No. 03Editorial Craft
Around my newsroom internship, I wrote and edited for student publications at the Communication University of China. Two kinds of work came out of it: writing about people who are easy to overlook, and the less visible job of organizing information so it can be read on a phone.
Part one
Features for the CUC Volunteers Federation, mostly about deaf students and people with disabilities. The layout of these posts was done by other members; the credits are as printed.
For the 32nd International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the federation spoke with the mother of a young man with autism. The piece lets her explain, in her own words, how differently autism shows up from person to person, what her son loves (piano, accordion, a band run by Beijing’s autism association), and why the “genius” label misleads.
A recap of the first in-person class taught by deaf instructors from the sign language society at Beijing Union University’s College of Special Education. The theme was family: the signs for father, mother and home. It also covers practical etiquette, such as getting a deaf person’s attention with a light tap, a wave or the flick of a light switch rather than by shouting.
An invitation to a free sign language course run with Beijing Union University. It begins with a fact many readers had never considered: China has more than 27 million people with hearing loss, according to the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, and sign language is their common language.
A short call to donate winter clothes and finished books, with times and drop-off points across campus. It is written as a few lines of verse because it had to work as a poster as well as a post.
Writing in role
Model United Nations press corps. Simulated dispatches, not published news.
Simulation · Ukraine, February 15, 2023 · English
Russian Hackers, a Global Threat
Written in English in the style of a wire report for a Model UN press corps, on hackers linked to Russian military and intelligence agencies targeting NATO, U.S. and European networks.
Simulation · October 19, 2023 · Chinese
From the Refugee Question to Human Rights
A preview, written in role, of a simulated UN Human Rights Council review of Iran and Colombia under the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Part two
For the fourth Communication University of China Model United Nations conference in 2024, I edited and laid out the committee guides that delegates read on their phones, and designed the posters, badges and table signs. Choose a sample to inspect it. Switch to Reading View to see the structure the design had to carry.
On the desk
Committee guides
Posters
Conference identity
Click or tap the page to magnify a detail. Arrow keys move the view; Escape resets it.