What to consider
There are a lot of things to consider when writing texts for your yearbook. We have summarised the most important information for you. The articles in your yearbook should be entertaining to read and have a good sense of humour. Anyone can write texts, right? And you write often enough at school anyway: exams, term papers, reports, etc. However, a few other rules apply to articles for your yearbook: They should be entertaining to read and have a good dose of humour. Of course, they should also contain information for the readers. But the main thing is to have fun. Nevertheless, there are a few things you should keep in mind. Here are the most important rules in brief:
Text length
The layout team tells you how long the texts on each page may be. And you should absolutely stick to this. No, you cannot arbitrarily make the font size bigger/smaller so that your article fits on the page or simply place more/less photos. Of course you can, but then the layout is "broken" and the yearbook looks neither beautiful nor professional. Do you want that? - Well, then stick to the layouter's guidelines.
Type of text
What type of text does the article actually belong to? Remember your English lessons when you discussed journalistic text types. Many of the articles in the yearbook are reportages.
Structure
Every text needs a structure in the form of an introduction, middle and conclusion. This was also a topic often enough in English class - and with good reason. Take your readers into your article, tell them something and then gently dismiss them again. In between, subheadings are sometimes helpful and captions also help with orientation. This makes reading fun.
Focus
What is the text actually about? You should keep the idea in mind and also not take on too many topics and incidents. Everything never fits into one article. So choose individual topics (or just one topic) and stick to them. Focus on.
Language
Here too, less is more. Don't get bogged down in tapeworm-like sentences. Formulate clearly and simply. That way your readers will get more out of it and you will enjoy formulating it more.
Comprehension
Does everyone understand the content or is it peppered with insiders and only understandable to other students at the level? Remember who reads your A-level paper: Of course, also classmates and students of the lower years, but also teachers, parents, grandma, grandpa, uncles, aunts and last but not least your advertisers. Write in such a way that everyone enjoys reading your Abi newspaper.
Respect
Last but not least: Be respectful in your articles - whether towards classmates, teachers or others. Humour is allowed, but always consider whether you might hurt someone's feelings. This is to be avoided at all costs.
Deadlines
If you are writing your own article, be sure to meet the deadline. Even if you feel that the deadline is very early, there is a reason for this. Your texts are still being read and corrected. It takes time to put together all the pages of the Abi newspaper, etc. pp. So, be cooperative. If you are responsible for organising the Abi magazine, you should make sure that the deadlines are met. It's a good idea to send a circular email to all authors two weeks before the deadline to remind them of the deadline. Do the same again one week before the deadline and three days before. Then hopefully (as much as possible) all texts will be with you on deadline day.
