1. When working with story ideas, ask the students to think about how they are going to help readers understand the event. Will a diagram help explain what happened step by step? If so, ask them to submit along with the story a rough diagram with the numbers 1, 2, 3, and small copy blocks next to each item.
2. Start small. If the story is about an event in town, ask the students to get a local map. Have them enlarge the area of the map where the event is taking place. Have them put a dot on the map showing where the event is happening. Have them write a small pointer box for the map, such as “Location of gay rights march.”
3. Select a current news story such as the Koresh tragedy in Waco, Texas. Have the students break into teams of four. Give them five minutes to discuss how they would cover the story of the end. What visuals will help explain the following:
- The strategy of the FBI in the final conflict.
- The impact of the fire on the compound.
- The anatomy of the compound
4. Emphasize that the writers do not have to be artists. A sketch will do. But it’s more important that they know exactly where to go to get visual reference and to get written explanations of how things happen.
5. Include in a writing assignment a graphics research component. For example, have the students write a story on unemployment in your town. Along with the story, have them submit the unemployment figures from the last 10 years. Once they submit the numbers, demonstrate how the numbers form a trend of increase or decrease by plotting the numbers on the board.
6. Have critique sessions with examples from local and national media. Ask the question, “How did the newspaper do in explaining this event to the reader?” Read the story and look at the visuals. Have the students determine if the visual helped or hurt the understanding of the event.
7. Show lots of bad examples of visuals. Have the students redo the examples so they can see what is wrong and how to fix it.
8. Have the students read stories and discuss when a visual is needed and when a visual is NOT needed. Too often we rush to add a graphic just to fill a space when the story explains the even just fine without a visual.
9. Have the students team up with the photo class in your department or in the art department. At the end of the semester have them do a final project in which words and photos work together. Perhaps it’s a story on the homeless in your country, or a profile of a person running a child care center. Have them work in a team, to appreciate the creative process of a visual person. Help them see how writers, photographers, and designers think a like — their ideas just come out in different forms.
10. Emphasize that what we are trying to do is help the reader. When a writer says a graphic will only take away from their writing, ask them if the graphic will help expand on their words. If it helps the readers understand something more clearly, the graphic is as important as the words.
