Scientific Tar Heel
Example of student work from UNC-CH First-Year Writing course
This assignment asks students to write an article from a magazine or journal (in this case, they used the model of Scientific American). They then use an InDesign template to lay out the article to look like a real magazine article.
The articles are compiled (either by the instructor or collaboratively by the students) into an issue of the magazine/journal.
Defining the assignment
The assignment is authentic
Students can look at real-world examples to understand the rhetorical situation and closely examine both the writing and design.
Students learn about the information lifecycle and scholarly communications.
Your students have the added incentive of writing for a real audience.
Assignment prompt
A sample assignment and rubric is available in the project files.
For this first-year writing class, the assignment asked students to choose a science topic, research the most recent findings, and communicate those findings to the lay audience of a magazine (modeled on Scientific American).
- Feeder 1: Annotated bibliography of 3 sources
- Feeder 2: Topic proposal letter (using Scientific American's real submission guidelines)
- Unit project: Popular science article (1,500 words)
Three templates
You are welcome to use any of these three templates with your class (or adapt them as you like). They are intended for instructional use only.
Or, find a template in Adobe Stock
If your institution's CC license includes access to Adobe Stock, there are free and paid templates that you can download and use. When you search, make sure the dropdown in the search box is set to "templates".
Build your own template
Get a copy of the publication and a ruler.
I created a form for you to record measurements and styles (the PDF is available in the project files).
Overview of the 10 steps
These ten steps walk you through using the template to create a magazine article.
- File management
- Document set-up and interface tour
- Template tour
- Place text
- Apply text styles
- Update master pages
- Place images
- Design the title spread
- Tweak the layout to fit
- Export to PDF and publish
Download the files needed to complete the project (.indt, Word doc, and image files):
Screencast videos below demonstrate each step.
Step 7: Place images
Have your students look at real-world models. What types of images are used? Photos, illustrations, data visualizations?
How do you choose images? What value will it add to your article? For what purpose: to explain, give context, establish mood?
How do you ethically reuse imagery?
- Video tutorials on creative commons:
- What Is Creative Commons?
- Using Creative Commons Licenses
Geeky Pedagogy (Jennifer Gonzalez) has a great blog post about teaching students to use images ethically.
Sources for free images you can reuse (check license to determine whether attribution is needed):
Step 8: Design title page spread
This is where your students really get to show their creativity. They will create a 2-page spread for the title of their article. Have students look at models to get inspiration. You can ask questions like "Why do you think this design is effective?" to get the conversation started.
Step 9: Tweak the layout to fit
What to do if your text doesn't fit quite right.
Step 10: Export to PDF and publish
Compile the articles into an issue
Who should do this work? The instructor could do it, but if there's time it's great to get the students involved. You could assign roles (an art team designs a cover, an editorial team decides on the order for the articles, a production team puts it all together). Or you could have each student create their own issue -- reading each article, organizing them into themes, and creating a table of contents for the issue.
Create a cover
You or your students will create a journal/magazine cover for your class issue. I've created a template you can use.
Compile all the PDFs
Have each student export their article to PDF. Compile the PDFs using Adobe Acrobat. If you want to publish the issue, you can upload it to the free document hosting site issuu.com. *Note that the page numbers will not be consecutive throughout the issue. You could ignore it, or an especially industrious student can use Adobe Acrobat's "edit text" feature to renumber the pages.
If that's too much work, you could also create a Spark Page that is a table of contents for the issue, which links to the "publish online" version of each student's article.
Assessment
- Incorporate early feedback and peer review. Students can share PDFs or their "publish online" link for feedback.
- Share a rubric (or create one together with your students) so students know what you're expecting. Example rubric based on a first-year writing assignment.
- Have students write a short reflection on their design choices. Design is hard for some people (and it can be quite subjective). If students have a chance to explain their design choices, you can understand their thought process.
Resources
- Tutorials to learn more InDesign: Get Started with InDesign | InDesign 2021 Essential Training (LinkedIn Learning)
- Download all the files (project files, step-by-step PDF, rubric, templates)
- See this project on Adobe Education Exchange
Contact me!
If you have questions, email me at jgoforth@elon.edu or tweet me at @jsgoforth. Thanks, everyone!