Frontline Journal Tips

Hi Everyone!

From the calls last week, here are some important things to consider when working on your Frontline Journal assignments:

General
The goal of the Frontline journal is to bear witness to an issue, give your viewpoint and offer some constructive solutions.

In all, we are looking for your unique perspective on something going on in your community or country. Tell us how you are been affected, or how you are feeling about a current event.

It is 100% fine to tell your own story. Again, the goal of a Frontline Journal is to bear witness to an issue/problem/population/yourself! The more narrow your angle, the better, so yes, it is fine to just focus on one particular issue. In fact, those are usually the best ones!

Choosing a topic
Coming up with the topic is always the hardest part! We encourage you to complete the optional exercise from the Module 2 curriculum, but here are three questions that might help you decide on a topic:

1. What is one issue in your community that no one likes to talk about?


2. What is one issue in your community that you think people around the world don't know about?


3. If you knew you could only write one article for the rest of your life to help give voice to women or another silent population in your community, what is the first topic that pops into your mind?

Interviews and background research
Interviews are not required for this assignment, but they are highly recommended and can be a primary source of information. Understanding other points of view is a key to good journalism and you will need to do interviews for the future assignments. So, this could be a great opportunity to practice now. Generally, the more interviews you can do, the better. They help round out your story and give you more details to include.

The people you are interviewing do not have to all share your point of view. Including alternative points of view can be a brave exercise in journalism, and really help to showcase your own point of view.

Well targeted internet searches can be a good source of background information too. Just remember that the key point is to help your audience understand the context of the issue you're discussing-- help the reader see what is happening!

Structure
It will be important for you to utilize the narrative lead to tell the story of one person, one family or one organization's experience so that your reader has the face a specific person in mind as they read the rest of your article. This one person can serve as an example for the larger issue you are discussing. Feel free to write about your own story in the narrative lead!

Then, in the nut-graph, give us a bit of background information and context to tell your reader about the general situation. Remember that you are writing for a global audience who may not know much at all about the issue.

As you continue the article, show more details, and more background information.

Finally, wrap up with a conclusion in your own voice that talks about some potential solutions -- if you were in charge, what would you do? Is there a better way? The conclusion is an appropriate place to put in your personal opinions or ideas for solutions.

Cristi, Rachael and myself are here to help you with any other questions you have! Just send a message and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. We are all eagerly anticipating the arrival of these first drafts, so keep up the great work!

Kind regards,
Scott