Students from a Third Form English class of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, Campus A, gathered at The Anguillian newspaper office to learn about the process of building a weekly printed newspaper. The students, who plan to make their own printed production as a class project, listened to Esther Ward, The Anguillian’s typesetter, talk about the many steps it takes to create professional work from scratch. This includes procuring articles and advertisements, editing photographs, making sure the layout of the document is correct, sending the file to the printing office, and the many steps that go into the physical printing process of the newspaper. Students learned that not every article that is sent to The Anguillian for publication is chosen, but they were encouraged to write anyway, and work diligently on their project because the practice of writing itself opens the mind to topics that may have been previously unexplored.
The English class had several questions about overhead costs that go into making a weekly paper, and were shocked to find out just how much printing and shipping the newspaper weekly costs. In turn, this broadened their perspective of the importance of advertisements, a newspaper’s primary money-maker, and what products or services can be advertised. Monique Webster, The Anguillian’s receptionist/office assistant, explained the prices of advertisements, how The Anguillian keeps records and the basic billings procedure. The students were encouraged to keep good records, build their work ethics, and enjoy the work they are doing since it’s important to the public, and to recording the history of the island.
The class saw much of this history for themselves when they got the opportunity to look through the bound copies of the first The Anguillian, published in 1998-1999, and the first bound color cover-page copies of The Anguillian, published 2004-2005. These copies are kept for historical records and for anyone who may drop by in need of researching an event that took place in the past on Anguilla.
The students were astonished to see a version of The Anguillian with mostly black and white photos, and no dolphins as part of the newspaper’s logo. One student even referred to the paper as coming from “the olden days.” Students marveled at the stories of the times, prices of produce in a 1999 grocery store ad, and the fact that Campus A students wore ties as part of the daily uniform.
At the end of the lesson and office tour, Khya Fleming of the Campus A English class said that “the event was educational” and that the class will “put the information to good use.” All the students chimed in their agreement vocally and with applause. Tiffany Moore, The Anguillian’s assistant layout designer, said of the students, “They were very enthusiastic and excited to learn about Anguilla’s only local newspaper. We wish the students the best of luck with their project and any future writing endeavors.”
– Karee-Anne Rogers
