Writing Clear Captions

Hello, and welcome back to the second module of our course, Build Your Professional ePortfolio in English. Since our last module, have you checked out some ePortfolios online? Well if you spend some time and look at different people’s e-portfolios or websites, you’ll notice that many of them contain media, such as videos and images, which are used to display samples of their work. I recommend that you add these types of visuals that represent samples of your work through your ePortfolio as well. To describe these samples we’re going to learn how to write clear and effective captions and descriptions over the next couple of lessons. Adding visuals and clear captions and descriptions will make it easier for viewers to learn about your work. In this particular lesson, we are going to focus on writing captions. Captions are essentially one sentence that describe the images or videos showcasing your work. An example of a caption for a video could be, this is a presentation that I gave for the Rockdale County Board of Education in Atlanta in 2009. Or you can have an image with a caption, like here is a dining table that I created for the Boer family In Amsterdam in 2011. Notice that both examples follow a similar pattern. They both include what you’re showcasing, for whom your work is for, and the location and time of the event or product. Let’s take a closer look at how to write out these parts. I recommend that you start your caption with either, here is, of this is, as the first words. These initial words reassure readers that they are directing their attention to the correct sample. After selecting here is, or this is, add what you’re showcasing. It could be a presentation, or speech, a project or product, or even a service. So, if you’re showing a picture of a brochure that you created, you can start with, here is a brochure that I designed or created. If you have more than one picture or video for your work, write in a plural form, as in, here are and these are. Here are the brochures that I designed or created. These are the lectures that I gave or presented. The noun describing your video will also take plural. Think about images or videos that you want to upload to your ePortfolio. How would you start your captions? We’re now going to make your captions more descriptive by adding the client place and time to do it. Let’s look back at our first examples, for each of these sentences here’s the client, here’s the location and here is the time. You should already know how to add location and time from what we’ve learned in our previous module. But can you see a pattern with a preposition used before the client? That’s right, you use for plus client. A client can be actual people, like in this example, or it can be an event or group like in this example. Let’s take a look at this next example. You can use all of these types of clients to complete this caption. The Journal of Chemistry, the Journal of Medicine, the Cancer Society, my engineering class, my engineering professor, In some your client can be the name of a company, organization, or person you worked for and it should be placed right after for. Now, try to complete your caption with information about your client, the location, and the date. Finally, an important suggestion, you can also add your captions to main social networks like Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube. One difference is that you can use symbols like @ and # to mention your client and location. For example, a graphic designer might write, here are my recent logo designs that I have created in 2014@abcco, #newyork. Notice that with a hash tag, there are no spaces in between. In resources you can find some more important information about using Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. So let’s review. In this lesson we’ve learned how to write captions for the visual media you will showcase in your ePortfolio. We have learned the language used to start a caption, and how to add details with appropriate preposition, such as, for, and also in. Start uploading some images or videos of your work, and add some interesting captions to them. With images and clear captions, viewers will find your ePortfolio more interesting and engaging. In our next lesson, we’re going to learn how to write longer descriptions for your work samples. I’ll see you then.