Journalistic writing competencies of school paper editors of public

Thesis Bachelor of Secondary Education major in English University of Rizal System-Morong. 2018

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY : The study aimed to determine the journalistic writing competencies of school paper editors of public secondary schools in Morong District. It was conducted during the school year 2017-2018. The respondents of the study were the school paper editors; editors - in - chief, news editors, feature editors, sports editors, and science and technology editors of Morong National High School and Lagundi-CCL National High School. The study used documentary analysis and descriptive method of research to gather the needed information specifically in assessing the profile of student paper editors in terms of years of service as editors, awards and recognitions received and relevant trainings and seminars attended. In addition, the evaluative method was used to determine the journalistic writing competency level of school paper editors. Meanwhile, to figure out what intervention program may be presented based on the result of the study, qualitative discussion was used. The study revealed that most of the editors have served the publication for 2 to 3 years; 10 first place awards, 1 second place award and 5 third place awards were received in the school level. Meanwhile, 1 first place award, 1 second place award and 3 third place awards were received in the division level. 1 award was received in the regional and none in the national level. However, based on the documentary analysis of the researchers, only six editors corresponded to 10 first places in school - based press conference and four editors for 5 third places. In the division level, the 3 third places were contributed by only one editor. In addition, all editors were able to attend to school - based seminars and trainings, while only two of them were able to take part in the national level seminars and trainings. For the level of journalistic writing competencies of school paper editors, feature editors were considered as highly competent with a mean score of 93.5 while news editors with a mean rating of 89.6, sports editors with a mean rating of 84.8 and science and technology editors with a mean score of 84 were all regarded as competent. Meanwhile, editors-in-chief, obtaining a mean rating of 77.75, were considered averagely competent. The study concluded that the school paper editors have adequate experience as editors and have ample relevant trainings and seminars attended that can help them perform their responsibilities competently. However, the awards and recognitions they received in 2015, 2016 and 2017 imply the otherwise. The Feature editors, news editors, sports editors and science and technology editors are competent in writing write - ups relevant to the newspaper section they check over, which entails the idea that they are capable of doing their tasks proficiently. On the other hand, the editors - in - chief are just averagely competent in writing editorial write - ups that may be a hindrance in performing their job as the general overseer of the publication and an obstacle of having a worthwhile and quality school newspaper issue. The study proposed the Let's Try Journalists (LTJ) Enhancement Program. Topics for lecture, as well as various enrichment activities are included in the proposed project. The study recommended that the intervention program proposed should be adopted by the secondary public schools in Morong District and it should be subjected to validation to determine its effectiveness. Parallel studies may be conducted using other variables.