Transcript Feature Writing

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Feature Writing 101
2011-12
Hopper
Maldonado
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What’s different about Journalism?
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Don’t indent paragraphs. Just separate them by one space.
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Paragraphs are called grafs. Introductions are called leads.
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Quote a particular way every time.
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Focus on the interesting aspect of the article instead of a
prompt
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There are several types of Journalistic writing – News
Writing, Feature Writing and Editorial Writing.
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Today we’ll focus on Feature Writing since 99% of what you’ll
produce falls under this type
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Types of Writing
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Hard news (News)
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Chronicling as concisely as possible the 5W’s and the H (Who,
What, When, Where, Why, How)
Spot, breaking news
Hard news events: school board meetings, elections, disasters,
accidents, etc.
Soft news (Features)
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Standing back to examine the people, the places and things that
shape the world, nation or community.
Soft news events: How people are coping with credit card debts;
the reemerging popularity of arcade games on the Web
Almost all writing you do for the school newspaper and yearbook
will be this type of writing
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What is a Feature article?
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Tells the reader a story. It has a beginning (lead), middle and
end. It uses quotes liberally and allows the reader to see the
story through detailed description and vivid writing.
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What is a Feature article?
 Aims
to entertain or/and inform
You don’t need to know, but you want to know.
 Often less timely
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 Emphasizes
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story telling
Sometimes written from the second-person
perspective and, rarely, the first-person point of view.
 Makes
lead.
people to read the whole article, not just a
Feature leads should draw people into the story.
 Special leads usually works better than summary
leads.
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Types of Feature articles
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Profiles tell the story of a person or persons.
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Human interest stories in some way tell us more about what
it means to be human. They have little impact; sometimes
profiles can be human interest stories.
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What do high school readers want?
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They want interesting, real stories about people they know.
They also like controversy and interesting issues.
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Basic Feature Outline
 Beginning
 Scene-setter
lead
 Nut Graph & Explanation of Importance
 Background Info
 Body
 Story
Details and Development
 Memorable
ending
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What’s a lead?
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A lead (or lede) is how you begin your story.
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A good feature lead can begin with:
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Tell an anecdote
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Set the scene
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Give characters a face
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Make it specific
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A GOOD quote
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A startling statement
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Journalism Writing Process
1. Collect information, Interview sources, Get direct quotations
from at least two sources for every article
2. Bring order to chaos. This means – sit down to write. While
you’re writing, you’ll often find questions that have gone
unanswered or other things you should add. Make a list of those
questions to ask, go back to your source and seek out this
information.
4. Re-write, revise, edit, spell check, grammar check. Check the
spelling of names at least three times. There are no excuses for
misspelled names.
5. Read aloud with a writing partner
6. Re-write
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Feature Writing Hints
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Focus on a single person for your lead.
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Tell the story through one person’s eyes; this requires good
reporting.
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Try a startling statement or dialogue or other devices.
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Describe a setting as a way of establishing the theme of a
piece
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Focus on an incident or anecdote.
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Retell a specific moment or scene for your lead. Show, don’t tell.
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Feature Lead Examples
History teacher and coach Dennis Sims remembers his high
school days all too well, and the memories aren’t good ones.
“Although I lived only a mile from school, I was forced to attend an
all-black school,” he said. “We weren’t allowed to mingle with the
white kids even though I’d played with many of them all my life.”
He said remembers how members of his family were denied basic
rights such as voting and recalls the night a band of thugs lynched
a young black man for talking to a white girl.
“ I grew up in a segregated community that treated us harshly,” he
said. “Thank God that’s all changed.”
As evidence, the school will again participate in February’s Black
History Month, and Sims will be in charge of the annual event.
(focus on an individual combined with an anecdote)
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What Comes After the Lead?
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The Body of your story
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Keep related material together
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Divide piece into sections. Each section tells a different part of the
story.
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End stories in memorable ways. Often it’s a good to use a quote.
This is called a clincher.
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How do I quote my sources?
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“Don’t talk unless you’re on fire,” Yearbook Sponsor Danielle
Maldonado said.
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“Make sure you take photos at the game on Friday, Yearbook
Sponsor Leah Hopper said. “It’s the last game of the season.”
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“If you talk, you have detention,” Maldonado added.
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Advice:
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Pay attention to where the periods and commas go.
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Learn who gets a title and when.
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Make sure you quote 100 percent correctly. Write it down wordfor-word when interviewing.
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Newspaper Assignments
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If you have a newspaper assignment you must work on your
story and have it typed, turned in and saved in the yearbook
drive (filed) by 3:30 p.m. on Friday, 9/30.
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Use 4th period and time before and after school to track down
a minimum of two sources for your article (See Mrs. Hopper
or Mrs. Maldonado ASAP if you’re having trouble finding
sources)