How to Write Copy for a High School Yearbook

Sign outside a high school

Writing copy for a high school yearbook should be a creative endeavor that will add to memories that live on for years. The items need to capture your student-body audience's imagination and attention in basic, fundamental well-written prose. With those basics in place, your words will describe the distinctiveness of your graduating high school class. As the years pass, you will always be able to open the pages of the yearbook and feel pride and nostalgia over the facts of your past.

Instructions

1. Write to your audience. While you must use correct grammar and sentence structure, describe the people and events that shaped your high school experience with language unique to you and your generation. Use quotes from songs and movies that appeal to your generation. The website YearbookPublishingandPrinting.com advises writers for high school yearbooks to write to a younger audience.

2. 

   One-on-one basketball

   Describe a story by showing rather than telling. Describe high school athletic, student government and social events with descriptive language. If you write, for example, "The West High Raptors won every basketball game of the season," you are telling the information. Now consider, "The West High Raptors posted the first undefeated season in school history, with an average winning margin of 10 points." Go on to point out specific moments at key games, proms and student council gatherings that stood out. Those are the moments that will evoke the most vivid memories.

3. Chronicle signature events. Every school year includes social, athletic and political events worth recording for posterity. Interview students, teachers and staff about those events that kept people talking.

4. Use active voice whenever possible. Write according to standard subject-verb-object sentence structure. The difference between active and passive voice is distinct. Compare the following sentences. "The Senior Prom was a gala night." "West High seniors danced the night away under the dazzling lights at Senior Prom." The first case is passive voice. The second example is active. Proms do not act. People act.

5. Avoid inappropriate captions and other copy. Never use language that threatens to cause embarrassment now or later. Always refer to classmates, faculty and staff with respect, even when writing humorous copy. Verify facts. Keep in mind that your words will ring out throughout the years and could affect the people you write about for a long time.

Tips & Warnings

• Always proofread your copy. Step away from the project before proofing so you come at your work with fresh eyes.

References

• Yearbook Publishing and Printing
• Jostens: iloveyearbooks.com

Resources

• My Yearbook Copy: How to Write a Yearbook Feature
• Walsworth Yearbooks: Theme copy should tell year's story as students lived it
• Lifetouch Yearbook Publishing: Yearbook Creation Writing Content