Conventions of School Magazine Contents Pages

As part of my research for my preliminary task I looked at a range of real life school magazines. I decided to look at the main conventions of these magazines and decide whether they are useful in relation to my own school magazine. 

Use of props – Often the children are seen to be doing an extracurricular activity such as playing a musical instrument or reading a book. This makes the school appear creative and still academically achieving. I will most likely use this idea in my contents page, as this will create the idea that there is a wide variety of things within my magazine.

Numbers – The contents page always clearly states which article/feature is on each page. This is important to my magazine especially as the audience is younger people and so the magazine must be easy to navigate. Therefore I will aim to make the contents page’s numbers very clear.

Range of Pictures – There is often more pictures on the contents page than on the cover. This is because the pictures often link to all the different stories indicated on the page. I will use this because I think there should be a clear link between my text and images in order to really understand the message of the magazine.

Punny – Although the contents page contains more writing than the cover, the text is still often quite humorous and can involve wordplay. I will try to use this to create a light-hearted tone to the magazine, more compatible with younger audiences.   

Brief Summaries – Each of the entries on the contents page have brief summaries of the article. This gives the reader a small taste of the stories without giving everything away. I will definitely use this to help create the tone of the entire magazine as it demonstrates the writing style of the magazine.

Text boxes - Many of the magazines I looked at, displayed the text within a box or boxes. This creates a much more organised, structured layout. I will use this however I think I will put all my text in one box to keep my page looking even more orderly.  

Colours - Similar to the front cover, the contents page also uses a 3 colour, colour scheme. This helps to link the whole magazine together and is often the colours of the school. I think I will utilise thte colours of purple and white as they're very contrasting and also don't alienate any of the possible audience.