Writing Yearbook Captions That Will Captivate

Photo by Briley Kemper

WRITING YEARBOOK CAPTIONS THAT WILL CAPTIVATE

WRITING YEARBOOK CAPTIONS THAT WILL CAPTIVATE Every yearbook created has one thing in common: pictures. Photos are the most-seen elements of any yearbook. The first thing almost all readers will do when they get the yearbook in their hands is flip through the book to look at the pictures of themselves and their friends. With the imagery in your yearbook playing such an important role, that naturally means that captions – those smaller, shorter blocks of text used to describe the photos – are often the most important copy written for your yearbook pages. Unfortunately, we don’t always give our captions the time and attention they merit. The good news is there’s a technique and formula to writing captions that every yearbook staffer can learn. And once that method is mastered, your yearbook can be filled with meaningful, informative captions every year.

2 THAT WILL CAPTIVATE WRITING YEARBOOK CAPTIONS

START WITH THE BASICS It’s important to remember that captions can’t be written if the most basic information of the photo –the who, what, when, where, why and how (5 W’s and H) – hasn’t been recorded. Every member of your yearbook staff, including the photographers, need to consider themselves journalists. Make sure your photos are taking notes when they are out shooting photos and covering events. Whenever possible, you want to avoid the hassle of trying to track down the names of subjects in photos once you’re working with pictures on the page.

Horizon , Blue Valley Northwest High School, Overland Park, Kansas

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THE ABCD’S OF CAPTION WRITING

The trick of writing strong captions is that they don’t just need to provide the reader with the story of what’s happening in a photo right then. They also need to provide details that will stand the test of time when the yearbook is revisited years later. Writers can accomplish this by using the ABCD method for caption writing, which outlines the four essential elements to a caption, in the following order:

AT T ENT I ON G E T T E R

This is a mini-headline that directly links the photo and the caption.

BAS I C I N F O

The first sentence, written in present tense, explains what is happening in the photo. This is the who, what, where and when.

COMP L IMENTARY I N F O

An additional sentence, written in past tense, gives the reader some additional details that aren’t readily apparent in the photo.

D I R E CT QUOT E

End with a quote from someone who appears in the photo, discussing an interesting aspect of the events that are happening. Sometimes this can be swapped with an additional sentence of complementary information, and it works fine.

Learn more about the ABCD method of caption writing and how you can start putting it to use by watching the tutorial video “A Simple Approach to Great Captions” by former award-winning adviser Renee Burke, MJE, from William R. Boone High School in Orlando, Florida. CAPTION WRITING

THE ABCD’S OF

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TELL THE WHOLE STORY As we’ve already established, it’s important for your photographers to take basic notes while they are out on photo assignments. And we also now know from the ABCD method that great captions will include extra details, and even quotes, that really tell a story for the reader. This is essentially photographers working as reporters, albeit on a smaller scale. Once a photo has gotten the 5 W’s, they can get a little bit more context for the event being covered. As an example, if taking pictures at the opening night of the fall musical, get a quote from the lead in the show about how nervous they were. Find out how large the crowd was and how that compared to previous years.

Buffalo , Haltom High School, Haltom City, Texas

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DO’S AND DON’TS OF CAPTION WRITING Use this quick, easy reference list for some Do’s and Don’ts when sitting down to start writing your captions. DO • Copy should be a natural extension of the photo without stating the obvious. • Lead-in states the obvious in an unobvious way. • Include the five W’s and H. • Use a variety of adjectives and adverbs. • Consider the action before and during the photos, and reaction to the event.

• Use strong, visual, specific nouns. • Use colorful, lively, vital action verbs. • Keep captions factual. • Use a variety of sentence patterns. • Identify all people in the picture (up to seven, and then just the main participants). • Use complete sentences. • Use complete names. DON’T • Don’t begin with name leads or label leads. • Don’t overuse the same lead pattern. • Don’t state the obvious– well-written captions provide information that the reader would not otherwise know without reading the caption. • Avoid excessive use of gerunds (-ing words). • Don’t use “during” as lead. • Don’t use “pictured above,” “shown above,” “seems to,” “attempts to.” • Avoid use of to be verbs (is, as, was, were). • Don’t pad the caption. • Don’t use “gag” or joke captions. • Don’t comment, question or talk to the picture. • Don’t editorialize. CAPTION WRITING DO’S AND DON’TS OF

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Hopefully this overview has you started down the path of writing compelling captions to draw your readers in to your yearbook. For even more help, reference the lessons and activities in the “Completing Your Copy with Captions and Headlines” unit of Walsworth’s Yearbook Suite curriculum.

Aftermath , Palm Harbor University High School, Palm Harbor, Florida

Decamhian, Del Campo High School, Fair Oaks, California

Photo by Aalyssa Gunn

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FIND MORE WALSWORTH EBOOKS Walsworth is among the top four yearbook printers in the U.S., and the only family-owned publisher of yearbooks. As a leading provider of resources for yearbook advisers, Walsworth’s focus is making the yearbook creation process easier and more successful for our schools. Learn more by visiting us at walsworthyearbooks.com.

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