Biographical & Feature Writing Journalism I

Feature Articles A feature is an article that is about "softer" news. These articles are more creative, dealing with real issues, events and trends. Like news writing, strong feature writing is simple, clear and orderly. Typically displayed prominently – on news websites, often found in the Magazine portion of the site. Can be a regular part of publication – such as The Cranberry Eagle’s yearly series highlighting Seneca’s new teachers.

Types of Features The Human Interest Feature Personality Feature Most common type. Focuses on someone’s success in spite of poor odds; often recalls tragedy or struggle. Personality Feature Focus person is someone who had done something interesting and has gained recognition of some kind.

“The Best” Articles News Feature Types of Features Focuses on a product, experience or location that is considered the “best” of all. News Feature Adds personal involvement and interest to breaking news, focusing on an aspect that otherwise wouldn’t gain much attention.

Types of Features How-To Feature The Past Events Feature Teaches something the reader wouldn’t otherwise know how to do. The Past Events Feature Focuses on a historical event or celebration – usually includes interesting facts or profiles to bolster intrigue The Information Feature Coverage of a topic relative to the present moment. Includes research, but is written with more style than an encyclopedia entry.

The Informational Feature: Biographical Profile One form of an informational feature is the biography or profile. This will focus on someone currently of interest. Example: Elon Musk, who announced plans to populate Mars within 10 years at a cost of $200,000 per person. Another example: Arnold Palmer, as he just passed last weekend Includes research with some attribution Important to paraphrase and summarize to avoid plagiarism and overwhelming citations Written with more style, creativity and voice than an encyclopedia entry

The Informational Feature: Biographical Profile Includes: Factual background information (birth, brief family information, education, jobs held) Events that shaped their life and/or career (contact with certain people, mentors) Information about contributions to society (charitable work, inventions, leadership roles) Current activities and future intentions

You won’t necessarily follow the structure of a regular news article Organization You won’t necessarily follow the structure of a regular news article This may be organized in sequence, as a character sketch or in order of importance Headline and lede should summarize who and why, and also intrigue or emotionally invest your reader Conclusion will tie loose ends without summarizing what you’ve written If someone has read through to your conclusion, they don’t need a summary.

Should be a bit more reflective of your style as a writer organization Should be a bit more reflective of your style as a writer Still no personal pronouns, contractions or internal / hypothetical / rhetorical questions Provide applicable, relevant and interesting facts, laws and statistics (with proper attribution) Use anecdotes or vignettes as appropriate Subheadings break the story into pieces, and orient your reader as you shift through stages of life/career, etc.

organization Begin with a brief summary of the reason why this person is important then transition to Introduce their “roots” – childhood, family and upbringing but keep it brief Unless it had a profound impact on the subject, it’s not what your reader wants to know Focus on seminal events – education, work experience, outreach experience Keep this chronological (unless you have a really good reason not to) If you find yourself listing a lot of key dates, you probably want to consider a timeline instead

Research Use credible sources and consider your audience Give clear attribution to facts, statistics and anything else that is not common knowledge Common knowledge is information generally known to an educated reader, such as widely known facts and dates, and, more rarely, ideas or language. It is also information that is readily and easily accessible from many valid sources, when considering major political entities: Birth and death dates (versus birth time and final words) Educational institutions (versus grade point averages and coursework) Jobs and positions held (versus salary, performance or start/end dates)