1. Hall School of Journalism and Communication
JRN 2201 Reporting
Dr. Steven Padgett
Hall School of Journalism and Communication
Troy University
Class Notes V

2. The topics this week are:
Features
Brites

3. Features are written to entertain or inform.
What is a Feature?
Features are written to entertain or inform.
The personalities often carry the story.

4. What is a Brite?
A brite is a short, humorous story included to bring a smile after the usual collection of crime, murder, tragedies and mayhem found in the normal news-hole.

5. The Feature?
“The news writer tells you the bridge fell in and how many cars fell off. The feature writer tells you what it was like to have been there.” – Jules Loh
Events have human dimensions. The feature story capitalized on this.
Features assume the greatest story is how we live, and explores it.

6. Features Features can be somber, cheerful, quirky or absurd.
Features show people doing things
Let the people in your features “talk” to your readers
Let the action and dialogue carry the story
Underwrite features, don’t overwrite

7. Features Keep the piece moving.
Tell the reader what you’re writing about high up in the story.
Distribute background throughout the story.

8. Techniques for Features
Quotes.
Let the characters carry the action with their own words.
Quotes help to establish a mood or setting for your story.

9. Tone and Style of Features
Established by:
Facts
Quotes
Illustrations
Word choice
Sentence length
Paragraph length

10. Tone and Style of Features
Tone and style is dictated by the content of your story
One tone should dominate throughout the feature.

11. Pitfalls of Features
Know what you’re going to say, and how, before you start writing.
Develop enthusiasm for your story.
Establish a good plot. The central idea should have:
Drama, Conflict, Excitement and Emotion
Don’t tell us what you can show us people doing or saying

12. More Pitfalls of Features
Avoid first person.
You may be your favorite subject, but you are not writing for you!
Don’t overwrite
Symptom of not trusting your material
Flowery prose never replaces reporting
Don’t over report
Don’t get bogged down in detail

13. Brites Brites are “feel good” super-short features.
Brites end in an up-beat tone.
Brites usually contain some element of humor.

14. Humor in your stories?
It is extremely rare when humor fits in hard news stories.
Humor, irony and even parody have their place in feature writing.
When using humor, the context and writing style must leave the reader with no doubt that humor is intended and the words are not to be taken literally.

15. Irony and Parody in Brites
Care must be taken when writing bites so that irony and/or parody cannot be taken literally.
Never forget that humor can backfire!

16. What is humor? Great question!
What is funny to one person may not be funny to another.

17. Writing Humor Writing humor is hard work. Humor uses: Surprise
Comedic Timing
Very little logic
Oddity

18. Humor Tips When writing humor:
Don’t overanalyze: analysis of what makes something funny can kill it.
Simple is almost always better than complex: If a humorous remark isn’t working, try simplifying the presentation or language
Short is almost always better than long: the best humor is concise and direct.
Don’t try to hard to be funny. That makes your humor feel stilted.

19. More about humor Don’t sacrifice truth for a funny effect.
Fiction is not tolerated on the pages of newspapers. Don’t violate the trust and credibility of your newspaper for a cheap laugh.

20. Brites Brites are short. Usually 100-250 words
Allow the writer to show more personality than standard news stories.
Similar to “kicker” stories on television and radio

21. Are there any questions?
Additional questions?
Are there any questions?

22. There will be more next time!
The End