Grade 9 English Summative Project 2014

Magazine /newspaper cover/front page

Learning Goal:

Creating an original magazine or newspaper that fulfils a specific purpose.

Your task:

You will create an 8.5” x 11” magazine or newspaper cover which is attractive to your target audience and gets across the purpose/theme, through the masthead, images and lead stories

Option A: Magazine

1) Include the following Features:

  • A solid background
  • A cover image
  • An original magazine masthead
  • Approximately 5-8 cover lines (text on the cover which nicely summarizes magazine contents)
  • An issue number and date
  • A barcode and cost

2) Go with a Grid: Utilize the 3 x 1 grid (see below) to arrange the above features. The masthead spans the top 20-25% of all three columns; cover image is centred, taking up most of the middle column, and may “bleed” into the left and right columns; cover lines should appear balanced in left and right columns; barcode should be positioned in the bottom portion of either the left or right column; and issue date should appear in the right column, just below or above the portion of the title situated in that column:

(3 x 1 Grid)

3) Look Professional: Keep it clean and simple (are you avoiding clutter?); make it readable (is the size and font appropriate? can readers read it?); reveal contents (can the reader, in a split second, tell what is inside?); maintain unity (are all fonts the same, or at least similar? do all of the parts work together?); be aware of space and organization (use the “bleeding though” technique appropriately; avoid “chunking”)

Option B: Newspaper

Include the following features:

  • Set up the page into three columns
  • On the front page, include across the top the original masthead with date (textboxes)
  • On the front page, insert several stories into the columns with their headlines (textboxes) across the top of one or two column stories.
  • On the front page, cut the stories apart, with the remainder appearing on subsequent pages. Include in italics a sentence at the end, where the rest of the story is located (Example: Continued on page 3)
  • Include bar code and cost at the bottom of a corner
  • Insert any images into separate text boxes with the text tightly wrapped around it