The primary purpose of this news magazine is to provide the Ben L. Smith High School community with an open forum to voice ideas about the world in which we live. The intent is for this publication to be a mirror that reflects on our community and its ideas.
The American Constitution guarantees freedom of speech in the First Amendment; indeed, Americans see the right to voice one’s opinion as an inalienable right. Such a freedom carries a necessary and practical responsibility of upholding the highest standards of fairness, tolerance and decency. Therefore, the writers and artists who work for WordSmith are expected to maintain the highest ethical and professional standards. These include accuracy, fairness, balance and an unwavering pursuit of the truth.
As a responsible scholastic journal, WordSmith plays a vital role in the community: namely, providing essential information about the world we live in. Thus, WordSmith is a mirror to our world, reflecting an image of who we were, who we are and who we will be. This news magazine is a dynamic force that seeks to inform and influence its readers. The magazine will do so with a sense of openness and fairness. WordSmith seeks to engage a variety of perspectives and to examine our world and its ideas as rigorously as possible. We live in a multicultural community and our publication must be sensitive to the views of all of our students.
The print version of WordSmith news magazine is published six times each school year. A daily newsletter is printed by 1 p.m. Copies of it are available in room 226. The daily version is also posted in the display case across from the Main Office. Furthermore, WordSmith is published on-line. Both the daily and print version are converted to HTML and appear on the electronic version, which had additional features. Back copies of WordSmith Daily are available through the staff business manager.
Price of WordSmith is $1 per print edition. We do not give the news magazine away to administration, staff, faculty or parents as a courtesy.
WordSmith is sold during lunch in the Commons Area of Smith on the day of publication and each day for a week after that. It is also available through English teachers.
Each edition of WordSmith will be sent to our advertisers and patrons for free. The correspondence editor will also dispatch the magazine to other scholastic newspapers and magazines both in and out of state and to the scholastic media associations to which we belong. Mailing costs are included in the budget.
Students in the Advanced Journalism Class will write the majority of the articles for the magazine. The managing editor will be responsible for publication of WordSmith Daily and the on-line editor for WordSmith On-line. The managing editor may use any staff to assist him in reporting for WordSmith Daily. Beginning Journalism students will also submit work for publication.
Guest commentaries from students, faculty, administrators, staff or community members may be accepted if the editorial board feels that they enhance the coverage of a topic or the debate of an issue of the day. All manuscripts submitted to WordSmith must be double-spaced and typed. They may be accompanied by a disc with a file of the manuscript. However, such a disc must be on an IBM-formatted disc and the file must be on Microsoft Works 4.0. The editorial board reserves the right to edit based on length, grammar, usage and/or decency. No profanity or obscenities will be allowed.
The news magazine encourages letters to the editor as long as they constitute a constructive avenue for opinion. Letters must be signed by the writer and signatures must be verified before letters will be published. Letters to the editor can be edited for space, grammar and usage. Staff members or members of the Journalism cannot write letters to the editor. They may submit opinion pieces for the op-ed page.
WordSmith always contained at least two editorial pages. Some issues that require more in-depth treatment will receive an appropriate number of pages. Occasionally, a pressing editorial may appear on the front page or backboard. But this should be very rare.
The editorial board reserves the right to edit all material that go into the magazine for libel, obscenity, grammar, usage, style and space.
Scholastic journalism is a good shepherd of public discourse; therefore, divergent viewpoints are not only welcomed but also highly encouraged. Nonetheless, opinion pieces and analyses must be based on sound reasoning, verified evidence, observation and valid conclusions.
Any article that advocates an illegal activity or invades an individual’s right to privacy will not be printed. Any article which the editorial board deems in poor taste or which could incite violence on school grounds will also be tabled.
WordSmith does encourage creative writing manuscripts to be submitted to the managing editor. The feature section of the magazine will include a creative writing page. Furthermore, WordSmith prints a creative writing anthology in the spring put together by the creative writing staff.
The magazine includes a variety of artwork, including photography, illustrations, cartoons and graphics.
Obituaries will be handled through profiles of the students. If the student dies a violent death that is part of criminal act, the obituary will be a straight news story.
No gossip or horoscope is acceptable for publication in our magazine.
A central tenet in scholastic journalism is fairness. A student journalist respects the dignity, privacy, confidentiality, rights and well-being of sources and the subjects of their stories. Satire is an appropriate form of journalism, but it must appear on the editorial or op-ed page.
All copy must be accurate and factual. Analyses, editorials and in-depth features must be appropriately researched.
All facts need to be double-checked, by the reporter and his department editor. Controversial information much be triple-checked, with the executive editor making a final call on whether a piece of information should run. All quotes must be attributed to a person whose first and last name is given. WordSmith will use nicknames only where a person is universally known by that name, such as Earvin (Magic) Johnson.
WordSmith uses photographs that have not been altered except to enlarge or shrink to fit a layout.
As soon as a reporter or editor discovers an error, he should report it to the managing editor, ombudsman, executive editor or adviser. Corrections will be made in a corrections box on the editorial page. The ombudsman, who is responsible for a semi-annual report on the veracity and accuracy of information in WordSmith, will be in charge of making this corrections box. Apologies will be made when they are necessary, especially in the case of an inaccurate cutline photograph.
Students are encouraged to attend writing and journalism workshops and to regularly watch CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” hosted by former CBS News reporter Bernard Kalb, or read Howard Kurtz’s column on the media in The Washington Post. Students are also encouraged to frequently check on the Freedom Forum’s website for updates on issues pertinent to journalism and the First Amendment. Moreover, many of the programs on both C-SPAN networks are german to the social, political, cultural and economic concerns of our students.
Honesty is essential to establishing the credibility of WordSmith. Humans make errors. If a reporter or editor makes an error, promptly admit the error to the above editors or the adviser. Student reporters are only as good as their words.
Appropriate invoices or bills of sale should be turned in when a student makes a magazine-related purchase. All purchases must be approved by the adviser.
No set of guidelines can cover every possible situation. Students journalists must use common sense and good judgment. When in doubt, consult your editor or the adviser. Also rely on scholastic journalism associations, including the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association; Journalism Education Association; Student Press Law Center; Southern Interscholastic Press Association; Columbia Scholastic Press Association; High School Journalism Institute of Indiana University; Freedom Forum; National Scholastic Press Association; and the North Carolina Press Association.
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