In January 2024, the MoCo Student developed a journalism guide form for students editors to input their advice. The MoCo Student asked a series of questions, and this article features the responses of editors from the MoCo News, Features, and Young Writers section. The current MoCo Student team is continuing to share and gather responses from editors, and interested students may email editorsmocostudent@gmail.com on how they can be featured.
What are your three top tips and advice for coming up with article ideas? Please add some details on how these have helped you in your experiences.
To find relevant article ideas, look up local news sources including the MoCo Show, Bethesda 360, and WTOP. These websites will usually have numerous ideas that writers can elaborate on and research. Additionally, MCPS has its article postings on both its website and its Instagram account. Especially for my section, these sources are great as we focus mainly on local news stories that can be found directly from these sources.
Social media platforms have lots of posts regarding important news both locally and nationally. Some accounts including the ones that belong to the MoCo Show and MCPS are consistent with their postings and most often have important updates too. Similarly to many others, I receive a majority of my news from social media. Therefore, so many article topics can be formulated just by scrolling through posts.
There is always something happening at each school in MCPS. Make sure your writers are aware of the events that occur at their schools so they can write about them (or someone else). Even if a policy or event occurs specifically at one school, it is still important to report on it. I ensure my writers discuss with me any upcoming events at their schools and possible coverage for those.
—Elli Jacobs
1. What’s on your mind? Do you want to research a specific event? Choose article ideas that hold personal interest to you—draw from your artistic, athletic, or academic life and discover any burning questions you feel compelled to answer.
2. Are there communities or people you’d love to meet and interview? Let’s say I was curious about interviewing a filmmaker—approaching an article idea by establishing potential sources of contact is a great method to come up with article ideas.
3. What are some observations you have regarding teenagers today, and how you can use your reporting to uplift, question, or resonate with others? Considering your audience and the interactions with the world around you is something that helped my brainstorming process.
—Chelsea Zhu
I recommend looking at popular news sources for current events. You can either take the same approach as the article does or use it as inspiration to find your own, perhaps focusing on another perspective. You might also consider browsing social media for ideas. Whatever people are talking about has to be news so it’s always a great source.
—Madeline Springer
What are your three top tips and advice for conducting interviews? Please add some details on how these have helped you in your experiences.
When conducting interviews, do not rely on the same people. Your articles will eventually become boring if you continue to interview the same people over and over again. Don’t be scared to ask random students/staff to conduct an interview! The worst they can say is “no”, and you have plenty of others to ask. I started interviewing with the people I knew, but it becomes so much better when you reach out to people you’ve never met before. You will always learn new things.
Try to conduct interviews in person or at least over the phone. Of course, in some circumstances, you may just interview through email or text but this should be your last resort. When connecting with your interviewee physically, you will be able to have a deeper conversation with more emotion. I try not to interview people over email as you will get very basic responses with little to no details.
Ask around! If you are having trouble finding someone to interview, you can always reach out to a friend who knows another friend who could make a good candidate. You are also not limited to interviewing only the people at your school. Be diverse and get out there! If I am trying to interview someone outside of my school, I first email them with relevant information and take it from there.
—Elli Jacobs
1. Research the point of contact in advance. Whether you contact them in-person or through email, set up an interview time beforehand and arrange an appropriate timeline. For emailing, make sure you include an introduction of yourself and the article topic. The interviewee should also learn why you’ve chosen them for your interview.
2. Prepare a set of interview questions beforehand that act as a reference. You can follow up or improvise new questions to redirect the conversation. Your article angle will likely shift based on interviewee replies.
3. During the interview, use a recording app such as Otter.ai to transcribe your interview afterwards. Ask the interviewee for recording permission. Send a thank you email afterwards to express your gratitude for their time. Ultimately, preparing yourself before conducting an interview is a valuable skill to practice.
—Chelsea Zhu
I recommend conducting interviews in different areas and at different schools each time to expand your reach. Consider going to your siblings’ or friends’ schools to reach other parts of the MoCo community. It’s important to have an idea of the questions you’re going to ask, but it’s more important to follow your interviewee’s lead. I often go in looking to take the conversation in one direction and it ends up going a completely different (and sometimes, better) way.
—Madeline Springer
As an editor, you’ve edited many journalism articles. What are your three top tips and advice for editing articles? Please add some details on how these have helped you in your experiences.
Always reference the Style Guide when editing articles. You may forget the different writing techniques we use, so simply pull up the guide and reference it from thereon. I constantly use the Style Guide when editing my articles as it provides quick access to the information I need and allows me to create a smooth and grammatically correct article.
Refer to past articles that are already published on the website. These articles are fully polished and edited so you can easily review them and find the information you need. In case the Style Guide does not have what you’re looking for, search for a relevant article on the website and go from there. I review different articles on the website as a baseline for how I edit articles. If a majority of the published ones follow a specific style, then I will do that too.
When done editing a sentence, always reread the sentence before it and reread this sentence multiple times. At times, I find myself editing a sentence that doesn’t need the editing. Always be sure that whatever it is you are editing, actually needs the changes because sometimes you may just overlook some words and think it has to be changed when it really doesn’t.
—Elli Jacobs
1. After a first draft, take time to cut down your prose. Highlight places of repetition, rewrite sentences for clarity, and opt out long and passive phrases for single verbs or nouns. Oftentimes in journalism, less is more.
2. Replace or cut general phrases such as “everything,” “that,” and “there is,” with specific and precise language. Using vivid verbs and nouns help readers follow, visualize, and connect the ideas and information you present.
3. Solicit feedback from friends, writers, and mentors. One of my favorite parts of the editing process is hearing thoughts and advice from readers. You can create so many rewarding conversations just from discussing your rough draft.
—Chelsea Zhu
When editing articles, correct writers’ mistakes but also give insight on why they’re mistakes and how they can avoid them in the future. You want them to be able to learn and improve their skills so you can’t change things without explaining why. I try to give a few examples when explaining how things should be done. For example, providing them a hyperlink they can reference when trying to create their own.
—Madeline Springer
Please describe some of your favorite useful journalism resources for high school journalists. Please add links and one-sentence descriptions of the sites.
MoCo Show: https://mocoshow.com/ An excellent local source when looking for new article ideas.
MCPS news website: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/news/ The MCPS website often posts updates and important news for the community to be aware of.
MoCo Show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themocoshow/ Very quick and short news that can be referenced for article ideas.
Bethesda 360: https://moco360.media/ An excellent local source when looking for new article ideas.
—Elli Jacobs
One of the most useful journalism resources when writing an article is to review the style guide for the specific news outlet. Most newspapers follow APA Style, which you can learn more about on their official webpage or on Purdue OWL. Draw inspiration from online magazines or newspapers. Here’s a few: New York Times, MoCo360, The New Yorker, WIRED, and Mochi Magazine. Reading is the best resource for improving your journalism and writing!
—Chelsea Zhu
Now, this part will be about your specific section that you are the editor for. In addition to the tips you’ve given above, what are some unique tips you have specifically for writing journalism in your section?
When assigning articles for the MoCo News section, I ensure that our articles cover a wide range of issues/events. We try to promote diversity as much as possible and focus on all aspects of MCPS and Montgomery County. If an event or issue seems too small compared to other ones, it is still worthy to be reported on. We must shine a light on well-planned and organized events even if they occur in only one school. When assigning topics, it can be a bit hard to find ones that represent only Montgomery County. Therefore, I recommended refraining from scouting large news sources as they focus on broader issues.
—Elli Jacobs
The features section offers a lot of flexibility and creativity for reporters. One unique aspect is how reporters can submit evergreen content or articles that aren’t time sensitive, compared to other sections that place an emphasis on relevant or news-breaking topics. Evergreen content consists of Listicles, How-Tos, Profiles, and Behind-The-Scenes. Features articles are also seasonal and centered around a specific time of the year like summertime. In features, it’s important to take advantage of producing quality content and creating a story through objective reporting. Using descriptions, conducting research, and including anecdotes can help elevate your writing.
—Chelsea Zhu
As the Young Writers section editor, I try to foster writers’ interest in journalism in addition to giving them guidance and advice. I want to encourage them to pursue this area in high school and even beyond so letting them know they can ask questions and be creative is essential. I’ve had them try to write several different types of articles in order to help them figure out their personal preferences and styles.
—Madeline Springer
What are some other areas in journalism that you would like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about journalism in STEM and medicine. I am interested in pursuing a career in a STEM field so learning about and experiencing how journalism is incorporated here, seems quite interesting.
—Elli Jacobs
I’d love to learn more about audio, multimedia, and digital journalism!
—Chelsea Zhu
I’d like to learn more about music, arts, and sports maybe because I’ve never written articles in those areas.
—Madeline Springer
Written by MoCo Student Editors-in-Chief
Photo Courtesy of Mark Sivewright and Creative Commons