles that you will read in the newspaper or find on the Internet. The following list explains the five major components, or parts, of a news article.

1. Headline (Heading)
The headline is the title of the news article. The headline should be short, does not include a lot of detail, and should catch the readers’ attentions. It is normally not a complete sentence, and tries to summarize the main idea or subject of the article. It is often printed in larger letters than the rest of the article, and the major words are capitalized.
2. Byline
This line tells who is writing the article. It may also include the address of the author and the publication or news source for which he or she writes.
3. Location
This is usually placed at the beginning of the article in bold print. If the city or location is well-known, the name can be written alone, but if the city is less famous, more information is included. For example, the byline of an article written in Vancouver, BC would read ‘Vancouver’ , while an article from Calgary, AB would have to include the name of the city.
4. Lead Paragraph(s)
The lead paragraph is found at the beginning of the article. The lead briefly answers the questions “who”, “what”, “when”, “why”, “where”, and “how”. The ‘skeleton’ of the story can be found here.
5. Supporting Paragraph(s)
These are the paragraphs which follow the lead. They develop the ideas introduced by the lead, and give more information in the form of explanations, details, or quotes. In many online magazines, these paragraphs are found on subsequent pages.

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Most journalists (the people who write news articles) try to follow certain guidelines in their work. These principles of journalism help make sure that when people open a newspaper or magazine article, they can believe what they read.

1. A news article tells the truth: the journalist writes facts that are, to the best of his/her knowledge, true. A careful journalist only states things that he/she can prove to be true, and will ‘cite’ the source of any uncertain information. example: “According to Mrs. Brown, principal of North Oaks High School, most grade 9 students take French as a second language.”  In the statement above, even if it is later discovered that more grade 9 students take Spanish instead of French, the journalist has not lied. He/she has only claimed that Mrs. Brown says more grade 9s take French, which is still a true statement.

2. News is factual. Something that is factual can be proved or disproved.  For example, “Last Saturday was a rainy day,” is a factual statement, because it can be clearly shown that last Saturday either was or was not rainy.  “Rainy days are depressing,”  is not a factual statement, because it is a personal opinion.

3. News articles are objective. They do not reflect the personal opinions of the journalist. Quotes and opinions of witnesses and observers to events may be included in an article, but they must be cited.

4. News articles relate information that affects or is of interest to the public. Some newspapers print articles that are of interest to a smaller audience. When the audience is concentrated in a particular region, such as a particular city or state, the newspaper is known as a ‘local’ paper.

5. The purpose of a news article is to report the facts of a current event or problem. Although many people enjoy reading the news, the purpose of a news article is not entertainment.

6. The language used in news articles is often different from the language that is used in everyday conversation, or in stories or narratives. The style of writing is impersonal, and the vocabulary is often more formal.

©2004abcteach.com

You have worked on a few news writing skills. Now it's time to begin writing the drafts of each of the other necessary components:

• A title banner with the creative name of your paper, the date, the price etc.
• 2 other small articles, one should discuss how a character overcame a problem and demonstrated resilience (consider an interview)
• An advertisement with prices and items appropriate to the setting of the novel
• An editorial written from the perspective of a real or made up character from the novel
• A picture with a caption (can be hand-drawn or from the internet)

You have worked on skills throughout the course that will help you be successful with creating these components. Be sure to submit the draft of your 2 small articles and editorial, so that your teacher can give you some feedback prior to publishing your e-zine and submitting for grading. You can access each of the dropboxes from the main course page. 

You have practiced editing a variety of writing throughout this course. It is now time to look at editing practices specific to writing news articles. 

You’ve written GOOD articles. But before you turn them in, edit them — go over the article again, fixing mistakes, maybe rewriting some things — and turn it into a GREAT news article.  Here’s how:

1. Make sure you have included who – what – when – where – why – how.

2. Don’t editorialize . That means, don’t put in what you think or believe.  For example, don’t write:  “Science is the most useful subject you can take in school.”  That’s your opinion and other people might disagree with you.  And, besides, how can you prove it?

3. Write clearly, using simple words. Imagine that you are telling the story to your friend.

4. Check the spelling of all words, especially people’s names.

5. Make sure your quotes are accurate and in the proper form, like this: “I enjoy being a safety patrol,” Carol said.  Remember: the comma goes inside the quote mark.

6. Numbers.  Spell out numbers 1 to 9, and use figures for 10 and above.  For example, “We have two cars and 12 children.”  Spell out a number at the beginning of a sentence.
   
        Wrong:  “120 children are in the fourth grade.”
   
        Right:  “One hundred and twenty children are in the fourth grade.”  Or, “There are     
        120 children in the fourth grade.”
   
   It is OK to start a sentence with the number of a year:  “2001 has been an exciting year.”

Go to your writer's notebook and complete 5.4 Edit Your Story. Once you have completed the exercise upload your writer's notebook to the dropbox.

Once you are satisfied with your editing, it's time to proofread your ezine.  Proofreading deals with the more mechanical aspects of your writing.  Check your writing for these points.

Title

Have I included a title for each article?

Have I included a catchy title for my ezine?

Punctuation

Did I include a punctuation mark at the end of each sentence?

Did I use commas to separate items in a series?

Did I use commas before conjunctions (e.g., and, or, but) in compound sentences?

Did I correctly punctuate the dialogue in my writing?

Did I use apostrophes to show possession or missing letters (not plural)?

Capitalization

Did I begin each sentence and direct quotation with a capital letter?

Did I capitalize nouns that name specific people, places, and things?

Spelling

Have I double-checked the spelling of the names of people and places?

Did I use the correct word form for words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings (e.g., their, they're, there;  too, to, two)?

Did I use the spell-check function on my computer?

Paragraphing

Are my paragraphs well written with a clear topic and concluding sentences?

Presentation

Have I included all necessary components of the Novel News assignment?

Have I included graphics and an appealing layout to my ezine?

Sometimes it can be difficult to spot mistakes in your own work, so you could ask a friend or family member to proofread it as well.

Once you have included:

• a title banner with the creative name of your e-zine and the date, etc.
• a main article that covers a major aspect of the novel-the main conflict, the main characters etc.
• 2 other small articles, one must be on the topic of resilience
• an advertisement with prices and items appropriate to the setting of the novel
• an editorial written from the perspective of a real or made up character from the novel
• a picture with a caption (can be hand-drawn or from the internet)

AND

• edited your work for COPS 
• formatted all parts of the e-zine for a clear layout
• included a picture

Submit in the dropbox: Novel E-zine

Once you have submitted your ezine, take a moment to complete a mini-lesson on writing news articles and editing. Go to News Article Quiz on the main list.