CSUN hosts annual write-offs

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Franklin Franco in News

Franklin Franco
Chronicle Reporter

The Los Angeles Journalism Teachers Association sponsored a High School Journalism Write-Off competition at California State University Northridge in Manzanita Hall on Sat. March 7. There were student journalists from 11 different schools and of those schools, Chronicle reporters placed in 10th and seventh place in News, seventh place in Sports, and seventh and third place in Opinion, allowing them to advance to a state write-off competition.

The write-offs are a competition where student journalists are given a topic to write about, depending on the category they choose, and have to come up with a well written article in an hour. Students were able to pick between the categories: news, features, opinion, sports, and photography. Each one had their own assignments for the students and all awards would be given out an hour after all the articles were submitted. Out of those who competed, only the first 10 winners from each category were allowed to advance to compete in the statewide write-off competition.

Those who signed up for news sat and listened to a guest speaker talk about a recent issue. In this case, Ron Rubine, Field Deputy of the 12th District Councilman Mitchell Englander spoke to students about certain laws that are meant to put an end to street racing and hit and run accidents. A well written news article had to be written using all the information given to the students.

Students writing opinion pieces had to base their opinion on the same information given to the news students. The articles put students to choose a side of the argument and share their take on the entire issue.

Articles written for the features competition were about a teenager and all the facts given to the students about this teen. Some of the students could have found it as a challenge to try and base an article on someone their own age who might just be like any one of them.

The topic for the sports articles was sports injuries that students have. These articles were flexible since students had more freedom on what way they wished to approach the topic. Fortunately for them, there were only eight students who competed for sports and so they all managed to earn a ticket to state.

Photographers had to submit a flash drive with a series of photos taken by them. The photos would be judged as the other students compete in their separate write-offs.

The entire event ended with an awards ceremony as students received recognition for their efforts and accomplishments. All qualifying students will go to Rancho Dominguez Preparatory School on March 21.