Newspaper layout

This morning when we come to class, Ms. Mariya was already there. Class begins exactly at nine o’clock and Ms. Mariya is very strict about students being on time. When class begins, there is a formal ‘hello’ with our teacher. Then she takes our attendance, which is mandatory.

After general announcements, Ms. Mariya showed us copies of The Bowdoin Orient, her college’s weekly newspaper. We looked through the newspapers and browsed different sections like sports, arts and entertainments, features and opinion.

Then Ms. Mariya taught us about layout. Layout is the actual design of a newspaper. We learned about masthead, bylines, headlines, captions, and photo credits. A masthead is the title of a newspaper or a section. A byline is where the writer’s name and title are mentioned so we know who wrote the article. Headlines are titles of articles. They should be catchy, interesting, and must summarize what the article is about. Sometimes we also include sub-headlines, right below the headline. They give the reader a bit more information about the article. Captions are short descriptions below a photo that explain what is happening in the picture. Sometimes captions give information about the topic of the article. A photo credit is where the photographer’s name is printed so we know who took the photograph. A lead-in is a witty to grab the reader’s attention so they can read the caption and learn more about the article.

We also learned that articles are printed in columns. Because the width of each column is small, paragraphs in journalism writing are short, maximum three sentences.

In summary, we have learnt how editors on a computer screen produce a newspaper. Today’s lesson increased my knowledge and made me more informative about vocabulary which I had not even heard before. I am very thankful to Ms. Mariya for giving us such an opportunity to be familiar with journalism.

By Hira Liaqat