Basic Caption Writing
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Robert Mercer taught journalism this fall at Lutsk Liberal Arts University as a Fulbright Scholar. He lectured in English using PowerPoint slides, video camcorders and Adobe software. He is the fourth Fulbright Scholar to teach at Lutsk Liberal Arts University. Photo by Шевчук Мар'яна

How to write a Caption Correctly the First Time

The above caption was written using a basic format of questions to which the student gives an answer to each. I find this exercise necessary as basic caption writing for photographs and video introductions and multi-media presentation introductions on the web seem to appear as a mystery to most students, no matter in which nation they are studying.

As a visiting professor in Ukraine, I lecture in English. I cannot teach news writing including Associated Press Stylebook. However, I can teach the shape of the written presentation—writing templates. This is how I teach any student who writes in any language to make sure they have all their facts in a caption or introduction. The questions should be written in the student’s normal language. By the way, this worked yesterday quite easily in a class of mixed English, Ukrainian, German, Polish & Russian speakers.

I. Write out the questions every reader/viewer normally asks:

  1. Who (Who did it?)
  2. What (What did they do?)
  3. When (when did they do it?)
  4. Where (Where did they do it?)
  5. Why (Why did they do it?)
  6. How (How did they do it?)
  7. So What (Why should this be considered news? The six classic news values taught in an American university can be considered here. Proximity, Prominence, Timeliness, Conflict, Impact, Novelty. See Appendix below.)

II. Write the answers to the questions next to the questions as follows:

  1. Who—Robert Mercer
  2. What—taught journalism
  3. When—this fall
  4. Where—at Lutsk Liberal Arts University
  5. Why—as a Fulbright Scholar
  6. How—He lectured in English using PowerPoint slides, video camcorders and Adobe software
  7. So What—He is the fourth Fulbright Scholar to teach at Lutsk Liberal Arts University.

III. Unite the questions and answers into a single paragraph-like form.

Who—Robert Mercer What—taught journalism When—this fall Where—at Lutsk Liberal Arts University Why—as a Fulbright Scholar How—He lectured in English using PowerPoint slides, video camcorders and Adobe software So What—He is the fourth Fulbright Scholar to teach at Lutsk Liberal Arts University.

IV. Clean up the paragraph making coherent sentences.

Robert Mercer taught journalism this fall at Lutsk Liberal Arts University as a Fulbright Scholar. He lectured in English using PowerPoint slides, video camcorders and Adobe software. He is the fourth Fulbright Scholar to teach at Lutsk Liberal Arts University.

Appendix:

The six classic news values taught in an American university

  1. Proximity: Is it near the reader?
  2. Prominence: Is the person famous?
  3. Timeliness: Did it just happen?
  4. Conflict: Is there a fight, physically, politically, culturally?
  5. Impact: Have a lot of people been killed or a lot of money lost?
  6. Novelty: Is it just too strange not to talk about?
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