Captions

Captions

Captions are one of the most important parts of the yearbook. Every picture or module needs a caption, whether it be a summary caption, an expanded caption, a story copy, or an indent.

Summary Captions

Summary captions are the type you will be using most often. They occur on most student life, academic, and sports spreads.

The summary caption covers the 5 w’s and h: Who, What, Where, When, Why, How

Part 1: the Lead-In• The first part of ALL captions• A short, witty, punny phrase• Put a period at the end.• It is ALL capitalized

**Bold it, make sure it’s two font sizes bigger, and put it in the section color

The First Sentence

• –ing phrase,• NAME 11/12• Present tense sentence, giving the

basic info of what is happening

Lunging to reach the ball, JANE DOE 12 focuses during practice for the team’s upcoming game.

**Bold, color, and capitalize names and grades**list the names of everyone in the picture UNLESS there’s more than 5 people

The Second Sentence

• Past tense• It should give background info

(what you can’t tell from the picture)

• Between the two sentences, 5W&H should be told

Photo-By

• EVERY PICTURE NEEDS A PHOTO-BY (even if there isn’t a caption)

• at the end of the caption, just: photo by name name

**Font size 6. Italicized. Accent section color. All lowercase. Do NOT bold names. No grade.

Extended CaptionExtended captions are used on most academic, student life, and sports spreads, but not as often as summary captions.• Summary caption (again, 5W&H) + quote• Quotes: “,” Last name said. (name shouldn’t be bolded)

• Lead in. –ing, First Last 11/12 present tense. Past tense. “Quote,” Last said.

• If the quote is more than one sentence, put the “last name said.” after the first sentence. Then continue.– “It was nice to have a change of pace,” Smith said. “The

food was great and everyone was happy.”

WRONG RIGHTFLOOR IT. Designing a floor plan on AutoCAD, JOHN DOE 12 begins to outline his house. The houses were year-long projects, slowly evolving from 2D to 3D. “I like architectural design because I feel like I have a valuable future in architecture,” Doe said. Photo by suzie smith

KEY TO GETTING QUOTES• Get a quote as quickly after taking the picture as

possible• Don’t just say “hey I need a quote for the

yearbook”. PLAN AHEAD! Prepare questions ahead of time. How/why are the best.– How did you feel when you won the game? – What was your favorite project from the class?

Why? – What made you want to join the sports team/club?– Tell me more about…..

• If it’s a bad quote, DON’T USE IT– Either go back and ask them to elaborate (aka get

them to say something useable)– OR ask someone else– OR just do a summary caption (but do try to do as

many extended captions as possible)

Story Copy

The caption for every dominant photo is called a story copy. The rules for a story copy differ from those for a regular caption. A story copy…• Is at least 5 sentences• Contains a lot of background information on

the subject the entire spread is covering (the sport team, academic class…)

• Is completely past tenseBut it still has a lead-in and lists the names of the people in the picture

Identification Caption (ident)

• An ident is mostly only used in the clubs section.

• It’s used to identify everyone in the picture, not to tell a story about it

HOMEWORK

For each picture, write a caption. Make sure to include a (witty!) lead-in, a (present tense) first sentence, and a (past tense) second sentence.

If (and ONLY if) there is a good quote, include it.