MAGAZINES (1)

The Egyptian Language School
English Language Department

School
Magazine

Objectives: Students will be able to

- Function their choices & voices in a reflective way

- Enhance their writing skills

- Express their opinions

- Reflect on their learning outcomes

- Use proper structure in context

- Use strong vocabulary

- Empower themselves with tools of reflection

- Select their own desirable areas

English Language Department School Magazine pg. 1

- Communicate with others
Steps

1- Identify the magazine sections [ mentioned at the bottom OR others ]
2- Work will be distributed equally among sections
3- Presentation will be the main core
4- It’s a MUST to use your own words [ No copying from internet resources is

allowed ]

School Magazine

Step by Step Guide

Magazine layout is one of the things that sets a magazine apart from other publications.
Magazines are meant to be read, but they’re also a visual experience.

You might not notice all of the work that goes into creating a magazine layout that looks
fantastic, but you definitely notice if it’s been done poorly. The last thing you want is to
lose readers because your design isn’t up to their expectations.

So how do you create magazine layouts that are functional, visually interesting, and easy
to make? Read on for your step-by-step guide to creating a magazine layout.

English Language Department School Magazine pg. 2

1. Plan Your Content

You should plan out the content of your magazine before you even touch a computer.
You can’t properly plan your layout if you don’t know what you’re going to be
publishing.

What stories are you going to include in the issue? Will you have a photography spread?
Will it be text-heavy or a balanced mix of media and text?

You should have answers to all of these questions already before you begin designing
your magazine. If you have an editorial staff, work with them to decide on the final
content that will make it into the magazine.

Once you know what your magazine will include, then you can get started on building
your layout.

2. Create Master Pages

There are a lot of pages that go into a magazine, and designing each of them one by one
would be a drain on your time. Instead, create master pages that will help to determine
your overall layout and feel of the magazine.

You don’t want to create just one master page because then your magazine will look the
same on every page. You want unity and cohesiveness, but it shouldn’t be too uniform or
it will be boring to look at.

Instead, you can create multiple master pages. For example, create a master page for the
first page of a feature, and a master page for the text-pages in between.

Your master pages should include things like your page numbers, the background you
want to use, and any borders or designs on the edges of your pages. This also helps to
make sure that there aren’t any inconsistencies in your magazine — you don’t want the
page numbers at the beginning to be in a different spot on the page than the page numbers
toward the end.

3. Play With Color

Once you have your master pages set, you can start to make them more engaging.

Think of any magazine on the shelf of a convenience store. If you pick one up at random
and flip through it, will you see mostly white or will you be greeted with bursts of color?

Color has a big influence on the look and feel of your magazine. It can even help to set
the tone of specific articles you include within each issue. As you design your magazine
layout, make sure that you’re thinking about the different ways that you can use color.

English Language Department School Magazine pg. 3

Not all of your page backgrounds, for example, should be white. Maybe the feature page
has a patterned background or a photograph behind it to add some visual interest.

You can also add color in different ways. Consider making the headline text a different
color than the body, or changing the border colors of photographs to fit an overarching
theme.

4. Add Contrast

Adding contrast into magazine layouts helps to make them visually interesting instead of
too boring or jarring.

Contrast can come in a lot of different forms. You might know that you want to use the
same font throughout your magazine for the body of the articles, but how do you choose a
headline font?

You don’t want to use the same one — the key is finding fonts that set each other off
nicely but don’t look like they’re fighting for space on the page. The contrast is
important.

You can also add contrast with color. Selecting a background color for a feature page that
stands out from an article page signals to the reader that the feature page is important.
Adding a sidebar in a different color draws the eye to the information that you want to
share.

There are lots of ways that you can play with this.

5. Include Multimedia

Whether your magazine is print, digital, or both, you should always include multimedia in
your magazine.

For a magazine that’s strictly print, this can look like photography, info graphics,
illustrations, or graphs that help to build on the stories that you’re telling. The saying “A
picture is worth a thousand words” might be cliché , but it’s also correct. Your magazine
isn’t finished without adding media.

You can include the media mentioned above in digital editions, too, but you should feel
free to do more with a digital issue. Digital magazines allow you to include things like
video, interactive quizzes, audio, and GIFs. If you’re only including media that shows up
traditionally in print, you’re not using the full potential of digital publishing.

6. Check Your Work

Finally, before your magazine layout can be called finished, you should make sure you
read over everything and check your work. It might help you to print all of the pages off
and lay them out in front of you so that you can see how the designs of each page work
together — or don’t.

English Language Department School Magazine pg. 4

This is an opportunity to see if your magazine article layout is harmonious, or if it still
needs work before sending it out to readers.
If everything looks good, congratulations. You’ve successfully created a magazine
layout!

Ideas and topics for a school magazine

Are you thinking of making a school magazine and looking for ideas and inspiration for the
contents?

Spotlight interview

• Interview a student or a group and write an article about them.

Student life

• Sports teams
• School clubs
• Field trips/ Events / Activities
• Schooling

English Language Department School Magazine pg. 5

Extra-curricular activities

Option 1:
Students can imagine an interview with a successful character providing an album of
pictures or achievements of this person. Vocabulary words should be included in the script

Option 2:
Students can imagine a different ending other than the ending that they know of a book or
a movie ; placing tips for certain characters to change their personality to a better person .

Popular culture

• Latest music
• Popular movies
• Good books
• Interesting art
• Reviews
• Recommendations

History

• The history of Egypt or any other country out of your choice

Local news

• Interesting news
• Trending topics

Articles by students

Ask students to write opinion articles, letters to the editor, and editorials. Some examples:

• Opinions on different issues
• Stories that are trending
• School policy and rules
• School classes and subjects
• What makes a good teacher/principal?
• What makes a good student?

English Language Department School Magazine pg. 6

Self help

• How to make friends
• How to work together
• How to overcome your biggest fear
• How to kick bad habits
• How to deal with peer pressure
• How to get better grades

Other ideas

• Comics (Student drawn ones)
• Guest articles (from friends or relatives )

Remember :

- Must be individual work
- Clarify your name & class
- Each magazine MUST HAVE a Flashy TITLE
- Content page MUST be at the first page
- Each magazine MUST have FIVE DIFFERENT SECTIONS
- Sections are out of your own choice [ Not less than 5 different sections]
- Choice could be out of the above given lists or any others
- Each section must be two opposite pages ; including pictures & captions

Best of Luck

English Language Department School Magazine pg. 7