This week, we will move from photography to look at yearbook structure. We will focus on the ladder, which is the choice of subjects in the yearbook and the order in which they are published.
The ladder is a form of outline for the book.
Your first assignment today is to take a copy of last year's yearbook and prepare a ladder outline.
1. Open a Word document. Put your name and the date in the header and title the assignment -- Ladder exercise
2. Take a 2013 or a 2012 yearbook
3. Look at the layout of the book
4. In your word file, list the segments (events, classes, groups) and then list the sub-segments. For instance, your book might have a segment titled Athletics, and then have pages for football, volleyball, cross country, and so on.
When you are finished, you should have the layout of the book. Note how many pages each group gets. Some groups get one page. Some groups get two. Put the number of pages each group, team or event gets in parenthesis next to that group.
Here is how a mini-ladder might look:
Classes
Seniors (8 pages)
Juniors (4)
Sophomores (4)
Freshmen (4)
Athletics
Football (2)
Volleyball (2)
Groups
Band (2)
Cheerleaders (2)
Pantherettes (1)
Robotics (1)
Our yearbook is 96 pages long. Part of the ladder exercise i
When you are done with your ladder, look it over and answer these questions:
1. Which groups were left out of the book which you felt should go in?
2. Are there any groups which you felt got too much or too little space?
3. Is the order right, in your opinion? Would you move some things forward or back in the book?
When you are done, save your file and print it out.