HiLite adviser Jim Streisel's Cliff Note's Definition:
Students discuss ideas for writing with others. They write coherent and focused stories that demonstrate well-researched information, appropriate journalistic structure and style, and a tightly reasoned flow of ideas. Students progress through stages of journalistic writing processes.
Type I: Narrative Writing
As a feature reporter, I mostly write in the style of a narrative. These types of stories are typically longer and meant to impact the audience. It's supposed make the readers think about certain things they may have never thought before. The narrative I am most proud of this year is my story for Social Workers' Awareness Month. I came up with the idea a couple of days before the maestro, our version of a staff meeting. My section editors really liked this idea because not many previous reporters had touched on this topic before. After that, I went through the process of journalism writing. I contacted my sources, recorded interviews with them, and wrote my story before First Page. My piece got edited numerous times by the Feature copy editor, adviser, and other staff members during proofreading. The end product was one that I am very proud of.
Type II: Inverted Pyramid Writing
I actually had learned this type of writing in middle school; we would only write inverted pyramid stories. The key to this style of writing is that the reporter puts the most important information first and then gradually writes about the "less important" parts, just like the inverted pyramid. I write these stories every three weeks for Beat Reports, which are articles published online to keep students and teachers updated on current events at school. The beat below was one that I was particularly proud of. Not only did I write the beat 100 percent stylistically correct, but also I chose wisely with the information I was given. I had the power to decide what is more important. For me, I chose the "new information" to put first because that's something that readers may not have known about since they could have read my previous beat reports.