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STUDENT NOTES:
gen zED!
COMPETITION 2015
Terms 2-3, 2015
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CONTENTS
Tips for writing for ED! columns ....................................................................................................................................... 5
Keep Watch – an interview with a rising star ............................................................................................................... 6
Spot On – five different answers to the same question ............................................................................................... 7
The Buzz – a news story about or of interest to children .............................................................................................. 8
Make It – a crafty procedure for others to follow ........................................................................................................... 9
The Word – a book review to interest others .............................................................................................................. 10
Who? Where? What? – a research article on a person, place or thing ..................................................................... 11
Mind Games – a selection of puzzles to challenge the brain ...................................................................................... 12
Sample articles from ED! Magazine ............................................................................................................................... 13
Keep Watch – an interview with a rising star ............................................................................................................. 14
Keep Watch – an interview with a rising star ............................................................................................................. 15
Spot on – five different answers to the same question ............................................................................................... 16
The Buzz – a news story about or of interest to children ........................................................................................... 17
The Buzz – a news story about or of interest to children ........................................................................................... 18
The Buzz – a news story about or of interest to children ........................................................................................... 19
Make It – a crafty procedure for others to follow ......................................................................................................... 20
Make It – a crafty procedure for others to follow ......................................................................................................... 21
Make It – a crafty procedure for others to follow ......................................................................................................... 22
The Word – a book review to interest others ............................................................................................................. 23
What? – a research article on a thing ........................................................................................................................ 24
What? – a research article on a thing ........................................................................................................................ 25
Who? – a research article on a person ...................................................................................................................... 26
Who? – a research article on a person ...................................................................................................................... 27
Where? – a research article on a place ..................................................................................................................... 28
Where? – a research article on a place ..................................................................................................................... 29
Mind Games – a selection of puzzles to challenge the brain ...................................................................................... 30
Mind Games – a selection of puzzles to challenge the brain ...................................................................................... 31
Mind Games – a selection of puzzles to challenge the brain ...................................................................................... 32
© Media Education / The West Australian 2015
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Tips for writing for
ED! columns
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Keep Watch –
an interview with a rising star
Thousands of kids take part in activities
outside school and many are achieving
great things in state, national and even
international events.
How do they cope with the demands of
such high level performance? What
motivates them? Who inspires them?
What are their dreams for the future?
Here’s your chance to find out what it
feels like to be a reporter interviewing a
celebrity! Find a local hero and spend a
while finding out what makes him/her tick.
The word count for the interview is
between 250 and 350 words.
Finding a subject
You may already know of someone but if not, ask your
parents or teacher to suggest clubs where you may
find a willing candidate. Let him/her know that if you
win this competition, he/she will be featured in the
special gen zED! edition of ED! Magazine. Who could
refuse such great publicity?
Preparing interview questions
A great interviewer is one that asks great questions.
Readers will want to know how he/she arrived at their
current level, who helped him/her and what he/she
hopes to achieve in the future. They will also be
interested in the person behind the activity. Phrase
your questions so your subject gives you this
information.
You will also need some ‘basic information’ including
name, age and achievement to date.
Conducting the interview
It is best to conduct the interview where you can also
take photographs of the subject performing. Will you
record the interview manually or electronically? If
electronically, make sure that all your equipment works
and is fully charged. Bring all leads with you, just in
case!
Taking the photograph
You need permission for any photographs taken and, if
someone takes the photos for you, you must include
his/her name. All photographs submitted to the
competition must be in focus so make sure your
camera and photography skills are capable of taking
moving shots. If in doubt, take a still shot.
Reviewing the responses
Review the responses as soon as possible while the
interview is still fresh in your mind. Type all answers
just as they were given. Edit them for spelling and
grammar. Write any abbreviations in full.
Writing the article
Write the lead paragraph introducing the subject and
stating his/her current achievements. Order the
questions/answers from the most to least informative
and select which ones to keep or discard. Write a
catchy title to draw the reader’s eyes to the article.
Keep Watch checklist
Please make sure you include everything that
is required:
 Your name
 Your school year
 250 – 350 words
 Photograph of subject
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Spot On – five different
answers to the same question
Here’s an opportunity to give five of your
friends the chance to have their say and
either offer their opinion about a world
event or give a response to a specific
survey question. It’s up to you to choose
the question but each response must be
between 30 and 60 words.
Choosing the question
Think of a topic that your friends and fellow students
would be interested in. It could be a current ‘hot topic’
in the news, an exciting event occurring locally,
nationally or internationally or something related to the
entertainment industry. Ask a question that requires
thought and will give lots of different answers and
explanations for them.
Spot On checklist
Please make sure you include everything that
is required:
 Your name
 Your school year
 30 – 60 words each
 5 head and shoulders photographs
Asking the question
You can only include five people in your entry, but you
need to ask several people the question so you can
choose the five best responses. What would be the
best way to record their answers?
Reviewing the responses
Read through each response. Put aside any you are
sure you won’t use. Look at the rest carefully and
choose the best five.
Taking the photographs
When the five responses have been selected, take a
head and shoulders shot of each person.
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The Buzz – a news story
about or of interest to children
You’ll need to keep your eyes and ears
open to enter this competition. Like a
regular reporter, you’ll need to sniff out a
story that’s happening somewhere near
you and be an ‘at the scene’ reporter. The
story must be about or of interest to
readers of your age, and one that you
would enjoy reading. The word count is
between 300 and 400 words.
Reporting on the story
Reporting electronically allows you to talk as you go,
describing the scene. It also makes it easier to conduct
interviews. Remember to take the name of anyone you
interview and get his/her permission to quote him/her
in your article.
Find out the 5 Ws of the event; Who? What? Where?
When? Why? You may be able to answer some
questions yourself but for others you will need to
interview people. Try to interview people from as many
different groups as possible; e.g. performers,
audience, volunteers, security. You may receive
different answers to the same questions. That could
make a very interesting article!
Writing the report
Decide how you want to present the information and
which quotes to use. If you have used someone’s
quote, include his/her photograph.
Write the first draft. Edit for layout, spelling and
punctuation.
From all the information you have acquired about the
event, write a lead paragraph to introduce the story.
This is a general statement about the subject that
draws the reader in to read the whole article.
Finally, conjure up a creative title that will cry out to the
reader!
The Buzz checklist
Please make sure you include everything that
is required:
 Your name
 Your school year
 300 – 400 words
 Photograph of subject
 Additional photographs (max. of 2)
Taking photographs
Take photos of the scene and of all individuals
interviewed. Ask permission for photographs to be
taken and used.
Transcribing the report
Listen to your report a few times and then start to type
it. Listen. Pause. Write. Repeat this until the whole
report has been transcribed. Listen to the report again,
at the same time reading your transcript. The two
should be identical.
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Make It – a crafty procedure
for others to follow
Do you have any crafty ideas you would
like to share with other ED! readers? Well,
here’s your chance. The secret to writing a
good procedure is to actually do the task
as you write. The maximum word count is
300 words.
Materials
First of all, gather all the materials and tools you’ll
need. Arrange items in the order they are first used.
Record the materials in this order as dot points.
Make It checklist
Please make sure you include everything that
is required:
 Your name
 Your school year
 Maximum of 300 words
 Photograph of finished product
 Additional photographs (max. of 2)
Instructions
Starting with a command verb, record and number
each step as you complete it. You may wish to take
some photographs along the way that may help to
explain an instruction. Take a photograph of the
finished item.
Testing the procedure
Ask someone to follow your instructions to make the
item. Watch them carefully. You may realise that you
have missed some small steps. Edit your procedure to
include any missing steps.
Title
The title can be simply the name of the item being
made.
Introductory sentence
Explain how, when, why and by whom the item could
be used.
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The Word – a book review
to interest others
You must surely have read a really great
book that you’d like others to try; or
maybe, you’ve read a really terrible one
that you’d want them to avoid! You can
choose which type of book to review but
remember, you need to justify your
opinions.
A book review has three main parts: facts
about the books, an outline of the story,
taking care not to spoil any surprises, and
a personal recommendation.
In a non-fiction book review, the outline of
the story is replaced by an outline of the
book’s contents and layout.
The book review must be between 150 and
200 words and you must include an image
of the book’s cover.
Facts about the book
This is where you record the title, the author, and
illustrator if appropriate, and the publisher. Do you
know where to find details of the publisher? It’s
somewhere at the front of the book!
You may also wish to include the genre; e.g. fantasy,
science-fiction, historical and style; e.g. prose, poetry,
graphic novel.
Outline of the story
You want to give a suggestion of the plot without giving
away any secrets. Outline a little of the plot and name
the role of the main characters. Make it sound exciting
so the readers want to find out more. Use descriptive
phrases to whet their literary appetites! End this part of
the review with a question that can only be answered
by reading the book.
Outline of contents and layout
There are many genres of non-fiction book, organised
to suit the purpose, from dictionaries and telephone
directories to atlases and encyclopaedia. How the
information is organised affects how easily a person
can access the information – its ‘user-friendliness’.
Non-fiction books generally include a contents page
which can be used to suggest examples of subjects to
be included in the review.
Personal recommendation
Because we all love to read different genres, any book
review with justified opinions will help someone decide
whether or not to read a book, so take this part of the
review seriously. You may have given reasons against
a book, but for someone who enjoys that genre, those
reasons may be what makes it the perfect book for
him/her.
The Word checklist
Please make sure you include everything that
is required:
 Your name
 Your school year
 150 – 200 words
 The book’s cover image
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Who? Where? What? –
a research article on a person,
place or thing
John Logie Baird, Iguazu Falls, the Large
Hadron Collider – who, where, what are
these things? You may or may not know
the answers. You may not even be
interested to find out, but if someone
researched each one and wrote three
interesting articles, you may change your
mind!
Your challenge in Who is? / Where is? /
What is? is to research and write an article
of between 300 and 400 words on
something your friends and fellow
students would find interesting and enjoy
reading.
Choosing a topic
Choose a topic that you are interested in. Your
enthusiasm will shine through and help you write a
better article. Brainstorm to create a chart of headings
to give you a focus for your research.
Writing the article
 Read the notes under each heading and rewrite as
a number of cohesive sentences to form one or
two paragraphs. Decide which sub-headings are
the most important and re-order as necessary.
 Write a lead paragraph that draws the reader into
the article, encouraging him/her to find out more.
 Use interesting language to create a short and
snappy title.
Who? Where? What? checklist
Please make sure you include everything that
is required:
 Your name
 Your school year
 300 – 400 words
 Photographs (max. 3)
Researching
Make notes under each heading which can be the subheadings of the final article. Choose photographs and
images to include in the article.
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Mind Games – a selection of
puzzles to challenge the brain
Everyone enjoys spending a little time
testing their powers of logic and lateral
thinking to solve a few puzzles. Your
challenge is to write three of them! One
must be a crossword but the other two
can be of your choice. Remember to
include the puzzle solutions with your
entry.
Crossword puzzle
 The crossword can have a maximum of eight
clues. Make sure your answers are spelt correctly.
 Aim to create a compact puzzle in which many
letters of each word are shared. Start with the
longest words and work through to the shortest
ones.
 Examine puzzles in ED! Magazine to discover how
the Across and Down clues are determined and
the answer squares numbered.
 Ask someone to test your puzzle and edit it if
necessary.
Mind games
Please make sure that your students
include everything that is required:
 Your name
 Your school year
 1 crossword
 2 other puzzles
 Solutions to all puzzles
Other puzzles
 The other two puzzles must fit within a maximum
area of 10 x 12 cm.
 Look at past copies of ED! Magazine for puzzle
ideas or find puzzles of your own to include. All
questions and examples used must be your own
suggestions and not copied from anywhere else.
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Sample articles from
ED! Magazine
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Keep Watch –
an interview with a rising star
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Keep Watch –
an interview with a rising star
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Spot on – five different
answers to the same question
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The Buzz – a news story
about or of interest to children
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The Buzz – a news story
about or of interest to children
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The Buzz – a news story
about or of interest to children
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Make It – a crafty procedure
for others to follow
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Make It – a crafty procedure
for others to follow
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Make It – a crafty procedure
for others to follow
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The Word – a book review
to interest others
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What? –
a research article on a thing
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What? –
a research article on a thing
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Who? –
a research article on a person
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Who? –
a research article on a person
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Where? –
a research article on a place
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Where? –
a research article on a place
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Mind Games – a selection of
puzzles to challenge the brain
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Mind Games – a selection of
puzzles to challenge the brain
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Mind Games – a selection of
puzzles to challenge the brain
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