YEAR 6 MOCK TRIAL COMPETITION
Court Artist and Court Reporter Guidelines
Court Reporter:
The report should be a maximum of 500 words and can be either typed or handwritten. The article should be drafted in note form during the trial and can be finalised back at school.
Guidance on how to structure your article:
- Headline – each article needs an attention-grabbing headline; this should be short and snappy to make the reader want to find out more. One trick for writing a good headline is to use alliteration e.g. Bears Blame Blonde for Burglary.
- Sub-heading – your article should have a sub-heading to provide a bit more detail about the story e.g. Burglar steals porridge and destroys house in ransacking rampage.
- Paragraphs – Paragraphs are a collection of sentences. Use paragraphs to introduce new sections of the story, characters and pieces of information. Think about your final paragraph, is there a final message you want to give the reader.
- 5 W’S - Use your fact-finding notes (from observing the trial) to give the reader more detail about what has happened using the 5 W’s: What, Where, When, Who and Why?
- Quotes – You may want to add quotes from the witnesses using quotation marks e.g. Daddy Bear said, “This wouldn’t have happened if we were panda’s”. You can refer to the script if necessary.
- Tone – You should use third person pronouns like ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’ or ‘they’ not first-person pronouns like ‘I’.
- Layout – If handwritten, try and use a traditional layout for your news article by writing in columns. If typing, you won’t need columns, but you will need to write in paragraphs.
Court Artist:
Courtroom Artists have the opportunity to gain access to a Court when cameras can’t, and use their skills to create engaging illustrations, which demonstrate the emotions and events through a trial.
Your picture should be A4 in size and can be landscape or portrait. Please ensure you have the necessary drawing equipment on the day, e.g. paper, pencils, crayons or other colouring material if required.
Guidance on how to produce your picture:
- Pictures can be in black and white or colour. It can be a drawing or a painting.
- The sketch should be made whilst the trial is in progress but can be taken away and finished at school.
- It can depict any part of the trial process.
- You can choose to submit a picture which depicts an overview of the Court (whole room) or a particular person/people during the Court hearing e.g. defendant giving evidence or the witnesses in the witness box.