Setting the tone before you draw a single border
Many students finish the decorations first and only then notice that the main title is three words long and repeats the body text. On a drug prevention and anti-bullying handwritten newspaper, the point is to make one line stick in a reader's mind, so plan the title and slogans before you divide the page. A good main title runs about 6 to 10 words and sits at the top centre or the top-left corner; too long and it squeezes out the section boxes, too short and the page feels empty.
Three kinds of slogans that give the page structure
Warning slogans: name the danger clearly
- Do not take or taste drinks, sweets or cigarettes handed to you by a stranger.
- When teasing turns into pushing, name-calling or hiding someone's things, it is no longer a joke.
- Unknown pills that promise energy or better grades are not worth touching, let alone trying.
Action slogans: one step a classmate can actually take
- If you are surrounded, walk away towards a corridor where teachers and other students are.
- Tell a teacher or a parent the same day, and describe the time, place and what happened.
- If you see someone being bullied, stand beside them or go and call a teacher straight away.
Encouraging slogans: help the person being bullied speak up
- Speaking up is not telling tales; it is protecting yourself.
- Being bullied is not your fault, and you do not have to carry it alone.
- Refuse the first time and there will be far fewer next times.
Section names that make the layout look tidy
Keep each section title to two or three words and give them the same pattern. Here are sets you can adapt:
- For drug awareness: Know the Risks / Say No to the First Time / Sweets You Should Not Take
- For bullying: What Counts as Bullying / Do Not Just Watch / I Will Not Be the Bully
- For self-protection: Three Steps to Get Help / My Safety Reminder / People I Can Call
Group titles that begin with a verb together, and group titles that begin with a noun together. The page then reads like a small newspaper instead of a pile of separate paragraphs.
Four details that make a slogan stand out
- Vary the letter size. The main title is the largest, section titles come next, body text is the smallest, roughly in a 3:2:1 ratio.
- Limit yourself to three main colours. Lay down a deep blue or dark green base and keep the brightest colour for your single most important warning.
- White space beats extra borders. Leaving a finger-width of blank space around a slogan makes the words pop more than another ring of pattern.
- Fix the position of each type. Put warning slogans along the top, action slogans in the middle, and encouraging slogans near the end or in a corner of the border, so readers always know where to look.
What to place under each slogan so the page feels full
Every slogan should be followed by two or three lines that answer three questions: why does this matter, what do I do when it happens, and who do I go to afterwards? Under 'Speaking up is not telling tales', for example, you could write: describe clearly what happened, tell one trusted adult, and if it happens again, say it again even more clearly. The slogan then carries real meaning instead of being an empty cheer.
If space is still left over, add a small box called People I Can Call with a parent, your class teacher and one trusted relative or neighbour, plus the line 'If I am in danger, this is who I tell first.' A three-frame comic strip showing 'surrounded, walk away, find an adult' also fills a panel with very few words.
A quick check before you write on the final sheet
- Read the main title aloud once. Can you say it in one breath?
- Is at least one slogan a real action rather than a cheer?
- Do any section titles repeat the same word, such as three boxes all starting with 'Do not'?
- Does the page tell readers, somewhere, exactly who to go to when something happens?
To save time on layout and wording, you can bring your finished titles and slogans into the 智慧手抄报 WeChat mini program, pick a layout that fits, fill in the rest of the text, and then copy it neatly onto paper by hand.
