WRITING CAPTIONS

0601.6.9 Use text features to locate information and make meaning from text (e.g., headings, key words, captions, tables of contents,

footnotes, illustrations).  0601.3.10 Use accurate and precise language to convey meaning.

SPI 0601.7.3 Identify the purpose of a medium (i.e., to inform, to persuade, to entertain, to describe). 

SPI 0601.7.4 Draw an inference from a non-print medium.   

A caption is a short explanation or description of a picture located near the picture.

It can be on either side of the picture, above the picture, or below the picture.

The information included in a caption is very detailed and specific, but short and to the point. A caption doesn’t always tell the whole story. A caption often accompanies a story.

EXAMPLE OF A CAPTION

Cast members Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart attend the premiere of the movie "Twilight" at the Mann Village and Bruin theatres in Westwood, California November 17, 2008. The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer and opens in the U.S. on November 21.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

• Newspapers• Magazines

• Internet• Books

• TV• most print material

that has pictures

• Captions describe what the reader sees in front of him/her.

• People look at headlines and pictures to decide what they want to read in the newspaper. If a picture grasps their attention, they will read the caption. If the caption is interesting to them, they will read the article.

• Captions are another way to tell the news.• Captions add color and make the newspaper

more interesting.• Captions can also show emotion.

• Who is in the picture? (if 1-5 people, list names from left to right)

• Where was the picture taken?• What is happening in the picture? What happened

before or after the picture was taken?• When did this happen? • Why did this happen? Why is this picture

important?• How did this happen?

TIPS FOR WRITING CAPTIONS

• Don’t state the obvious. Give some information that the reader may not know.

• If a caption is included with a full story or article, keep it short, only 1-2 sentences.

• If a caption stands alone, without a story or article, 3-5 sentences would be appropriate.

• Don’t assume anything, especially if a picture includes animals. You don’t know what someone else or something is thinking!

The following 5 slides are examples of

captions. Check to see if each caption answers the five W’s and H and if

it is detailed but short.

ANALYZE

Kyle Busch waves the

checkered flag to the crowd after winning the NASCAR Nextel Cup

Food City 500 race in Bristol, Tenn. in 2009.

A South Korean conservative activist holds pictures of US

journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee during a

rally denouncing the North's

detention of the journalists in

Seoul on June 4, 2009.

Tiger Woods celebrates after chipping in for eagle on the

11th hole during the final round of the Memorial golf tournament

on Sunday in Dublin, Ohio.

Woods won the event.

In Mexico City in May, a student wore a mask to protect himself against swine flu.

Onlookers and would-be rescuers survey 65 long-finned pilot whales lying dead on Monday on Rheban Beach, east of Hobart, Australia, after a mass stranding on Sunday. Normally at home in deep oceanic waters, the thin, black-skinned four-metre whales were out of their usual habitat when 150 became stranded on two beaches on the southern island state of Tasmania. Rescuers saved 40.

ASSIGNMENT

You will now use the worksheet (don’t forget to write your name on your paper!) to write your own captions for the rest of the pictures in this PowerPoint. Remember to use everything you have learned!