Campus Connection: FB SPJ posts

My Facebook page “Plain English: Special Program in Journalism and press conferences” has discussions and resources for teachers and students in the “Special Program in Journalism,” a curricular offering of the Department of Education in the Philippines under the MATATAG Curriculum’s Programs for the Gifted and Talented. But campus journalism teachers and students from all over the world will also benefit from my Facebook page.

I will update this index of posts weekly, with the latest posts placed at the bottom part of each category. (If you can't find a resource under a specific category, you can search for it in the “Miscellaneous topics” section.)

For those using a desktop computer: Clicking any link on this page will open the FB post in a new tab.

For those using a mobile device with the FB app: Clicking any link on this page will open the post in your browser, not in your FB app. If the post doesn’t appear, swith to desktop view. To view the post in your FB app, copy the URL and then paste it into the app’s “Search” box.

Jump to Code of Ethics for Journalists; Copyreading and Headline Writing; Editorial Cartooning; Editorial Writing and Column Writing; Fake news, misinformation, and disinformation; Feature Writing; Free books and other resources; Infographics and cheatsheets; Lesson plans and other resources for SPAs and SPJ teachers; Lead; Miscellaneous journalism resources from UNICEF and UNESCO; Miscellaneous topics; Miscellaneous writing lessons; MOJO (mobile journalism); News Writing; Photography and photojournalism; RA 7079 Campus Journalism Act of 1991; Radio-TV Broadcasting; Schoolpaper layout and design; Collaborative Desktop Publishing; Online Publishing; graphics, websites, and blogs; Science and Technology Writing; Sportswriting; Writing Prompts

Code of Ethics for Journalists

• Code of Ethics for Filipino photojournalists and those involved in visual news gathering (Photojournalists’ Center of the Philippines Inc.) | Famous photojournalists who were caught staging, stealing, or altering their photographs

• Journalist’s Code of Ethics (approved in 1988 by the Philippines Press Institute, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines, and the National Press Club)

• Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics: Seek Truth and Report It, Minimize Harm, Act Independently, Be Accountable and Transparent (with links to numerous informative discussions through pop-up windows)

• Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists (International Federation of Journalists)

Copyreading and Headline Writing

• Grammar Girl’s Editing Checklist

• Proofreading Exercises (Easy, Medium, and Hard) by Duncan Croker from Chevron Editing

• Associated Press style quizzes from Journalism Education Association with answer keys (RTF format)

• Quizzes from Journalism Education Association by Rob Melton: multiple-choice quizzes on the basics of AP style; copy-editing symbols; copy-editing quiz in the format of an actual story

• Do you really think you’re great with English? Take the extreme challenge with the 2020-2024 Spelling & Vocabulary contests of the University Interscholastic League | With answer keys

• Super Challenge with the 2020-2024 Copy Editing and Headline Writing contests of the University Interscholastic League | Around 55 tests in all: three sections per Copy Editing test, six stories per Headline Writing test; with answer keys

• Editing for Print and Online from Society of Professional Journalists

• Challenge yourselves with the Headline Writing tests from the University Interscholastic League | With headline writing guidelines and suggested answer keys at

• News Editing and Headline Writing Test (with answer key) from Journalism Education Association

• Headline Writing Tips from Society of Professional Journalists

• A. It’s all in your Head(line) — discussions, tips, examples, headline writing and unit count exercises, with suggested answers; B. UIL Headline Writing contests 2016 with fact sheets for 36 stories, headline writing tips, and suggested answers

• Copy Editing 2023-2024 with discussions, illustrations, assessment exercises, and sample exercises with answer keys from the University Interscholastic League | Everyone needs a copy editor ; Kinds of editing: High-level, Mid-level, and Low-level; Ways to teach copy editing: Knowledge based, Synthesis based, Application based, and Evaluation based

• Copy Editing discussions and sample exercises with answer keys from the 2017 University Interscholastic League Contest

• Copy Editing Contest, Sample Test 2016-2017 from University Interscholastic League | Three-part exam with answer keys (good for one class session)

• Take the fun and challenging interactive Copy Edit This! quizzes from The New York Times

• AP Style cheat sheets and quizzes

• Editing and Revising sample exercises from State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness ( STAAR) with answer keys | Even though these exercises were created for Grade 3-8 students, even senior high school SPJ students will find them challenging;

• Copy Editing Contest, Capital Conference 2018 from University Interscholastic League | Three-part exam with answer keys (good for one class session)

• Chicago Style Workouts — online exercises based on the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) with automatic checking and scoring

• For SPJ teachers and students, contestants in CRHW and all other categories, and STEM students: Writing better workbook from Medical Writing PDF of the European Medical Writers Association (with discussions, original/rewritten comparisons, exercises, and answer keys

• Medical Writing Editing PDF from the European Medical Writers Association with discussions, exercises, and answer keys | Honing your proofreading skills; Editing for writers who have English as an additional language; Microediting – details matter

• For senior high SPJ students from science high schools: Scientific editing sample exercises from the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS) certification exam | The BELS certification exam topics — grammar, punctuation, mechanics, usage and diction, syntax, organization, internal consistency, numbers, bibliographic references, publishing requirements, tables and illustrations, units of measure and scientific terms, and traditional principles and ethics of scientific inquiry, writing, and publishing

• 2019 Copy Editing and Headline Writing contests of the University Interscholastic League | Around 45 tests in all: three parts per Copy Editing contest, six stories per Headline Writing contest; with fact sheets and answer keys

• 5 Steps of Revision PDF slideshow by Lori Oglesbee (veteran, award-winning schoolpaper adviser) from University Interscholastic League | With discussions and numerous examples

• AP Style Quizzes from Platform Magazine (240 questions total in series of 10-question quizzes, with automatic checking and scoring)

• Writing Headlines Campus Journalism by Rene Boy Abiva (Manuel V. Gallego Foundation Colleges, Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija)

• Copywriting Cheatsheet: How to Write: Email vs. Social Media vs. the Web | “When it comes to copywriting, using the same text, voice, tone, and length doesn’t fly across every marketing channel or platform. The way you write for a blog or an email promotion isn’t going to be the same for a Facebook post, or a tweet.”

• Counting headlines (DOCX) for newbies — CRHW contestants, SPJ teachers and students | Unit count, headline order, and headline schedule

• Editing of Print Media - Headlines by Dr. Anjani Kumar Jha (Mahatma Gandhi Central University | This PDF slideshow is the best guide to headline writing I’ve come across yet; the examples of failed headlines will make you think and laugh.

• Proofreading for Sentence Structure from George Brown College (Canada) | Discussions, examples, and exercises (no answer keys)

• Proofreading for Articles [a, an, the] from George Brown College (Canada) | Articles are formally absent from many of the world’s major languages including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc; While English has one definite article (’the’), Tagalog has ’ang,’ ’ng,’ and ’sa’ (markers).

• Editing and Proofreading Practice PDF resources from George Brown College (Canada) | With answer keys

• AP Style copyreading exercise from Journalism: Publishing Across Media (G - W Learning) | No answer key

• Proofreading the Work of Others from Journalism: Publishing Across Media (G - W Learning) | Eight common errors and the techniques proofreaders use to find them

• Finding the Best Words for Descriptive Headlines from Journalism: Publishing Across Media (G - W Learning): For contestants in CRHW and other writing categories, SPAs , EICs, and section editors | “Work with others! Descriptive Headlines usually require many brains working with each other, like a many-sided game of pingpong.”

• Finding the Best Words for Summary and Narrative Headlines | “Readers may imagine that reporters write their own headlines, but that is rarely the case.”

• BANQUET mnemonic for writing captions (Texas Association of Journalism Educators) | “Captions are the most read text on a spread and usually the first.”

Feature Writing

• Different ways of structuring a feature article (whether in English or Filipino)

• The Complete Book of Feature Writing: From Great American Feature Writers, Editors, and Teachers (1991) edited by Leonard Witt; from Public Journalism Network

• Online copies of Reader’s Digest and Guideposts

• Resource for feature writing contestants (English and Filipino) in the press conferences: Creative writing using photographs

• The Girl in the Window (2009 Pulitzer Prize winner for feature writing; 8,000-plus words)|Story by Lane DeGregory; Photos by Melissa Lyttle

• Super challenge with the 2020-2024 Feature Writing contestants of the University Interscholastic League | With fact sheets, contest tips or guidelines on how to structure a feature story, and sample feature story based on the fact sheet; Contestants in Pagsulat ng Lathalain can also benefit from these materials

• Nine lessons Taylor Swift taught me about storytelling by Cristian Lupșa (Nieman Storyboard/Harvard University)

• Free book: Writing Fabulous Features by Dr. Nicole Kraft from the Ohio State University (online; PDF or EPUB download)

• Feature Writing Checklist cheat sheet by Thomas Shands | Good writers tend to use four syntactical structures over and over: (1) the three-action sentence, (2) the appositive, (3) the participial phrase and (4) the absolute phrase.

• Feature Writing PDF from the University Interscholastic League | After a strong lead and an informative nut graph ... use the Transition/Quote Formula.; What went wrong? ... What went right? Yes, you can … No, you shouldn’t.

• Advanced exercises for senior high school Feature Writing contestants and SPJ students from Oxford Learning Link (no answer keys) | Evaluating Feature Leads; Generating Story Ideas and Selecting a Topic; Ideas for Campus Features; Writing Feature Leads

• 2019 Feature Writing contests of the University Interscholastic League | With fact sheets, feature writing tips, and sample stories based on the fact sheets

• Lesson plans (strategies and techniques) for teaching Feature Writing to junior high and senior high school students | Teaching Students Feature Article Writing and Informational Reading from Jefferson County Public Schools Version 2.0

• Show, Don’t Tell by Sandra Gerth (Ylva Publishing) | “Show, Don’t Tell is probably the single piece of writing advice that beginning writers hear most often from editors and writing coaches. Authors who master this important technique take their writing to the next level and captivate their readers with powerful scenes that keep them turning pages even though it’s two in the morning and they have to work the next day.”

• The Feature Writing Structure Infographic

• Sample Lesson for Show Not Tell | “Showing creates mental pictures in the reader’s mind. When readers get a clear picture, they are more engaged in the writer’s story.”

Free books and other resources

• Free 900-plus interactive exercises on English grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, verbal analogy, etc (average of 10 items per exercise; with time limit and automatic scoring)

• Spoken English Learned Quickly (free resource for learning how to speak conversational English fluently in a year: with MP3 lessons in American or light British accent)

• Miscellaneous DepEd Self-Learning Modules for Journalism • “Introduction to Speech Communication” (Oklahoma State University) | Available in different formats; online version has audio support

• “Guide on Citizen Journalism for Youth” and “Training Toolkit on Citizen Journalism” from Citizen Journalism Academy for Youth, Erasmus Youth 2021 (co-funded by the European Union) | “Citizen journalism has become an increasingly important aspect of the media landscape in recent years. With the rise of social media and the democratization of information, more and more individuals are taking on the role of reporters, documenting events and sharing stories that might otherwise go untold.”

• Statistics for Journalists from Centre for Investigative Journalism | “Don’t Panic! Statistics can seem intimidating, incomprehensible or to some, uninteresting, they are just numbers with stories behind them. Journalists often panic because they forget how much they already know about numbers and about analyzing them - we use them very intuitively in our every day lives – when we are making a judgement about which item is cheaper, whether to cross the road at the crossing or risk taking a shortcut. In these decisions we are using a process often used by statisticians - comparing likely possibilities or a set of numbers and making a decision based on them.”

• Journalism Class - XI Higher Secondary Course (Grade 11 textbook) from State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) Kerala, India — introduction to communication; nass media and society; history of newspapers; newspaper organization; reporting news; news editing

• Media News and Reporting, A guide for beginning journalists (Colorado Community College System) by Joelle Milholm | With guides on reporting, gathering and verifying information, how to use the inverted pyramid and other types of journalistic writing, this book is meant to help beginning reporters in their journalistic endeavors.

• ONLINE Journalism and Storytelling, A Training and Learning Kit by Johanna Son (Bangkok-based media trainer and journalist), published by Swedens FOJO Institute | “Digitalization is a norm that requires journalists and editors today to learn new skills, and challenges legacy-media newsrooms to catch up with online and digital audiences; Far from unusual – in fact it is quite expected – these days is the multi-skilled journalist who can be writing an article, but can also produce short videos and blogs, take publishable photos and do basic editing of these, produce a podcast and infographics, run a basic check on the reliability of online posts, and run social-media pages.”

• The Digital Storytelling Handbook from the Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks | “Digital storytelling is the practice of using digital media tools to tell stories. It combines visuals, music, voiceover and other audio recordings, video clips, images, text, animation, and interactive elements that are all combined together to create a powerful narrative multimedia experience that can engage and educate audiences.” (Thinglink)

• Writing for Success by University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing (step-by-step instruction on writing, reading, and critical thinking, with exercises; comprehensive grammar review with an introduction to paragraph writing and composition)

• Journalism Class - XII Higher Secondary Course (Grade 12 textbook) from State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) Kerala, India: magazine writing; TV-Radio writing and production; film appreciation; writing for the internet; technical writing; advertising; public relations and corporate communications | Floating inverted pyramid; historical backgrounders; glossaries of technical terms; model scripts for TV-Radio Broadcasting

Infographics and cheatsheets

• Fair Use Doctrine: Can you use a copyrighted work in your campus publication?; The SPA’S liability imposed by the Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 7079 | Four factors judges use to resolve fair use disputes

• Quick and handy guides to avoiding plagiarism

• Misinformation, Disinformation, and Propaganda: Fake News Infographic from Cornell University Library | Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

• 6 things to know about AI ftom the News Literacy Project, Grades: 4-6, 7-9, 10-12+ | AI tools might feel authoritative and credible, but the responses they generate are routinely riddled with inaccuracies.

• Seven standards of quality journalism from the News Literacy Project, Grades: 4-6, 7-9, 10-12+

• Five types of bias in straight news coverage from the News Literacy Project, Grades: 4-6, 7-9, 10-12+

• Breaking news checklist from the News Literacy Project, for Grades 4-6, 7-9, 10-12+ | When big news breaks, it can be hard to cut through the noise and find accurate information.

• How to turn your journal article into an infographic from Journal of Marketing Management | Infographics are ’liked’ and shared on social media 3 times more than any other type of content.

• Infographic: Traditional journalism versus citizen journalism | “Citizen journalism is a branch of reporting that involves everyday people reporting on news and when it happens around them. Anyone can become a citizen journalist — all it takes is the ability to tell a good story.”

• “The Data Journalism Handbook 1” and “The Data Journalism Handbook 2” from the European Journalism Centre | From Coffee to Colonialism: Data Investigations into How the Poor Feed the Rich; The Las Vegas Sun analyzed more than 2.9 million hospital billing records, which revealed more than 3600 preventable injuries, infections and surgical mistakes.; How a data story on road crash incidents in the Cagayan province in the Philippines led to positive policy and social change.

• Intro to Journalism Cheat Sheet by RainyMoons: For SPJ teachers and students, and for display in your schoolpaper office or SPJ classroom | “The study of journalism is essential for understanding how news and information are created, disseminated, and consumed in a democratic society. By exploring its history, role, processes, and challenges, one gains insight into the critical functions of journalism in shaping public discourse and informing citizens.”

• Thou Shalt Not Commit Logical Fallacies infographic | “Fallacies are common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of your argument. Fallacies can be either illegitimate arguments or irrelevant points, and are often identified because they lack evidence that supports their claim.” (OWL Purdue)

Lesson plans and other resources for SPAs and SPJ teachers

• Free lesson plans and resources from The Guardian Foundation that SPJ teachers can adapt

• Free resources from The New York Times: five short videos for Sci-Tech contestants and SPJ students; free lesson plans that SPJ teachers can adapt

• Free, online teaching resources — lesson plans, do activities, worksheets, videos, etc. — for high school journalism teachers from Missouri School of Journalism

• Free lesson plans for teaching writing and creating to your SPJ students through 13 New York Times columns as models

• Hundreds of free standards-aligned lesson plans for K-12 classrooms from Pulitzer Center

• 40 Cooperative Learning Lesson Plans for Journalism from Green’s J-School

• Free resources for SPJ teachers; lesson plans for discussions and activities from SchoolJournalism.org

• Failures, triumphs, surviving the challenges, words of inspiration ... | Journey of National Winning Coaches in the Field of Campus Journalism: A Multiple Case Study from Psychology and Education (multidisciplinary journal), Volume: 21, Issue 8 (2024)

• How can SPAs or SPJ teachers motivate disinterested students to be involved in campus journalism? By emphasizing the skills, training, or experiences that campus journalists will be able to use in their college courses or future careers | The Campus Journalists of PLSNHS [Placido L. Senor National High School] by Ferliza Omay, DepEd City of Naga, Cebu

• Making People Feel Valued from Journalism Education Association (quick, easy and inexpensive ways to help students feel valued and keep staff motivation levels high) and how to recruit new staff members | Student publications can often have cliques and hierarchies. As a result, new staff members and those not in leadership positions may feel intimidated

• Resource for SPJ teachers in teaching newbie journalism students: What’s on the Front Page of a Newspaper? (First News Education)

• 1,000 definitions of terms about journalism and the media from The News Manual (a free online resource for journalists, would-be journalists, educators and people interested in the media)

• Looking at Newspapers: Introduction (Lesson plan for Grades 2 to 4) from MediaSmarts | SPJ teachers can modify this lesson plan to suit the needs of newbie journalism students in junior high school

• For SPJ teachers and students in their Advanced English classes: 100 Most Common Grammar Errors (Institute of Language Teaching, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, India) | Free 95-plus interactive exercises on common English grammar errors with time limit, automatic scoring, and average of 10 items per exercise

• Newspapers Now: Developing Comprehension and Research Skills With the Newspaper (15 lesson plans, each with a student activity; the lessons contain background, instructions, and components such as performance rubrics | Standards: Students adjust use of spoken, written and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.; Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems.

• For SPJ teachers in their Advanced English classes and for ELL teachers in their classroom activities: Give Them the Keys (Promoting Adolescent Literacy Through Newspapers) | Integration of newspapers is an excellent way to introduce students to expository text with the added benefit of teaching a variety of topics.

• For SPJ teachers and their newbie journalism students; for Special Education teachers: Creating a Classroom Newspaper (teachers’ guide designed for five days of instruction that allows elementary, junior high, and senior high school classes to practice, prepare, and create their own newspaper) |Differentiated worksheets for special education students and those in gifted and talented programs; lessons include planning the newspaper, writing news stories, writing feature stories, and writing opinions

• Newspapers Maintain the Brain - a teachers’ guide to enhance basic skills in Language Arts, Math, and Social Studies

• For SPJ teachers and their newbie students; for newbie SPAs or schools that are just starting their campus publication: Press Ahead! (teaching tool and a planning guide for creating a student newspaper) from News Association of America Foundation

• How to Teach news writing to elementary school and junior high school (4-day lesson plan from Newspapers in Education) | Let’s Write a Newspaper Story! Get Your Students Hooked on Writing jointly developed by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the Hammond Elementary School in Laurel, MD.

• You’re not good enough for STEM? Mag-SPJ ka na lang! Challenges and problems encountered by SPJ students: stress and pressure in meeting writing standards, problem with time management, low self-confidence, overflowing tasks and activities, and lack of resources and facilities; Project JoG (Journalism on the Go) intervention prigram | The Lived Experiences of the Students in Special Program in Journalism (SPJ): A Phenomenological Inquiry by Excell V. Balinas and Dhan Timothy M. Ibojo (Nabunturan, Davao de Oro)

• For SPJ teachers in teaching Editorial Writing to their newbie students or potential contestants; PPT resource from DAV University (Punjab, India) | Veteran SPAs and SPJ teachers who get invited as resource speakers in press conferences can also use this resource for their lecture-presentation

• Rubric for staff evaluation (from the National Scholastic Press Association) to help in selecting the incoming Editor-in-Chief and other staff members

Lead

• Leads PDF slideshow from University Interscholastic League by Bobby Hawthorne, with discussions, examples, and comparisons | Imagine you are writing a story, and you have all this cool information, but you can’t figure out how to get started. Well…

• Different kinds of leads from actual news articles, ads, and press releases (University of Wisconsin–Madison) | Emblem lead, wrap lead, character lead, scene-setter lead, significant detail lead, word play lead, etc.

Miscellaneous journalism resources from UNICEF and UNESCO

• Reporting on Violence against Women and Girls A Handbook for Journalists (UNESCO)

• Digital misinformation / disinformation and children (UNICEF) | Only 2 per cent of children and young people have the critical literacy skills they need to judge whether a news story is real or false. Students in Singapore share mis/disinformation because of its perceived value and their desire for self-expression and socializing.; Young people cared less about the accuracy of articles than their novelty or uniqueness.; Students in Indonesia shared mis/disinformation ’for no reason or to please themselves

• Children and the Media: A Guidebook on Ethical Reporting (UNICEF and Association of European Journalists - Bulgaria) | Useful checkup questions to have in mind when preparing a topic or a piece of reporting about children; Some Philippine laws and issues about children

• All Sides of the Story, Reporting on Children: A Journalist’s Handbook (2005) from UNICEF South Africa and Media Monitoring Project | The child’s right to dignity and privacy is more important than the media’s right to freedom of expression.

• UNICEF South Africa 2023 study: Younger girls (13-14 years) do not follow the news regularly because it includes too many things and tends to be confusing: The news is just not important to us.

• Handbook for Constructive Journalism by Kristina Lund Jørgensen and Jakob Risbro from The Communication Initiative Network

• UNESCO’s Freedom of Expression Toolkit, A Guide for Students | Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

• Terrible leads from National Scholastic Press Association| Examples: Webster’s Dictionary Lead, Mystery It Lead, Quick-Trip-to-the-Almanac Lead, Atypically Typical Lead; Questions that help produce leads; Checklist for leads

Miscellaneous topics

• Madman—Architect—Carpenter—Judge Paradigm for contestants in the individual writing contests of the press conferences

• As SPA or SPJ teacher, which kind of students are you developing — campus journalists or contest journalists?

• Should college students who want to enroll in courses such as Journalism or Mass Communications be required to pass an entrance test or exit test on English grammar proficiency?

• Blackout Poetry using old newspapers (icebreaker or team building activity for your SPJ students)

• Language Errors in Campus Journalists’ News Articles: Its Implication to Writers Interlanguage (2018) study by Lyoid Hunahunan, Surigao del Sur State University | Improper use of verb tenses the most recurrent error; the dire need for intervention activities to address campus journalists’ linguistic difficulties

• Tips for aspiring writers from Pulitzer Prize-winning writers | 80-20 rule; Anecdotal leads instead of inverted pyramid; To be a good editorial writer, become a good reporter first; Emotional storytelling — the future of journalism?

• Textbooks for SPJ classes — print and online | Writing and Reporting for the Media (13th edition) from Oxford University Press: it’s quite expensive around 100 US dollars per copy, but it’s probably the best textbook for SPJ classes; free online resources for students from Writing and Reporting for the Media (11th edition)

• What art and drama can do for journalism by Robin Kwong (The Financial Times, 2019)

• Free website usability guidelines book from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

• Book donation to Rizal High School

• The Film Club (The New York Times Learning Network): short documentary questions for legal developing close reading and critical thinking skills

• Daily poetry for schoolpaper staff meetings and for SPJ classes?

• William Faulkner’s The agony and sweat of the human spirit 1950 Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech

• The Chaos and Beyond Forgetting poems for SPJ Advanced English II students

• Fun activity for SPJ students as icebreaker or as they wait for classes to begin: Cups game with the song When I’m Gone from the 2012 movie Pitch Perfect starring Anna Kendrick

• Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity (study by Prof. Daniel M. Oppenheimer of Princeton University, 2006 Applied Cognitive Psychology Journal)

• Interactive exercises on English grammar and vocabulary based on Korean historical dramas; creating your own interactive exercises for SPJ classes using freeware Hot Potatoes

• Writing activity for SPJ students based on Alma (award-winning animated short film)

• Rewordify: Free online tool for SPJ teachers to create lessons for their students and for students to understand difficult English texts

• Some observations about a video created by journalism students from Philippine Science High School - Bicol Region Campud about heat stroke for a local coffee shop

• How false news can spread - Noah Tavlin (TED-Ed animated video lesson)

• Train Your Brain (24 TED-Ed video lessons, mostly animated, for critical thinking and media literacy skills)

• More than words: Enough (creative editorial from The San Diego Union Tribune, April 20, 2018 expressing outrage the continuing mass shootings in US schools)

• Ten elements of good journalism from The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel | The Essentials of Journalism by Tom Rosenstiel (collection of guides that explains the basic principles and elements of good journalism)

• Gen Zers don’t care about fact checking; their most trusted sources of news and opinions are online comments section and inluencers | The secret digital behaviors of Gen Z by Adam Rogers (senior correspondent Business Insider)

• Churnalism, McDonald’s death knock Monkey ... 250-plus examples of British journalism jargon (useful for newbie SPAs, SPJ teachers and students) | Journalism Glossary: A List Of Words That Every New Journalist Needs To Know | 2018 American Press Institute survey; A significant number of Americans don’t know (1) what op-ed means, (2) what’s the difference between an editorial and a news story, and (3) what’s the difference between a reporter and a columnist

• How AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Bard work – visual explainer (The Guardian)

• Top 10 Most Fearless Female Journalists (MsMojo, 2020)

• UNESCO free resource: Journalism, Fake News & Disinformation: Handbook for Journalism Education and Training | UNESCO Series on Journalism Education; English grammar trivia on order of adjectives

• Dancing with professors: The trouble with academic prose (1993) by Patricia Nelson Limerick (Yale University, Harvard University, and University of Colorado; one of the leading historians of the American West) | The intersection of academic and journalistic writing by a Filipino academic who’s teaching in a Thailand university and a contributor to the Philippine Daily Inquirer

• UNICEF Guidelines for journalists reporting on children | Principles and guidelines to help journalists report on children’s issues in a way that enables them to serve the public interest without compromising the rights of children

• Using TikTok to drive young people to the news (International Journalists’ Network)

• Defence Handbook for Journalists and Bloggers on Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Information Principles in International Law from Thomson Reuters Foundation, Reporters Without Borders, and Paul Hastings LLP

• Discovering my love for reading and for Literature | Rappler opinion: How can teachers develop a reading habit among learners?

• Journalism and Math: Words? Yes! Numbers? Noooooo!!! Noooooo!!! | How Journalists Can Overcome Math Anxiety; Does Math Matter in Journalism?; Mathematics Reporting: An Uncrowded Niche for Writers; Demystifying Math in Journalism: Bringing Numbers to Life in Reporting; Siobhan Roberts, mathematics journalism contributor to The New York Times, even though math was her worst subject in high school

• The story of journalism (PDF) from Inside Reporting; A Practical Guide to the Craft of Journalism by Tim Harrower (award-winning editor, designer and columnist)

• How journalism is turning emotional and what that means for the future of news and In the Role of Emotion in the Future of Journalism by Professor Charlie Beckett (London School of Economics)

• Paris Charter on AI and Journalism: Ten principles for journalists (Nov. 2023) | Ten Commandments for journalists (from various authors and sources): Thou shalt repent with speed and sincerity; Thou shalt live in a glass house; Make all copy conform to the AP Stylebook; When two elephants fight ...

• Ten Basic Reporting Errors by Prof. Rick Durham

• Classic advice on good writing by Mark Twain, H. W. Fowler (1906), Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s Brevity Memo, and Lee Kuan Yew, first Prime Minister of Singapore (1979)

• The continuing relevance of George Orwell’s six rules for good writing from his 1946 essay Politics of the English Language

• The 20 Most Common Sentence-Level Faults Among Legal [and other] Writers by Bryan A. Garner

• Journalists are infatuated with the word amid

• Clear Writing Guidelines from the Asian Development Bank’s 2024 Handbook of Style and Usage

• Campus journalism makes students confident with academic writing but not with social media (where they are hesitant and preferred using Tagalog instead of English) | Analyzing impacts of campus journalism on student’s grammar consciousness and confidence in writing engagements by Jason V. Chavez and nine other writers from Zamboanga Peninsula Polytechnic State University and Mindanao State University

• My journey as a writer | Thanks to the people who encouraged or inspired me to become a writer — my high school English journalism teacher; a substitute English professor in UP Diliman; the beautiful guidance counselor in Vinzons Hall; a Kiwanis Philippines district governor; my Chem 17 classmate in UP Diliman (a Manila Science High School graduate); Kerima Polotan, the Philippines’ best informal essayist

• 50 Best Online High School Newspapers (USA)

• Journalistic writing and ’English class ’writing (similarities and differences) | PPT from Journalism Education Association

• From average student/self-taught photojournalist at age 17 to one of the greatest filmmakers of all time: Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey; The Shining; Spartacus; Barry Lyndon; Full Metal Jacket) | PDF of Kubrick’s sample works as photojournalist from Museum of the City of New York

• How do you explain the color red to someone born blind? | From high school campus publication to the Philippine Daily Inquirer

• A column, an editorial and a news story walk into a bar ...’; I’m a columnist, not a journalist. | Differences between articles, essays, editorials, columns, news, and blog posts

• Editing and Publication, A training manual from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)

• 200 journalism movies, ranked (Society of Professional Journalists) | Ranked no. 1: Spotlight (2015 Oscar winner for Best Picture) based on the Boston Globe’s investigative reporting team and its stories about sexual abuse committed by priests that won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service

• A Journalist’s Guide to Reporting on Child Abuse & Neglect (Language to Use, Language to Avoid), Utah Department of Human Services

• Disability Writing & Journalism Guidelines from Center for Disability Rights (web page and PDF) | Nothing about us, without us.

• On the record; On background; On deep background; Off the record | Why off-the-record is a trap reporters should avoid (Poynter)

• TLDR or TL:DR — sarcastic, passive-aggressive reply; preface to a summary; execution summary | What does TLDR mean? Understanding the internet shorthand for lengthy text and its various uses (Business Insider)

• Ahjumma! Oldies and not goodies?; Filipino Elderly and the Philippine Media: Five characteristics ascribed to the Filipino elderly — physically and mentally weak; vulnerable and susceptible to be victims of crimes and accidents; incompetent; dependent; and impoverished; Filipino senior citizens: special or not special? | Communicating with Older People by Sarah Carr (Plain Language Commission free download)

• Girl (famous short fiction in just one sentence of 650 words): Inspiration and challenge for senior high school students | Written by Jamaica Kincaid, Professor of African and African American Studies in Residence at Harvard University

• Journalists get involved in amazingly complicated relationships; Long nails and typewriters don’t go together. | Journalist Nini Gaviola’s advice to high school journalism students

• Journalism and poetry (Part 3): Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “If” circa 1895

• Journalism and poetry (Part 4): How Journalism Made a Poet Out of Me by Gillian Conoley (former journalist; award-winning poet)

• A Journalist’s Guide to the Use of English from Media Helping Media, Free Training Resources For Journalists And Managers | There is no such things as newspaper English; there is good English and bad English, which may be suitable in different contexts.

• Reporting extreme weather and climate change: A guide for journalists from World Weather Attribution

• Intro To Journalism Handbook, An Open Educational Resource for Journalism Students by Michael Downing, Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks

• The New Journalism (creative nonfiction: literary journalism, narrative journalism, immersion journalism) | Writing tips from On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, bestselling author of horror novels

• Resources on news, features, headlines, editorials, columns, interviewing, and schoolpaper design from Newspaper Curriculum Guide (Texas Association of Journalism Educators)

• You can quote me on that, Tips on handling direct and indirect quotes PDF slideshow by Bobby Hawthorne, former Director, University Interscholastic League with discussions and examples

• Searching for Maura (2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary, with two Filipinas as part of The Washington Post team)

• Quick 50 Writing Tools tip sheet from the book Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark (the most influential writing teacher in the US)

• Inspiration and challenge for female SPJ students: 3 Filipina creatives are finalists for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize | Hannah Reyes Morales (photojournalism); Nicole Dungca and Ren Galeno (Illustrated Reporting and Commentary); Hannah Reyes Morales and Ren Galeno are UP Diliman graduates

• For SPAs and EICs: The tennis ball the tangled web, the toothpaste, and other building activities for your schoolpaper staff

• 42nd National Book Awards finalists (A personal connection through my former high school English journalism student)

• For newbie SPAs or EICs, or schools that are just starting to establish their schoolpapers: Job descriptions of the EIC and section editors from Newspaper Curriculum Guide (Texas Association of Journalism Educators)

• Reason why people fail the bar exams — poor grammar, deficient writing skills: Should English journalism students, SPAs, and SPJ teachers consider going to law school?

• Literary Genius, Using literary devices in journalistic writing PDF slideshow by Bobby Hawthorne, former Director, University Interscholastic League with discussions and examples

• 100 Best Journalism Books of All Time

• A Practical Guide for Journalists - Tip Sheet: Writing Stories About Children and Conducting Interviews with Children (International Labour Organization) | Remember: Life continues for the child long after the story and when a journalist leaves.

• The must-read book for EICs, SPAs, SPJ teachers, and anyone who’s thinking of pursuing Journalism in college and as a career: The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel | Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.; Journalism’s essence is a discipline of verification.

• Comprehensive resource on News Writing, Feature Writing, Editorial Writing, and Headline Writing from Journalism Contest Manual of the University Interscholastic League | Discussions, tips or guidelines, fact sheets/prompts, sample articles (based on the fact sheets) dissected and explained

• Free book: Writing for Strategic Communication Industries by Jasmine Roberts, School of Communication at The Ohio State University; with chapters on news values, news writing, and feature writing

• English, Filipino, or Cebuano? Language Preference of Student Journalists in Mindanao State University-Marawi, Philippines: Reasons and Attitudes (2016) by Riz Sunio and Jerryk Alico

• Free book: The International Journalism Handbook: Concepts, Challenges, and Contexts by Rodrigo Zamith (Associate Professor in the Journalism Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst) | Similarities and differences in how journalism is imagined and performed in different regions of the world

• Writing for Electronic Media by Brian Champagne (Utah State University) | Rule #1: Write to Video.; We write to be heard once and understood. Our sentences are short and clear. You can re-read a sentence in a newspaper or web story, and you can back up a YouTube video. Get it unclear on TV or radio and your audience is confused and lost.

so you want to be a writer? famous 1992 poem by Charles Bukowski (poet, novelist, short story writer, columnist): For all campus journalists and SPJ students whose consuming passion is to write, whether they win or lose in the press conferences | As a poet, Bukowski has been referenced by rappers, singers such as Harry Styles, and bands such as U2, Artic Monkeys, and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

• It’s Not a Five-Paragraph Essay from Journalism: Publishing Across Media (G - W Learning) | Differences between writing for your English or Filipino subjects and for your campus publications

• How do journalists estimate the number of people in a crowd, a political rally, or any event?: Writer’s Workshop: Just How Dense Can They Be? from Journalism: Publishing Across Media and other sources | The Jacob’s Formula

• Does SPJ benefit its students in their college courses and in their careers? Do SPJ students continue to be involved in Journalism during college or in their careers? | “Ascertaining the Curriculum Relevance of the Special Program Journalism in Select Public Secondary Schools in Caraga Region” (2023) by Rhoda M. De Los Santos and Levita B. Grana, Saint Joseph Institute of Technology, Butuan City

• Visual Journalism, Fresh Approaches and New Business Strategies for the Multimedia Age from Nieman Reports, The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University | What Changed Journalism—Forever—Were Engineers; The Fluidity of the Frame and Caption; Music Lessons Inform Photojournalism’s Future

• 2029 Spelling & Vocabulary contests of the University Interscholastic League (Texas USA) | With pronouncer’s copy and answer keys

• October 13 is International Plain Language Day | Fighting against gobbledygook, legalese, and bureaucratese to ensure that public communications of government offices, private businesses, and other organizations are transparent, accountable, accessible, and clear

• Most common grammatical errors of campus journalists from high school and college: Subject-verb agreement, verb tense, preposition, punctuation, article, spelling, capitalization, pronoun, word form, conjunction, missing subject, and word order

• A short guide to the history of ’fake news’ and disinformation (A Learning Moduld for Journalists and Journalism Educators) from International Centre for Journalists | “The use of propaganda is ancient, but never before has there been the technology to so effectively disseminate it.’ So, it is important to understand the historical context when examining and reporting on contemporary manifestations of what has been termed a 21st-century ’information disorder’”.

• Is Special Program in Journalism (SPJ) no longer part of DepEd’s new MATATAG Curriculum? Even if it’s true, the press conferences will still be organized and held by the DepEd because they’re mandated by RA 7079 Campus Journalism Act of 1991.

• 25 Ways to Improve Writing Immediately from Media Writer’s Handbook: A Guide to Common Editing and Writing Problems 3/e by George Arnold, Marshall University

• Grammar resources — discussions and exercises — from George Brown College (Canada)| Free 900-plus interactive exercises on English grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, verbal analogy, etc. and Spoken English Learned Quickly (American accent or light British accent)

• Storytelling from Asian Development Bank | “In the realm of journalism, storytelling is not just a tool; it is the beating heart that brings news to life. While facts and figures provide the foundation, it is through storytelling that journalists connect with their audience on a deeper level, evoking emotions, inspiring action, and driving meaningful change.”

• For SPJ teachers taking their masteral or doctoral studies: Why Academic Writing Stinks (The Chronicle of Higher Education) by Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University | “The most popular answer outside the academy is the cynical one: Bad writing is a deliberate choice. Scholars in the softer fields spout obscure verbiage to hide the fact that they have nothing to say. They dress up the trivial and obvious with the trappings of scientific sophistication, hoping to bamboozle their audiences with highfalutin gobbledygook.”

• Figurative Language; SHAMPOO — Simile, Hyperbole, Alliteration, Metaphor, Personification, Oxymoron, Onomatopoeia (with practice tests and answer keys) | Figurative language in journalism

• Persuasive Writing

• A History of Journalism from Journalism: Publishing Across Media (G - W Learning) | “Humans hunger for news. We want knowledge beyond what we can gather using our own senses. We want narratives, facts, events, people, back stories and the ideas from beyond our doors. We want to understand, and we want to escape our isolation. The mass media tries to satisfy this hunger.”

• Hooks and Attention Grabbers from George Brown College (Canada) | “The first sentence of your introduction is the first chance a writer has to capture the attention of the reader. Some people call this a ’hook’ because it captures a reader’s attention with interesting statements and ideas just like a fisherman will use a shiny lure to get a fish on his or her hook.”

• Journalist’s Creed (PDF from the Missouri School of Journalism where the creed originated) | The Missouri School of Journalism’s Willie Vicoy Reuters Fellowship for photojournalists established in honor of a renowned Filipino photojournalist

• The Art of Persuasive Writing PDF slideshow from Scotch College, Swanbourne, Western Australia | Logical Appeal (Logo —Does the author’s proposal make sense?; Ethical Appeal (Ethos)– Is the author’s proposal the right thing to do? Emotional Appeal (Pathos)—Will accepting the author’s proposal make me feel better?

• Does SPJ benefit its students in their college courses and in their careers? Do SPJ students continue to be involved in Journalism during college or in their careers? | “Ascertaining the Curriculum Relevance of the Special Program Journalism in Select Public Secondary Schools in Caraga Region” (2023) by Rhoda M. De Los Santos and Levita B. Grana, Saint Joseph Institute of Technology, Butuan City

• Putting Your Writing on a ‘To Be-Free’ Diet from Journalism: Publishing Across Media (G - W Learning) | When a writer consistently uses unnecessary to be verbs, the writing can sound dull and lifeless. (Saylor Academy)

• Making Complex Writing Intelligible with the Known-New Contract from Carnegie-Mellon University | The best book on writing for people who are serious about becoming the best writers they can be: Style: Toward Clarity and Grace by Joseph M. Williams; A simple example of sentences using known-new contract (structure) from my synopsis of K-drama Empress Ki

• BLUF (The Topic Sentence Handout) from Carnegie-Mellon University, with before-and-after examples — The US military’s version of the inverted pyramid structure | Creating reader-friendly writing is the writer’s responsibility.

• The BLUF Rule cheat sheet for efficient communication, clarity, and improved decision making

• Creating Concise Sentences from Carnegie-Mellon University | As writers, we have rich, complex ideas to communicate to our audiences, but many of us struggle to convey those ideas in clear prose.

• Responding [how to critique other writers’ work; how to respond to other writers’ critique of your work] from Journalism: Publishing Across Media (G - W Learning) | Responding is the heart of the writing process, but there is nothing natural about asking others to critique your writing. Most of us, even experienced writers, feel uncomfortable sharing our work-in-process, like we are being asked to stand naked on stage.

Miscellaneous writing lessons

• Miscellaneous writing lesson (Part 16): Crash blossoms — headlines that are ambiguous, funny, ridiculous, or weird because of clumsy writing or the constraints of headline writing

• Miscellaneous writing lesson (Part 17): Invariant be or habitual be — I be like ...; It do be like that; These dreams be waking me up; Being a Street Vendor in the Philippines Be Like.. (title of a Jessica Lee YT video)

• Miscellaneous writing lesson (Part 18): Why do journalists generally avoid using adjectives and adverbs? (See what I did there?) | When you catch an adjective, kill it. (American novelist and humorist Mark Twain); Adjectives and intensifiers are the grest deceivers. (The Associated Press Guide to Good News Writing)

• Miscellaneous writing lesson (Part 19): One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas.; Sipping cocktails on the balcony, the moon looked magnificent. | Dangling modifiers and misplaced modifiers; Travel writers seem particularly prone to using dangling modifiers; What’s the difference between a dangling modifier and a misplaced modifier?; Examples of dangling modifiers from the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Rappler

• Miscellaneous writing lesson (Part 20): For stronger writing, minimize using be verbs — am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been | Examples: Change The restaurant’s food is excellent. to The restaurant serves excellent food. OR, change The concept of immortality is intriguing to me. to The concept of immortality intrigues me

• Miscellaneous writing lesson (Part 21): Should Morissette fans stop using the nickname Mori?; Stet, persona non grata, per se not per say, e.g., and i.e.; Memento mori from K-drama The Glory starring Song Hye-kyo; Plain English for Latin Expressions (Singapore Academy of Law) | Write to express, not to impress (avoid using Latin words or expressions if there are English equivalents)

• Miscellaneous writing lesson (Part 22): “Critic” versus “critique” — “Please critic my article.” and “I will critic your work. are cringeworthy sentences.”

MOJO (mobile journalism)

• A Free Guide to Mobile Journalism Part 1 to Part 7 by Ivo Burum | Think story first, not technology; SCRAP — mojo’s equivalent of traditional 5Ws and 1H

• Mojo (free) resource for people 13 to 24 years old: Finding Digital Stories: The Youth Reporter Project Toolkit from Plan Intrernational Philippines

• Step-by-Step guide to shooting IPhone video with cheat sheet

• Mojo tip: Two shots, three shots, or five shots ... How journalists can improve video stories with shot sequences by Casey Frechette

• Mobile Journalism: The New Media Frontier 2023 webinar from NATAS (National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Suncoast Chapter

• Mojo video Piano Dreams (14-year old Syrian girl refugee who learned to play the piano professionally through YouTube) and other videos by Philip Bromwell, one of Ireland’s pioneering mobile journalists

• 10 Tips to improve your mobile videos – Mobile Journalism PDF by Robb Montgomery (Eastern Illinois University - Smart Film School)

• 20 Most asked Questions by Ivo Burum (2017)

• Romanian journalist trained for only four days on how to film and edit on his smartphone; watch his first ever mojo video Homeless Baths

• Mobile Journalism Manual

• Mojo advantages and limitations during the 2015 Charlie Hebdo terrortack in Paris, France

• Best phone for Mobile Journalism – A checklist with real results by Robb Montgomery, illustrated by his award-winning mojo videos

• The three pillars of mobile journalism – storage capacity, power, and connectivity | journalism.co.uk interview with Marc Settle, BBC’s smartphone reporting trainer

• A mobile journalist gets more vox pop interviews than a traditional TV crew | Closer to the Story? Accessibility and Mobile Journalism (Reuters Institute study, 2016) by Finnish journalist Panu Karhunen

• Mobile Journalism 2.0 from Al Jazeera Media Institute | It’s all about producing powerful stories regardless of the tools we use? | Keys to understanding the new reality of journalism — The journalist is the team; The means is the mediator; Technology is content; The sender is the receiver.

• Mobile Journalism (2017): PDF resource from Al Jazeera Media Training and Development Centre | The key to success in mobile journalism is training

• Stories for Impact (storytelling with smartphone videos) from Digital Storytellers

News Writing

• Inverted pyramid structure is boring and stale? Try using the Hourglass Style (from Poynter’s Roy Peter Clark) or the Focus Style (from the Wall Street Journal)

• How To Write a Speech Story from JProf’s Jim Stovall (University of Tennessee) | PDF resource for News Writing contestants (English and Filipino) and SPJ students

• Handbook of Independent Journalism by Deborah Potter

• Various news writing PDFs (with excellent discussions and illustrative examples, and great layouts and graphics)

• Free online book: Broccoli and Chocolate: A Beginner’s Guide to Journalism News Writing by Erin Hiro

• Super Challenge with the 2020-2024 News Writing contests of the University Interscholastic League) | With fact sheets and suggested answer keys (how to structure the story and sample story based on the fact sheet; Contestants in Pagsulat ng Balita can also use these materials

• News Writing PDF from DOST | Stylebook of the Office of the Ombudsman

• LQTQ, Using transition/Quote formula for news and feature stories (infographic from University Interscholastic League) | Transitions can be a fact, an indirect quote or a partial quote; Paragraphs are 1-2 sentences.

• More News Writing resources for News Writing contestants, and SPJ teachers and students

• 2019 News Writing contests of the University Interscholastic League | With fact sheets, news writing tips, sample stories based on the fact sheets, and winning entries

• New Speaker, New Paragraph from Journalism: Publishing Across Media (G - W Learning) | Guidelines for using quotations in your article: multiple quotes from multiple people; running quote; snippet; What if you’re quoting someone quoting someone?

• Write a Great News Report | Structure of a news report — inverted pyramid, headline, byline, body, tail

• “Interviewing and News Gathering Tips” and “Interviewing” from National Scholastic Press Association: For conference participants whose categories include interviewing as part of the contests, and for SPJ teachers and students | The GOSS formula in asking questions; How to Screw Up: 1. Turn off the source; being ill prepared; asking questions you should have looked up; being fearful; being argumentative; carelessness of appearance. 2. Not defining your purpose before you go, resulting in an aimless interview.

• The Inverted Pyramid (Boston University Com Writing Center(: Structure of a news article, leads, nut grafs, transitions, quotes, (stutter quotes), writing style, and objectivity

• Purpose of the nut graf discussion and examples (University of Texas PDF slideshow by Bobby Hawthorne, former UIL director)

• Newswriting for College Students by Hazel Buctayon

• Basic and advanced news writing PDF slideshow by Prof. Danilo Araña Arao, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communications

• News values (elements or factors) that determine whether an event should be covered and published in a newspaper or in a broadcast

• What Is a Pyramid Doing, Standing on Its Point? from Journalism: Publishing Across Media (G - W Learning) | How technology innovations in the 1860s led to the inverted pyramid structure

Photography and photojournalism

• Free 40-plus lessons on photography and photojournalism for SPJ students and press conference participants; for example, surf to Photojournalism (35): How to write photo captions; Campus news photography and working on your yearbook

• Free resources for SPJ teachers and their students on photography and photojournalism from Photzy (more than 250 PDFs)

• Resources on photojournalism for SPJ teachers, their students, and photojournalism contestants in the press conferences from Reynolds Journalism Institute

• National Geographic video series on the power of photography

• What’s Going On in This Picture? (The New York Times): Think, write, and interact with teens from around the world

• 10 Movies All Photographers Should Watch! by Tatiana Hopper

• Ten principles for photojournalists (Northeastern University’s School of Journalism) in order to become effective and compassionate storytellers

• Taking Great Pictures: Advice from Pulitzer-Winning Photographers

• Photo essay with a point-and-shoot digital camera, a tablet and an Android smartphone

• Missouri Interscholastic Journalism Association (MIJA) Photo of the Month Winners, with judges’ critique

• The history of photography in 5 minutes by COOPH, the Cooperative of Photography
Photography 101: Bite-sized Photography Lessons from Snapshot Canon-Asia

• Street photography: bite-sized lessons from Snapshot Canon-Asia | Differences between street photography and photojournalism; Differences between documentary photography and photojournalism; Free resources on street photography by Eric Kim, Thomas Leuthard, etc; The Shy Photographer’s Guide to Confidence

• 10 ways to improve your sports photography, from a pro

• Photojournalism Online Training: Free and hands on online course for aspiring photojournalists [YouTube videos] by the Pathshala South Asian Media Institute (supported by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Media Programme Asia)

• How to Write Photo Captions: A Guide for Photojournalists

• Miscellaneous lesson on photography, photojournalism, videography, and cinematography (Part 1): Rule of Odds — shooting an odd-numbered group is easier than shooting an even-numbered group; odd-numbered groups are visually pleasing — shooting an odd-numbered group is easier than shooting an even-numbered group; odd-numbered groups are visually pleasing

• Miscellaneous lesson on photography, photojournalism, videography, and cinematography (Part 2): Leading lines to focus the viewer’s eyes to a specific part of the frame or to create depth, with examples from Korean dramas such as True Beauty, Vincenzo, and Alchemy of Souls

• Basic Photojournalism Tips by Mark Grabowski (professor Adelphi University in New York): shooting tips, writing captions, editing photos, ethical considerations, etc

• See the Story free learning resource (interactive PDF) from World Press Photo

• Learning good photography from old National Geographic magazines (just like Hannah Reyes Morales, award-winning documentary photographer from the Philippines)

• Visual cues used in Korean dramas that can improve your photo essays or mojo videos; How Korean director Bong Joon-ho used lines in Oscar-winning movie Parasite to depict and reinforce conflict or division between the rich family and the poor family; Think story first, not technology | Miscellaneous lesson on photography, photojournalism, videography, and cinematography (Part 3) | Free whole-day seminar-workshop on photography, photojournalism, and sports photography for schools in Metro Manila and in Rizal Province

• 100+ Creative Photography Ideas: Techniques, Compositions and Mixed Media Approaches | Heart-shaped bokeh from K-dramas such as A Business Proposal, Misaeng, and Strong Woman Do Bong-soon

• Is photojournalism art? | Sebastião Salgado’s 1986 black-and-white pictures of the workers in the Serra Pelada gold mine in Brazil settles for me the question of whether photojournalism is art: Technically excellent photojournalism that moves the hearts and minds of viewers is art

• Award-winning photographs from Sony World Photography Awards (2020, 2021, and 2022)

• Award-winning photos from 2021 International Photography Awards

• Cheryl Diaz Meyer, a multi-awarded Filipino American photojournalist and 2004 co-winner of Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for Iraq War coverage | “..we are no closer to life than moments when we are so close to death; Photojournalism has more to do with curiosity than courage; Being small, a woman, Asian and a person of color are not detriments to being a photojournalist

• Award-winning photographs from 2017 and 2023 International Photography Awards

• Visual Verification Guide for Photos and Videos from First Draft News | Quick reference guides for verifying eyewitness photos and videos

• Photojournalism seminar for Association of Private School Paper Advisers Holy Family School of Quezon City, July 10, 2024

• Cheating Photographers by Michael The Maven

• From Journalism to Photojournalism: My Story by Nicole Glass

• 7 Photojournalism Tips by Reuters Photographer Damir Sagolj (award-winning Reuters photographer)

• Photography and photojournalism PDF downloads on leading lines from Photzy; Examples of leading lines from K-drama True Beauty |Miscellaneous lesson (Part 4)

• World Photography Day — August 19 | Free resources for SPJ students and photojournalism contestants

• Photography and photojournalism PDF downloads: Portraits and headshots; Shooting to tell stories; Rules of composition, History of photojournalism

• How to Write Yearbook Captions from Organized Adviser and free PDF download on caption writing

• A Photojournalist’s Field Guide: In the Trenches with Stacy Pearsall (From the age of 21 to the age of 27, [Stacy] captured over 500,000 images from over 41 different countries. [She] was considered the best photographer in the military and was the first woman to have won the Military Photographer of the Year twice. | My high school days as a Junior Ranger and college days in ROTC at UP Diliman

• For newbies — Photojournalism contestants, SPJ teachers and students: Photography 101 Pocket Guide and other free resources on photography (getting to know your camera, common mistakes, composition, landscape, portraiture, etc.) | For Photojournalism contestants who already have training or experience: Sports Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots; Top Tips for Improving Your Outdoor and Indoor Sports Photography; The Wide World of Sports (optimizing the point-and-shoot camera)

• Sports Photography - Getting that Great Image (PPTX and video) by Michael Reeves from the University Interscholastic League | Techniques in shooting football, basketball, baseball/softball, wrestling, soccer, volleyball weightlifting, water polo/swimming

• TIME’s Top 100 Photos, from 2016 to 2023; Works of Filipino photojournalists among TIME’s Top 100 Photos of 2022

• Alternative to Rule of Thirds: Quadrant System of composition; lower corner or lower quadrant composition to depict or reinforce emotional or psychological tension (with examples from K-dramas such as The Red Sleeve, Hotel Del Luna, My Liberation Notes, and A Business Proposal)

• 5 Common Mistakes Beginner Photographers Make (infographic)

• Cheatsheet and PDF slideshow on digital SLRs and point-and-shoot cameras; types of cameras; parts of the camera; white balance; exposure triangle; composition techniques; writing captions; etc.

• Write a Great News Report | Structure of a news report — inverted pyramid, headline, byline, body, tail

• For newbies — Sports Writing contestants, SPJ teachers, and students: Resources from Journalism Education Association (PDF and PPTX) and SchoolJournalism (PPTX)

• Sports Journalism Guidebook (PDF) from Al Jazeera | Qualities and characteristics of a good sports feature article from “What Makes Great Sportswriting? A Look into Traditions, Confirmity and Artistic Freedom”

• Sports Field Guide website by Joe Gisondi (author of Field Guide To Covering Sports)

• A Reporter’s Guide to Sports and Olympics Reporting (2011) from the Thomson Reuters Foundation

• Photojournalism (its impact on shaping people’s opinions of the news and world events) | Elements; history; origins of photojournalism in war photography; ethical, legal, and social implications; unethical practices; impact of new technologies: iPhone journalism

• Photography / Photojournalism resources from Texas Association of Journalism Educators

• Photojournalism textbook for B.A. (Journalism and Mass Communication) from Pondicherry University, India | Discussions, examples, self-assessment, and exercises

RA 7079 Campus Journalism Act of 1991

• RA 7079 Campus Journalism Act of 1991 (Part 1): How is the Editor-in-Chief of a high school or an elementary school publication selected?

• RA 7079 Campus Journalism Act of 1991 (Part 2): The schoolpaper adviser of a high school or an elementary school publication — appointment, functions responsibilities and liability

• RA 7079 Campus Journalism Act of 1991 (Part 3): With RA 7079 having no penalty clause, do campus journalists have any legal remedy if their rights are violated? | House Bill No. 1155 and Senate Bill No. 1464 (19th Congress), which seek to repeal RA 7079, provide penalties of fine, imprisonment, or both for violations of the rights of campus journalists

• RA 7079 Campus Journalism Act of 1991 (Part 4): Supreme Court decision in the Miriam College case (2000) involving censorship, press freedom, and the right of schools to discipline students

• Transcription of the official PDF copy of Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 7079 DECS Order No. 94, S. 1992 (for editorial board members, SPAs, SPJ teachers and students)

• RA 7079 Campus Journalism Act of 1991 and its proposed repeal under House Bill No. 1155 and Senate Bill No. 1464 (19th Congress)

• Editorial Board is not the same as Editorial Staff or Editorial Team

Radio-TV Broadcasting

• Radio Broadcasting curriculum with free lessons from SchoolJournalism.org (lessons can be modified for print and online journalism classes, and television production modules)

• Introductory and Level Up video production tutorials from Student Reporting Labs (PBS News Hour), a hands-on student journalism training program)

• Television network newscasts persist in grammatical gaffes; TV news needs verbs; Gerund News (many newscasters disregard auxiliary verbs)

• How To Read The News Like A Professional News Anchor | New York Film Academy Broadcast Journalism How To’s

• How To Nail An Interview As A News Reporter from New York Film Academy Broadcast Journalism How To’s (for Radio-TV Broadcasting contestants and journalism students — news writers, sports writers, etc. — who need to learn interviewing skills)

• The Ultimate List Of Broadcast Journalism Terms from New York Film Academy – School of Film and Acting

• Broadcast Writing, Part 1 and Part 2 for student journalists | Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ)

• Meowing, humming, vocal fry, dogs, and Bugs Bunny | Aerobics for your voice: 3 tips for sounding better on air (NPR) by Jessica Hansen

• Transitioning from print to radio: Abandon the inverted pyramid because it’s the death of a radio story; De-graf the nut graph; Sound redefines the way we report and tell stories | The journey from print to radio storytelling: A guide for navigating a new landscape (NPR) by Alison MacAdam

• Magandang gabi, bayan!: TV Newscasting Analysis: Towards Establishing Grammar Rules in Filipino Broadcast News (2019) by Maria Bulaong, Bulacan State University - College of Arts and Letters | Ang otoridad ay salitang ’siyokoy’ para sa awtoridad; Excessive use of po causes confusion

• Award-winning broadcast news programs of US high schools | 2023 Broadcast Pacemakers by the National Scholastic Press Association

• Writing for radio and television from The News Manual (a free online resource for journalists, would-be journalists, educators and people interested in the media)

• The Power of Radio - Basic Skills Manual (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung) with discussions, examples, and comparisons | Radio is powerful because it is immediate, accessible, and inclusive. Radio is accessible to everyone, but getting people’s attention can be a challenge.

• Stand Up! (Broadcasting Stand Ups) video by Grant Johnson 2021 National High School Journalist of the Year Runner-Up from the University Interscholastic League | Stand ups can really be an awkward thing; just holding a mic and talking in front of cameras is not natural for a lot of people.

Schoolpaper layout and design; Collaborative Desktop Publishing; Online Publishing; graphics, websites, and blogs

• Modern Newspaper Layout Tips for Schools; 10 rules of composition all designers live by from Canva

• Ten essential Wix tutorials for beginners | My experience as a self-taught website designer and a blogger since 2003 (The good old days of Dreamweaver, MS-DOS, and Windows 3.1) | Notes to SPAs, SPJ teachers and students, and members of online publishing teams; Jakob Nielsen, father of writing for the internet: Content is king, not jazzy website designs or eye candy graphics

• Award-winning US high school publications (newspapers, front page, spread, news magazines, specialty magazines, etc.) | Do you think your own campus publications are on par with or even better than these winners?

• Lesson plan: The effective use of white space (with supporting materials) from Journalism Education Association | For SPAs, SPJ teachers and students, layout artists, contestants in Collaborative Desktop Publishing and Online Publishing

• Online masterclass tutorial on newspaper design and layout: Story Design, Step by Step by Tim Harrower, award-winning editor, designer and columnist

• PDF masterclass on writing and designing print newspapers for high impact and high readership: Writing for Non-Readers by Tim Harrower, award-winning editor, designer and columnist; Maestro Concept (teamwork for big stories and to add variety to layouts); Readers aren’t lazy, or stupid. They’re busy, Distracted. Overloaded.

• Lay Outing Campus Journalism by Rene Boy Abiva (Manuel V. Gallego Foundation Colleges, Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija) | A well-designed newspaper layout balances visual appeal with information hierarchy, guiding readers through headlines, articles, images, and supplementary content seamlessly.

• Collaborative Publishing and Layouting: Lecture Notes on Campus Journalism by Joey R. Cabigao | 2016 Hagonoy East District Seminar-Workshop on Campus Journalism for School Paper Advisers and Campus Journalists

• Ten Ways to Improve Online Newspapers and Your Social Media Presence (PDF and video) from the University Interscholastic League | No Story Stands Alone: Graphics Required

• 12 Rules of Desktop Publishing by Jacci Howard Bear | “Right and wrong do not exist in graphic design. There is only effective and non-effective communication.” — Peter Bilak

• Visual Design and DTP from Arasan Ganesan Polytechnic College, Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu, India | Introduction to Design and Layout, Typography, Colour Dynamics, Page Layout and Print Publishing, etc.

• Graphic design elements and principles you should know even if your campus publications use templates from InDesign or Canva | “Design differs from art in that it has to have a purpose. Visually, this functionality is interpreted by making sure an image has a center of attention, a point of focus.; Graphic design, like any discipline, adheres to strict rules that work beneath the surface to make the work stable and balanced. If the design is missing that balance, it will be weak and ineffective.”

• Desktop Publishing PDF slideshows — history, terms, design principles, techniques: Harmony in visual design means all parts of the document relate to and complement each other.

• Visualized articles from the University Interscholastic League (Texas USA); “Visualized articles combine research, surveys/interviews and images to tell a complete story graphically. They are one step beyond infographics because your reader should see themselves in the content ... which means you need to survey/interview your readers.”

• “The Rising Power of Visual Content”; “The Importance of Visual Content; and The Power of Visual Content” | “90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual.”; “Colored visuals increase people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80%; Between 2000 and 2013, the average attention span dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds (one second less than the attention span of a gold fish); Thankfully, your brain takes only 150 milliseconds to process a symbol, and 100 milliseconds more to attach meaning to it. Design cannot rescue failed content.”

• The best of the BEST: Snapshots of the 2016 high school Pacemaker finalist yearbooks: Given since 1927, the National Pacemaker Awards are known as the Pulitzer Prize of student journalism. | For contestants in Collaborative Desktop Publishing and Online Publishing, SPAs, EICs, section editors, graphics and layout artists

• Newspaper Design Strategies from National Scholastic Press Association (numerous examples of excellent newspaper design; principles)

• An Introduction to Graphic design (PDF slideshow) by Viraj Circar and Veena Sonwalkar | The Gestalt or ‘whole form’ theory sought to define the principles of perception; Typography can take you back to a different time, set a mood, set a tone of voice, organize pages, create unity between objects, etc.

• Fundamentals of Graphic Design: PDF slideshow for Collaborative Desktop Publishing and Online Publishing contestants, SPAs, EICs, section editors, graphic and layout artists | Type, Colors, Lines and Shape, Images, Composition, Hierarchy, Harmony, Best Practices

• Graphic design elements and principles PDF slideshow | The basis of good graphic design is use of design elements and their thoughtful application in the form of design principles.

• Graphic design and layout concepts PDF slideshow from UN - REDD Program | “Attention web designers: You have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression; Visual communication informs how we understand and interact with the world around us. Effective communication depends on how well you control the visual representation of your message.”

Science and Technology Writing

• Science and Technology Writing: tips and resources for contestants in the press conferences (district, division, regional, and national)

• The Guardian’s Secrets of good science writing series and the continuing relevance of George Orwell’s six rules for better writing from his 1946 essay Politics of the English Language

• Science Writing and Scientific Writing may have different audiences, but the techniques for good writing are the same for both

• Free resources for SPJ teachers and Sci-Tech writing contestants — more than 500 science journalism articles and Science Journalism Master Classes from The Open Notebook (with certificate of completion)

• Sci-Tech Writing and poetry? Making Your Science Writing Sing: Craft Lessons from Poetry

• Science Journalism Manual from Goethe-Institut | Science journalism and social media: Social media are designed to exploit the functioning of the human brain. The interactivity and positive reinforcements through comments and likes lure users into constant engagement.; Can research results be considered truth?

• Science Journalism Handbook (PDF resource from Al Jazeera Media Institute) | The centrality of science to this kind of journalism does not mean that we can forget the basic rules of writing.

• 10 best practice guidelines for reporting science &health stories from Science Media Centre

• A Scientist’s Guide to Working with the Media from The American Geophysical Union (AGU) | Sharing your science with media outlets can get your work in front of a broader audience and promote the value of scientific research. But it helps to have tips for working with journalists, and communications officers.

• How to write about science for a general audience from Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, USA) | “Starting in college, scientists get accustomed to using scientific jargon. It’s how they impress their professors. It’s how they get taken seriously. Pretty soon, they start thinking that everybody knows what interferometry is.” – Carl Zimmer

• Packaging a Science Story (excerpt from Science Communication Skills for Journalists: A Resource Book for Universities in Africa) | What makes a good science story?; How to structure a science story (inverted pyramid structure compared tp Wall Street Journal structure)

• Science Communication Skills for Journalists (A Resource Book for Universities in Africa) by Dr. Charles Wendo | Similarities and differences between scientists and journalists; Why journalists need to learn some science and to think like scientists; Simplifying Scientific Facts, Numbers and Statistics

Sportswriting

• Qualities and characteristics of a a good sports feature article from What Makes Great Sportswriting? A Look into Traditions, Confirmity and Artistic Freedom | Sports Journalism Guidebook (PDF) from Al Jazeera

• Sportswriter or Sports writer? Sportswriting or Sports writing (plus lower case and upper case alternatives) | Sportswriter is One Word by Frank Deford (six-time National Sportswriter of the Year; Sports Illustrated magazine writer for 37 years); Two Words: Not Sportswriting by Glenn Stout, series editor of Best American Sports Writing from 1991 to 2020: Sports Writing (two words) highlights the writing, not necessarily the sports.

• Infographics from The Guardian (2012 Olympics) — Gymnastics; Track and field; Ball games; Water sports; Other sports: from Archery to Wrestling | History, rules, terms/jargon, etc.

• Olympic Sports Explained (Thomson Reuters) from Archery to Wrestling | History, rules, terms/jargon, etc. with detailed illustrations

Writing Prompts

• 50 Writing Prompts for All Grade Levels | (Edutopia - George Lucas Educational Foundation)

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