By Evie Nowicki
EMS Press
Traverse City East MS
1st Place Division MS, News Writing
In-Depth Feature
JUDGING CRITERIA
- Lead captures attention, arouses curiosity
- Topic relevant to interests and/or welfare of school or students
- Extensive, intensive and thorough investigation
- Effectively combines basics of good news and feature writing
- Effectively organized with smooth transitions; carefully outlined
- Sentences, paragraphs of varied length; written clearly, concisely and vividly
- Proper diction/grammar
- Balanced and fair presentation
Get a lock for your closet/drawers: If you are a person that is super annoyed if someone borrows your clothes, I would definitely lock up your closet or drawers. Make sure that your sibling does not know the code. Also, be aware of your surroundings because you never know when you are simply just picking out a shirt and your sibling will come and snatches it from your hands. Locks will prevent you from losing your favorite clothing item. Claim a Side: Does your sibling have stuff all over the room? If so, listen carefully. Start off by throwing all of the stuff on his/her bed to make it clean on your side and then divide the room in half. Your sibling will likely agree because undoubtedly, your stuff has also been all over the room at times. It’s very simple to stop that from happening. Just get a piece of tape and make a barrier. One side is yours, the other is theirs. Have a Pair of Headphones: Their always comes a time where your siblings has friends over and you don’t have any plans and come straight home after school. You think that you are going to have the room to yourself after a long day, but that’s not always the case. Not only do you have to put up with your siblings in the room, but now they’re joined by one or more friends. You could tune them out and have your own party in your living room by putting in a pair of headphones and jamming to your favorite tunes. Create a Cleaning Schedule: Your room will get completely messy with one person in it let alone two! It’s crazy how much clothing, blankets, trash, and random things are on the floor every single day. Staying organized is key. It will take the weight off your shoulders when you have a clean room to do homework, hang out with friends, and even sleep. All you need to do is take a piece of paper and make a schedule. You clean one week; they clean it the other. Be Flexible: It’s tough to not get your room 24/7. But, you have to have a balance. When your sister asks if she and her friends can hang out in your room, say yes. The time will come when you have friends over and your sister lets you have the room. It also creates a good bond between you and your sister to become closer as siblings and even create a friendship. Be Supportive: Drama happens so much in school, especially when you have no one to go to at school to be comforted. For example, your sister got in a huge fight with her friend and all she is doing is crying. Comfort her to make her feel better. You don’t have to buy her anything or do any specific deeds for her. Just make her feel like she has someone to talk to. Have a set Bedtime: Sleep is key. If you stay up an extra 20 minutes, that can make you 20 times more tired for the day to come. Always have a set bedtime. No phones, no airpods, no light, and no food. Everyone needs their sleep for the next day. Too little sleep will make you grumpy, overtired, and so much more. Get as much sleep as you can to make the next day productive. Create a Friendship: Sharing a room, is not half bad. You might think that is the worst thing ever but you will get used to it as the years go by. Create a friendship with your sibling because in the future you are going to need them to be there for you through lots of your troubles. Creating a friendship with a sibling amazing because they are your other half and you know you can talk to them about anything. Compromise: If you and your sibling are disagreeing on something, compromise. Compromising is the solution to sharing a room because you are not going to agree on everything. For example, if your sister wants to paint your room purple and you want to paint your room white, mix those colors together to make a lavender color. It sounds hard but it really isn’t. You and your sibling will understand that you both have different interests and compromising will fix your problems for almost all situations you disagree on. It’s also good practice for life. Deep Clean Frequently: Having a cleaning schedule will help out a lot, but sometimes deep cleaning is necessary. Clothes, shoes, garbage, and random stuff piles up everywhere in your room. Every two weeks, I recommend deep cleaning your room with your siblings. It will make you feel more organized and less cluttered. There will come a time when you are on your own and the memories you have from sharing a room with your sibling will make you smile. If you follow these tips, you will have more good memories than bad.