Journalism for Kids : Chapter 9 : Publish a Journal of your own-Part3
People look to look at and read matter that is presented in a pleasing and eye catching manner.
In this lesson, lets understand the third, very important step of how to design a layout for your newsletter.
Keep the following points in mind and make a list:
1) Decide on the number of pages that your newsletter will contain.
2) Design a logo for your newsletter.
3) Take a sheet of paper and, using a pencil, roughly mark the places where you want the logo to appear, where you want the name of the newsletter to appear, and where you want the page numbers to appear.
A newsletter usually contains two columns for the write-ups.
Headings for articles are bolder and bigger than the rest of the writing. These should be neatly enclosed in a box drawn with a ruler. Collect jokes, trivia etc., and use them to fill up small spaces in the newsletter. You could also ask around if anyone wants to place a small advertisement in the newsletter. Ask them what size the advertisement will be, so that you can fit it in a column. If possible, offer to design the advertisement for them.
Finally, decide how many articles you want to write about and allot the number of columns for each. This is necessary so that you don’t end up with one extremely long article and another, which is very short! People will get bored! Short and interesting articles are very popular.
The next step is to use a fat notebook to make a rough copy of the newsletter. On the first page, make a table of contents in which you will write down the headings of all your topics. If you have time, number the pages and write the corresponding page number in front of the topic in the table of contents. This will make it easy for you to find an article without having to flip back and forth through the notebook. Take a topic one at a time and write an article on it. Refer to the material you have gathered in order to cover most of the points that you scribbled. Keep the language simple and clear and avoid using long, complicated words…you don’t want someone to sit with a dictionary while reading your newsletter, do you?
Editing your articles is very important before making the final copy. Check for spelling mistakes, grammar, and repeated sentences. The best way to edit it is to ask your mom or dad to read the articles and correct the mistakes. After editing, make a fair copy of the articles and let your mom and dad read it once more. Get the final copy printed on a computer printer and if possible, make photocopies and staple neatly. Then distribute the newsletter among your friends and neighbors.
Written by admin on May 18th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Journalism for Kids and Activity.