The Washington County Public Schools website features news from our schools in the form of articles. We get many articles throughout the year which can be found at the bottom of the front page. In the interest of fairness to all schools, we limit articles to one article per school per week. If a division level announcement is necessary, these are added as needed. Most of Washington County Public Schools websites have been updated in which you can find the web article submission form located typically in the Library, Faculty/Staff, or School Resources Menu. Underneath each field are instructions/examples read them closely. Each school seems to have delegated someone access to the web article account to submit articles on behalf of your school, send your article to the delegate for submission. These articles are a reflection upon your school and the school division. It is your school's chance to shine. Let the community know what happened!

We do not edit the front page directly, but schedule articles in our database system to be displayed on a certain day. Each article in our news archive must have the following:

• A title
• An author and an email address (Please provide author who wrote article, not person submitting)
• The article text (At least 100 words if including a picture, but that is a good general size even for one without a picture)
• One optional picture (You must click the upload button on the form to upload the image)
  • Alternate text intended to be seen by those that cannot see the image. This text summarizes the image's appearance, not its meaning, and typically has little in common with the image's caption. It should be at least one or two sentences. A good way to do this is to look at the photo, then close your eyes and describe what is happening. (Required) See FAQ
  • A caption which is viewable by all readers. This caption should elaborate on the photo or article with specific information and should be a complete sentence. (Required)

Also check the Example Article and the FAQ for information on placing special formatting in an article including lists and links to other sites.

Please do your part by formatting articles consistently! Because the website receives many submissions, it is important to format them consistently in order to speed the loading of them into the system. Not following the format conventions can cause delays in getting your article scheduled.

• Include a Title/Headline that is properly capitalized (Principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters). Please do not put titles in all capitals because if you do, they must be retyped which can introduce errors.
• Use paragraphs to separate different ideas.
• Avoid abbreviations. If you do, please provide, in parentheses, the expanded form after the first use in the article.
• Avoid the abbreviation of your school name. Many people who may read the articles may not be familiar with your school. We know it is common within our schools, but as you also know, these articles are seen by more than just your school.
• If you are including a photo, do not refer to it in the text of the article
• Adjust photos (brighten, crop, etc.) using photo editing software prior to submission. Make sure the image is no smaller than 480x360.
• Have someone else proofread it.
• If your are including a photo, save it as a JPEG file if it is not in that format already.

The following things will have an article rejected:

• Low resolution photos
• Inclusion of a student's full name if doing so would identify them through the photo
• Merging of two or more photos into a single photo. The caption and alternate text should describe the photo which is not possible with two different photos.
• Any text or picture which cannot be assigned copyright to Washington County Public Schools
• Articles that are not related to school
• Caption text copied and pasted in the alternate text field

Title: Five Students from Abingdon High School Perform at Carnegie Hall
Submitted By: Glenna Holmes (gholmes@wcs.k12.va.us)

The Highlands Youth Ensemble, a regional high-school mixed choral group with members from Greene County, Tennessee, to Washington County, Virginia, performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City this summer in a special mass chorale performance of John Rutter's Requiem, under the direction of the renowned English composer himself. More than 20 of the Highlands Youth Ensemble members made this trip, joining other choirs from around the U.S. on stage, and five of them were from Abingdon High School: Sarah S., Joseph B., Jason D., Adam G., and Gretchen G. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our singers," said Jane DeLoach Morison, Highlands Youth Ensemble director. "Carnegie Hall represents a pinnacle of achievement for musicians, and performing under the baton of John Rutter is an extraordinary honor. The music was beautiful, and our students dedicated themselves to the effort of learning it. In fact, we performed Requiem locally three times in its entirety before going to New York. I am so proud of Highlands Youth Ensemble!"

During their New York stay, these Abingdon High School students visited local landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. They also enjoyed Broadway plays and a dinner cruise. The Highlands Youth Ensemble is part of the Mountain Empire Children’s Choral Academy. This audition-only group, consisting usually of 25 to 30 students from throughout Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, primarily performs a cappella repertoire in four-part (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) harmony. The Highlands Youth Ensemble group has performed at numerous churches in the Tri-Cities area, at the Rhythm & Roots Reunion, at Music on the Square in Jonesborough, at Dollywood, and at the Biltmore Estate during its Christmas candlelight tours.

Caption: Abingdon High School Students were among 20 members of the Highlands Youth Ensemble who performed at Carnegie Hall this summer.

Alternate Text: Five students and an adult chorale instructor sit and stand around a piano in a music studio.

Image:

Q: How do I include a link in my article?
A: It is often a bad habit of webmasters to get in the habit of using "click here" as the anchor text in a hyperlink. It is best to use a phrase in the sentence from which you want to link as the anchor text. See Don't use "click here" as link text. When specifying link text, use the following:

[[URL|Link Text]]

Example:

[[http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/noClickHere|Don't use "click here" as link text]]

Q: How do I include a list in my article?
A: Use the following:

* Unordered list item 1
* Unordered list item 2
  * Unordered sub-item

Produces:

• Unordered list item 1
• Unordered list item 2
  • Unordered sub-item

- Ordered list item 1
- Ordered list item 2
  - Ordered sub-item

Produces:

1. Ordered list item 1
2. Ordered list item 2
   1. Ordered sub-item

Q: Why can I include only one photo?
A: Many homes may still have access to only dial-up Internet services in some of our remote locations. In the interest of making the website usable to all, page loading times are kept to a minimum. This means keeping the number of images low and also keeping the size of those images low.

Q: Why must we provide alternate text for photos?
A: We are obligated to provide information in an accessible format under Virginia and United States Law. The Code of Virginia (Title 2.2 Administration of Government, Chapter 35 Information Technology Access Act, § 2.2-3500–2.2-3503 ) provides information on the Commonwealth’s policy addressing information technology access. The Code defines access to mean “the ability to receive, use, and manipulate data and operation controls included in information technology.”

Q: Can you give some good examples of the difference between a caption and alternate text?
A: The Wikipedia:Alternative_text_for_images article on Wikipedia provides some excellent examples on providing good captions and good alternate text for several different images.

Q: Where can I find good information about writing good captions?
A: How to Write a Newspaper Photo Caption