COMPLETING YOUR COPY WITH

CAPTIONS AND HEADLINES

(Lesson 1)

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Renee Burke, MJE, Yearbook

Adviser, Boone High School

Completing Your Copy

with Captions and
Headlines
Before anyone reads your well-crafted story on a yearbook
spread, their eyes will be drawn to your

headline and captions.

Photos will draw their attention first, so its
automatic that people will read the
accompanying captions to learn more about the
people and what they are doing.
Cleverly written and well-designed headlines
will attract readers to a spread almost as much
as the dominant photo.

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Completing Your Copy

with Captions and
Headlines
You may hear that students dont read the copy in the
yearbook.

begin writing enticing headlines

and informative captions.
They will if you

Improving your copy in these two areas will lead

readers to want to learn more from the story.
This unit will focus on how to write better captions
and headlines, including practice to improve your
skills.

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Completing Your Copy

with Captions and
Headlines
Your journey to writing great caption and headline copy that
readers will enjoy starts now. In this unit you will learn to:

Write great captions using the ABCD formula

Write intriguing headlines that are vivid and
descriptive while staying factual

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Lesson 1: Writing
Great Captions
Objectives In this lesson, you will learn:
How to write quality, informational captions that identify
people and events
How to write informative captions creatively so people will
want to read them

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Lesson 1: Writing
Great Captions
Each year when schools are planning coverage and how to
best write a story, there are always yearbook staffs who say,
Why do we write body copy? No one reads it.
While it may be true that not everyone reads it immediately,

people will read it when they are reminiscing or

before a reunion.
However, you cannot use that same defense
against caption writing.
Photos are the largest, most-seen graphics
in the yearbook.

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If the photo has stopped

the reader, he will read

the caption to know the story.

Lesson 1: Writing
Great Captions
Captions are small bits of information given
to the reader in digestible chunks.
They tell the reader all the factual information
they need to know about the photo. To make
it more personal, you can include a quote from
someone in the photo.
So, all of the good rules youve been taught will
still ring true for caption writing.
You still need to attend events, interview those
involved and stick to the facts.

Once you know the 5Ws

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and H Who, What,

When Where, Why and How captions write

Lesson 1: Writing
Great Captions

Taking aim. All captions need to

explain the who, what, when, where,
why and how to put the reader in the
moment the photo was taken. In this
case, the caption should put the reader
into that moment of the game. A quote
about what the player was thinking
would be a nice touch as the last
sentence.

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Sidney Taylor

Writing a Caption is as
Easy as ABCD

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Lesson 1: Writing
Great Captions
Answer the question.
In this case the question is, what is he doing?
The student is testing electrical boards to ensure
they were safe to use and would turn on the light
bulb.

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Hannah Leyva

Lesson 1: Writing
Great Captions
three to five words that grab the
readers attention
and link the photo and caption together
List

Lead-in states the obvious in an unobvious way

Include the five Ws and H
Use a variety of adjectives and adverbs
Be descriptive
Use strong, visual specific nouns

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Consider the action

before and during the photo

and reaction to the event

Lesson 1: Writing
Great Captions
Use

colorful, lively, visual action verbs

Write in present tense, active voice (unless

changing tenses to
make it logical)
Be factual
Use a variety of sentence patterns
Identify all people in picture (up to seven)
Use complete sentences

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Use first and last

names

Lesson 1: Writing
Great Captions

Dont state the obvious

Dont begin leads with names or overuse

the same lead pattern
Dont use label leads (example: basketball
girls, swimmers, etc.)
Dont use an excessive amount of ing
verbs
Avoid During to begin your lead as its
overused

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Lesson 1: Writing
Great Captions
Dont use Pictured/Showed Above,
Seems/Attempts to
Avoid using to be verbs
Dont use gag or joke captions
Dont comment or question the action in
the picture; you are telling the reader what
happened, not conversing with him

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Lesson 1: Writing
Great Captions
How does it feel?
You probably know what it is like to stick your hand inside a
pumpkin.

help readers experience what is

going on in the photo, in this case, feeling the
slime like this student did.
Let your caption

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Morgan Rollins

Lesson 1: Writing
Great Captions
Special considerations:
Identify both schools players and opponents by jersey
number and name
State position of the player(s)
Consider plays leading up to the action
Tell the result or outcome

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Lesson 1: Writing
Great Captions

Special considerations:
Begin with name of group
Identify from left to right, but dont write that as part of the
caption
Give clear row designation in a different font than text
(CHEERLEADING Front: Name Here, Name Here. Row 2:
Name
Here, Name Here. Back: Name Here, Name Here.)

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Lesson 1: Writing
Great Captions
Attend the event and know what you are writing about
Write the caption as soon as possible after the picture was
taken
Identify everyone in the photo
Describe what is happening in the exact moment of the
photo
Give your photo a timeframe
Avoid passive voice
Dont add unnecessary phrases such as left to right or
pictured
above
Check and recheck the spelling of the names and text
NEVER make up information it is journalistically wrong!

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Lesson 1, Activity 1:
Critique Captions
Take a newspaper section, magazine or go to an online news
site. Find three photos with captions. Write down the captions
and answer these questions.
1. Critique the captions. How could each caption be improved? Is anything missing from the captions?
2. Rewrite the captions with the information provided in the current caption and/or the accompanying story. Remember to keep them
factual.

CAPTION 1:
........................................................................................
.....
........................................................................................
.....
CAPTION 2:
........................................................................................
.....
........................................................................................
.....
CAPTION 3:
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........................................................................................
.....

Lesson 1, Activity 2:
Write the Captions
On the following slides are two photos with background
information provided so you can write the caption.
Remember your ABCDs. Write your caption .

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Lesson 1, Activity 2:
Write the Captions
CAPTION 1 MUSICAL CHAIRS

Juniors Jessica Peterson (left) and Mary Lopez (right)

Participate in blindfolded musical chairs at the first pep
rally of the year
It was 97 degrees outside and two people suffered from
heat exhaustion
This was a competition between the classes
Occurred on Sept. 6
I couldnt see so I sat really quickly on someone
and when I looked, it was Mary [my best friend],
so it was the perfect person to sit on. It just stunk
I was still out, Peterson said.
The music ended so quickly. I just sat as quickly
as I could. I thought it was so funny that Jessica
ended up on my lap, Lopez said.
The seniors won this event.

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Blake Waranch

Lesson 1, Activity 2:
Write the Captions
CAPTION 2 ACTOR

Junior Clark Thornton plays a townsman who has an ailing back.

This was the drama departments production of Anatomy of Gray.
The production ran Oct. 4, 5 and 6 at 7 p.m. in the schools
auditorium (unnamed).
Debra Christopher, a former student, directed the play.
This program earned the troop four Critics Choice Awards and 10
Best in Show awards at the district competition.
Being able to play a crazy man was so much fun,
Thornton said.
Through staging, I get to see every actor almost as a
unique chess piece, and its the directors job to play the
game with the pieces and play it well, Christopher said.
The setting was Gary, Indiana, in the 1800s.

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Photo provided by Boone High School

Lesson 1, Activity 2:
Write the Captions
Now that youve written a few captions, swap with a peer.
Evaluate and critique each others caption writing using a
Caption Checklist. See how much you remembered.
CAPTION 1 MUSICAL CHAIRS

__ Makes a creative caption/photo connection (Attention getter)

__ Present tense sentence identifies who (everyone in photo) and
describes what is happening in each photo (Basic info)
__ Past tense sentence takes reader beyond moment of photos
(Complimentary info)
__ Quotes are interesting and not just facts (Direct quote)
__ Caption is factual
__ Avoids editorializing, school name, and terms like: this year,
apparently, seemingly
__ Written in third person (no you, us, we, our)
__ In active, not passive voice verb
__ Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are correct
__ Doesnt begin with name or -ing
__ Overall captions are positive and interesting.

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Lesson 1, Activity 2:
Write the Captions
CAPTION 2 ACTOR
__ Makes a creative caption/photo connection (Attention getter)
__ Present tense sentence identifies who (everyone in photo) and
describes what is happening in each photo (Basic info)
__ Past tense sentence takes reader beyond moment of photos
(Complimentary info)
__ Quotes are interesting and not facts (Direct quote)
__ Caption is factual
__ Avoids editorializing, school name, and terms like: this year,
apparently, seemingly
__ Written in third person (no you, us, we, our)
__ In active, not passive voice verb
__ Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are correct
__ Doesnt begin with name or -ing
__ Overall captions are positive and interesting

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