12th March 2025
‘Like pebbles in a stream’ – writing for the arts with The Observer’s Vanessa Thorpe
Hello everyone,
In many of our Shine Award entries each year, we see reviews of recent music or films. Student opinions are the beating heart of every school magazine or newspaper, but structuring this sort of writing requires a different approach to news journalism.
To help, in this week’s episode of Ask the Expert we’ve sought outstanding advice from Vanessa Thorpe, the arts and media correspondent of The Observer.
“Arts writing is sometimes a bit closer to feature writing, even though it may be a news article about something that’s happened, or going to happen.
“It’s got a more ‘feature-y’ tone and therefore you can be a bit more like a storyteller. You can hold something back or have a surprise near the end, but it mustn’t ever seem to the reader as if you’re being too tricksy or keeping facts away from them for too long.
“You don’t want all the facts at the beginning, but a few questions posed that you know confidently will be answered later … and that creates a really nice journey for the reader, like a little story.”
I feel sure that Vanessa’s advice will be incredibly useful for students as they write passionately about creativity. Perhaps it could even go further. In situations where it’s not always obvious what to cover, it could encourage starting an arts section of their school media project.
Watch the full episode
Enter Shine 2025!
If you’re keen to enter Shine this year, have questions or need more support, we’re here to answer your questions at shine@stationers.org
Register with the Shine School Media Awards and we can provide guidance and encouragement from now til our entry deadline in May.
Best wishes,
Richard Chapman
Chair, Shine School Media Awards