Blog #8: What I've Learned So Far

1) What have you learned how to do since you started working on your senior project?

Something that I've really tried to focus on while working on my senior topic is how to strengthen theme throughout the book. This is something we have gotten better at over the years, but still needs to be worked on. Something that schools often have to help strengthen their theme are theme pages. For this reason, I have been trying to figure out ways to make the theme more clear not only by putting in more theme pages, but by incorporating little things in the content spreads.

2) Post evidence of this accomplishment. It can be in the form of a picture, video, document, etc.

I just completed the ladder this past week, which is basically the list of all 128 pages that are going to make up the book (I would post in on here, but that gives away absolutely everything that is going in the book, and I feel that might be a bit too public.) If you look at this year's ladder in comparison to past years, you will notice the new theme pages and spreads that are going to be put into the book. There are five theme pages and an three spreads of opening. This may mean nothing to you, but considering that last year we only had one theme page, and the year before that zero, this is quite an improvement. We are adding in theme the way that Casa Roble and Brentwood do, which is something we have always strived to do. Also, the extra two spreads of opening is something that we rarely do. Normally, books have only one opening spread. Depending on how you do it, the extended opening can add to or take away from your book. This year, though, we have a solid theme, solid photography, and solid copy to go with it.

In any case, here is something that appears throughout the book and strengthens this years' theme of "Here." I wish I could reveal more, but a lot of our current stuff is being used for promotional purposes, so we'll have to make do.

3) What research helped you to do this and how?

One article that really helped me is "Why Theme Copy Works," by Crystal Kazmierski. In this article, Kazmierski talks about how students will often be overdramatic in their theme copy, trying to stuff it with clichés and SAT words. Yet, according to Kazmierski, theme copy should be just the opposite. Theme copy works because you are trying to reel the student in, trying to make them understand the theme in the clearest way: by talking to them in a way they would normally be talked to. Theme copy is informal, but with a strong voice, as though the book itself is talking to you. That is something that we have definitely incorporated into our current theme copy. The book sounds like a snappy and sarcastic, but in such a way that it seems to be trying to cover up its secretly sentimental side. It's the perfect voice for the year, and we are making sure that the entire book screams it.