How to Write for JSR

Like every good newspaper, J Student Reporters has its own specific style. JSR style emphasizes conciseness and is aimed at being as journalistic as possible.

Follow the format in order to be published. Because you are learning, JSR staff will sometimes reorganize and reformat a well-written article in order to make it work on the page. But the best way to get published is to have an article that already meets our standards.

The best way to learn about our style is to read Jstudentboard.com. See how successful articles are formatted. New students may find it useful to emulate published articles until they get the hang of the way we do things.

We want every student to be published, but there are no guarantees. To be published, your work must come at least reasonably close to meeting our format and style requirements.

The Basics

Word Count: between 300-500 words

Language:

American English

Each article will include a properly-credited image from an approved source

(see Images section for guidance)

Each article should include at least one original interview from a relevant source.

Tips

Be Concise!

“Brevity is the soul of wit” - Polonius, in William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Like Polonius said, the wittiest people are those who can say a lot with only a few words. When writing for JSR, aim to keep your language simple and precise.

Writing to be brief and direct can be a big challenge to gifted writers who are used to crafting long, flowing prose. It's a great mental exercise, however, and an art unto itself. The ability to write concisely will help you throughout school and your career, even if you don't become a journalist.

Have an Angle!

An angle is a specific, narrow focus that takes your article beyond mere summary. Instead of re-reporting facts that you read in other sources, you should think of ways you can add a unique perspective to your story.

To the right, you'll see a great example. Instead of just giving the facts about the Olympics, this student chose a narrow focus: the excitement of local Korean-Americans about watching Korean athletes in the games.

To serve her angle, she collected several relevant interviews from sources that fit her specific focus.

You should know what your angle is when you pitch your article ideas to your editor.

Do Not Plagiarize!

If you are caught plagiarizing, you will miss a deadline and do a makeup assignment. If it happens again, you will be removed from the program without a refund. Plagiarism is against the law.

Directly copying an author's words is not the only way to plagiarize. The following is also prohibited:

Writing an article based on a single source, even if it has been reworded;

Failing to credit an interview to the interviewer or publication that did the interview;

Failing to include proper credit for a photo, like the one in the background of this JSR Instruction Manual section, that you've found online. [Alex Proimos]

Be Timely!

News needs to be current to qualify as "news," right?

It's actually more challenging for JSR students to stay timely than it is for professional journalists. That's because there is such a long gap between when students write articles and when they are printed.

So, for example, if the above student had written a report about the upcoming Olympics as they were happening, they'd already be over by the time we were able to publish it! Of course we couldn't publish an article like that - people would think we were rubes! However, this student planned ahead by writing a preview of the Olympics that is timely.

So plan ahead -- especially if you want to cover a big national or international event that will be well-covered in the Korea Daily and other papers.

...Or Be "Evergreen!"

An "Evergreen" story is one that could be run at any time during the year. The article to the left is evergreen; although it uses a current event as a jumping off point, its true focus is on an ongoing trend.

This is just one type of evergreen story. Doing features on inspiring people, community leaders, and school clubs are also great ways to craft articles that have long shelf lives.

Writing evergreen stories greatly enhances your chances of publication. Time-sensitive stories must be published relatively quickly after they've been written, but evergreen stories can be saved and published later.

Be Your Own Biggest Critic

Proofread and edit your work before you submit it the first time, and be as thorough as you can when you make revisions based on your editor's notes. Once you feel like you are done, put your work aside for at least ten minutes before rereading it one last time. Never submit an article without going through this process.

We will make grammar and spelling changes to your work, although we can't choose articles that take too much work to fix -- but you should not rely on us to rescue w you write. We have a limited amount of time to prepare the page every week.

Ask Questions!

You have two great resources if you get stuck and need help: the program coordinator and your editor. However, you can't get help if you don't reach out! We're always glad to respond to your emails.

If you want some one-on-one advice with the program coordinator, send an email and ask to schedule time to chat online.

Style Specifics

We use a dynamic, slighty-modified version AP Style for JSR. If you don't have an AP Stylebook, try Googling "AP Style _________," for example, "AP Style quotation marks around titles?" or "AP Style method of writing numbers." You may also elect to purchase an AP Stylebook (digital versions are available on this website).

Here are a few style specifics that come up regularly:

HEADLINES: JSR Headlines must be complete sentences with subjects and verbs. Headlines should be no more than six words but four or five is preferred.

NUMBERS: Write out the numbers one through ten. Once you're at 11, start using numerals.

TITLES OF COMPOSITIONS. Magazines and newspapers, such as People Magazine and the Korea Daily, don't get anything but capitalization. Most everything else - songs like "Blue Moon," movies like "Casablanca," and books like "On the Road" - gets quotation marks. Nothing gets italics or an underline. Nothing.

ACROYNMS. Write out all acronyms the first time, with the acronym in parenthesis. I/e, "Joongang Student Reporters (JSR) is a great program." You may then refer to the acroynm for the rest of the article.

NAMES. Give a person's full name first, then refer to that person by last name throughout the article. After the initial introduction of a name, only use the first name when you need to distinguish between familiy members or others with the same last name.

OXFORD COMMAS. Starting with the Spring 2014 semester, JSR will be employing the Oxford comma. In lists of three or more, include a comma between each of the words. For example, "JSR teaches criticial thinking, responsibility, and cooperation." This represents a change from previous sessions of JSR.

Story Structure

Here are a few basics to help with organization. To the right is a video about story structure from a man who makes radio news. Many of the lessons also apply to newspaper writing.

The Lead

The lead is the first one or two sentences of a news article and is the most important part of an article.

It must be informative for informational articles.

It may be “catchy” for features (much like a hook in a traditional essay) like editorials or profiles of people and events.

It should answer most or all of the "Five Ws:" Who?, What?, Where?, When?, and Why?

Avoid these "lazy leads:

Topic leads: don't just state what happened. Make sure your angle is apparent from your lead.

Question leads: just get to the point!

Quote leads: these are seldom engaging and typically do not fulfill the informational duties of a lead.

The “Nut ‘graph”

The nut ‘graph, which stands for “nutshell paragraph,” explains why an article is newsworthy. It typically comes at some point after the lead of a story. It may be a summary of the article, or it may be a description of where the news fits in the larger context of events happening in your school, community, city, state, or nation.

This paragraph answers the “so what?” question of the reader’s mind and lets them know why they should read your article.

Nut ‘graphs are particularly useful in feature stories that begin in a narrative fashion.

The “Inverted Pyramid”

The “Inverted Pyramid” is a tried-and-true format for news articles that can guide you to structural success.

The lead should have the most important information (5 Ws).

The most important details and quotes should be near the beginning, while supporting information should be near the end.

Facts supported by quotes should be near the beginning.

Commentary supported by quotes should be near the end.

As you write more and more articles, you may break free from this structure. Learn the rules first, though, before you smash them!

Objectivity

The majority of writing you'll do for JSR will be objective and empty of subjective statements. If you are a continuing student, you may occasionally write an editorial so long as you pitch it to the program coordinator and get approval first.

New students may only submit objective reports.

Reporters aim to uncover and state facts. Let the readers decide how to interpret those facts. Do not include your personal opinions or biases in an informative article.

Here are some points to help you stay objective:

Only write with a first person point-of-view when writing opinion pieces.

Avoid generalized statements, which also express opinions or exaggerate facts. For example, “Everybody knows that Justin Bieber is the most famous singer on the planet;” or “All Koreans love kimchi!”

Use denotative, rather than connotative, language. For example, “stench” (denotative) instead of “stench" (connotative); “active” instead of “fanatical;” “conversational” instea

Use transitional sentences to introduce quotes that are opinionated. For example, “Some people disagree with the new measure. Van Nuys resident Sandra Park said, ‘It’s unfair to treat seniors that way!’”

When quoting, use neutral verbs like “said” or “stated” – verbs can inadvertently express opinions too!

Always cite your sources.

Program Manual and Group Portal: Spring 2016 Session

Click the name of your editor to be transported to your group page:

Soo Min Chung | Choha Kim | Rachel Lee | Andrew Park

Gina Kim | Linda Lee | Sophia Lee | Angela Yoo

Editors' Instructions