Students will be introduced to different style guides, their functions, and create a presentation that applies it to a particular topic.
LEARNING GOALS
Students will understand why journalism makes use of style guides and how to sort through various online style guides for different topics.
MATERIALS
- Access to the internet,
- AP Stylebook
TIME
30–60 mins
Process
Mindwarmer
Step 1:
Project an unedited paragraph on a screen, pulling from a published blog that shows inconsistencies in style, grammar, etc. Then show images of captionless photos and videos.
Step 2:
Ask for volunteers to quickly identify a handful of issues with the text and images. (Spelling errors, issues with punctuation, abbreviations, etc.) In addition to grammatical errors, look for usage that might express the values of the writer or publication.
Step 3:
Have students pair up.
Step 4:
Give students 90 seconds to discuss their reactions to seeing these examples. What does it make them think about the author, the nature and trustworthiness of the content?
Step 5:
Have each pair share reactions. Capture the big ideas in a word cloud on the board or an online whiteboard. Cluster some common reactions.
Step 6:
Discussion: What might a style guide solve for some of the problems that arose with these examples? What is the purpose of a style guide?
Exercise
Step 7:
Challenge overview: Teams of three will prepare a four-minute presentation about style guides with respect to a particular topic. It should cover the following:
- How does the AP Stylebook cover this topic?
- What about this topic does AP Stylebook not cover?
- How does one other relevant style guide handle this subject? Options include the BuzzFeed Style Guide, Guardian Style Guide, Conscious Style Guide, or consult the Wikipedia List of Style Guides
- Bonus: Propose a style rule on this topic.
Here are some ideas for topics. You can use one of the following, a subset of one of the following (e.g. Buddhism instead of all religion), or choose any topic that interests you.
- Abbreviations
- Brand names and trademarks
- Business
- Capitalization
- Commas
- Ethnicity
- Fashion
- Food
- Gender
- Medicine
- Polls
- Quotation marks
- Race
- Religion
- Science
- Technology
- Transportation
- Violence
Have questions? Feedback?
We’d love to hear about your experience using these activities in your classroom, get your thoughts on what we could improve. Email us at resources@journalismdesign.com or fill out this form.