JOURNALISM, YEARBOOK MR. BEARY Writing Feature Stories

What Are Feature Stories? A feature story is not meant to report breaking news, but to look at a subject in-depth Features creatively expand on details rather than just providing the most important information, so they are called soft news rather than hard news Writers of features have the freedom to  Evoke images  Write creatively  Tell stories

What Are Feature Stories Feature stories are popular in newspapers, magazines, blogs, websites, newsletters, television broadcasts, and podcasts Features are:  Journalistic  Creative  Colorful  Thoughtful  Reflective  Thorough  Original

Journalistic Feature stories are journalistic reports. They are not opinion essays or editorials. The writer's opinions and attitudes are not important to the story. The writer keeps herself or himself out of the story. Writing in the third person helps maintain the necessary distance. These rules do not apply if you are writing a personal essay.

Structure In hard news, we abide by the Transition Quote Inverted Pyramid. When writing features, a writer can instead choose to take more time in developing their ideas. The main idea may come later in the piece, even at the end.

Types of Features Human Interest pieces discuss a relevant issue through the story of someone that issue affects Profile pieces are entirely about one person who has an interesting life or has an interesting character How-To pieces teach the reader how to do something Personal Essays are features that examine an issue through the personal experience of the writer

Nonfiction Stories Feature stories should come across somewhat like nonfiction short stories Feature stories provide information in a journalistic format, but in a pleasing, entertaining manner that highlights an issue by describing its people, places, and feelings While features should be based on an event, that “rule” is not very important when it comes to features. It’s all about the story!

Writing Features Writers of features use three tools in preparation for their pieces  Observation  Interviews  Research

Writing Features Rather than putting all the key information in the lead, the writer can choose to take a few paragraphs to build their idea. Writers of features tend to open with a story or scene, which includes lots of adjectives, details, and colorful images. Features should be over 500 words long, whereas news articles are typically under 500 words.

Examples Create a Venn Diagram illustrating the differences between hard news and soft news Choose an example. Then answer: What conventions of feature writing do you find in this article?:  Read the first page of my feature story “Professional Wrestling is Fake, but Its Race Problem Isn’t” from The Atlantic.“Professional Wrestling is Fake, but Its Race Problem Isn’t”  Read “How Washington’s Football Team Creates a Hostile Environment for Native American Students” from the Huffington Post.“How Washington’s Football Team Creates a Hostile Environment for Native American Students”