Aiden Hill and McKayla Inghram-Mustangs Ahead
(LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL) - A behind the scenes look at the writing process for Mustangs Ahead.
“Mustangs Ahead,” one of the official news sources of Lakewood Ranch High School (LRHS), produces a variety of stories every week about a wide variety of topics including campus events, sports achievements, clubs, and Ranch Reflections.
To join LRHS Journalism, it is required to take Journalism one, where you learn the fundamentals of journalism. Journalism Two and beyond involves writing stories for Mustangs Ahead.
For every story that's published, there is a process that writers follow to bring their story ideas to completion.
Since we have connections to choir, we write choir stories whenever an important event occurs. After we find a story, we prepare a list of questions to ask the interviewee before we meet with them.
While conducting an interview, we take clear notes of what they say to capture accurate details, either writing it down or recording audio. We had previously interviewed LRHS Choir Director Rebekah Lester.
On Tuesday, Dec. 17, the LRHS Choir performed their annual Winter Concert. Lester informed us about the upcoming concert along with other information for several choir stories we were writing concurrently.
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While we both were at the show, we took pictures to accompany the story. These photos have to be horizontal to properly be displayed on the website.
The next day, when we were back in journalism class, we began writing the story by first consolidating details we remembered from the event. We had made sure to photograph the event program so we could consult it on the details of the concert.
When writing stories for “Mustangs Ahead,” there is a specific format utilized which manifests itself in the “inverted pyramid” template. The “who, what, when, where, and why” are central parts of our writing format.
The LRHS format also includes a bold byline, for example, “Aiden Hill and McKayla Inghram-Mustangs Ahead” and beneath that is the dateline, which includes the title and location of Mustangs Ahead. After this, we write the lede, which is the crucial first sentence or paragraph of the story, written in bold.
When we finished writing the story, we first have it looked over by LRHS Mustangs Ahead Junior Associate Editor Olivia Holden. After this, we share it in Microsoft Word to the LRHS Mustangs Ahead adviser Thomas Honsa as well as Senior Mustangs Ahead Editor Clio Drapak.
After it’s been edited the story must be electronically formatted for the school website. Honsa and editors sit down every day to determine which stories will run that day and which qualify for the website’s front page and which go “inside.”
“Mustangs Ahead” articles generate around 3000 visits every week.