Journalism Personal Profile Unit
Time to move on to another genre of writing: journalism! In this unit, students will learn interviewing skills, journalistic terms and techniques, specifically related to personal profiles, as well as some preliminary graphic design concepts.
Final Assignment Overview
Scenario: You are a writer for a pop magazine—one that deals with popular culture. It is your task to use Microsoft Publisher or another school-compatable publishing software to create an attractive layout of two to three pages by writing an article about a specific aspect of a classmate’s life or the life of someone of your choice (you may NOT choose anyone in your immediate household) and arranging the article with photos of the person and related graphics. The article must focus on a single topic—not a miscellany of information like “favorite things” or “the everyday life of so-and-so.” Your editor (me) expects several things in your article: direct quotes from the person—and from someone else about the person; an idea of your subject’s appearance and personal style; and a wealth of specific, interesting information about whatever central topic you choose to focus on.
Your final product will be single-spaced in magazine-style columns, using publishing software to incorporate pull quotes, images, etc. Although you will be responsible for keeping records of interviews and source material (creating a works cited page to keep on file), your finished article will not include parenthetical documentation since you are writing it for a pop magazine rather than a scholarly journal; you will identify sources within your text instead. The final articles will be posted/published online so language and graphics must be school appropriate.
Your final product will be single-spaced in magazine-style columns, using publishing software to incorporate pull quotes, images, etc. Although you will be responsible for keeping records of interviews and source material (creating a works cited page to keep on file), your finished article will not include parenthetical documentation since you are writing it for a pop magazine rather than a scholarly journal; you will identify sources within your text instead. The final articles will be posted/published online so language and graphics must be school appropriate.