Feature Story

Features stories deal with aspects beyond the bare facts of the news It may inform but the dominant purpose is to entertain. Subjects may have anything under the sun. Features may also amuse or evoke sympathy.

 It may explain or supplement the news but not opinionated. Feature story is the most varied in scope, purpose and style. Adds life and zest to any publication. They could be the journalist kind of essays. Features belong to soft news that accommodate human interest of the story.

CHARACTERISTICS of a GOOD FEATURES STORY

CREATIVITY from the most ordinary to the bizarre or most unimaginable subjects. It may or may not be timely. Maybe written in any form or style. Uses usually novelty lead rather than summary lead.

 Although it applies imagination of facts, features are not fiction, but based on facts. Features talks to people in the scene or behind it. Timelessness and imperishability. Features apply the principle of creative writing. Sentences maybe longer allowing the use of figurative language and colorful phrases.

FEATURES AND NEWS COMPARED

Newspaper print more news while magazine print more features. Main objective of news is to inform while features aim to entertain. Unlike straight news, feature article maybe of any length. News must be written in one style while features, in any form & style.

STRUCTURE of FEATURE STORY The LEAD Should attract outright the attention of readers. Should draw interest of readers

Kinds of LEAD:
1. QUESTION LEAD E.g. What is the millennium bug? 2. EXCLAMATION LEAD E.g. A millionaire at ten. Fantastic! 3. QUOTATION LEAD E.g. Gone are the days when children are only seen and never heard 4. DESCRIPTIVE LEAD gives vivid description of a person, place or situation.

5. STRIKING STATEMENT- short snappy statement set off in a paragraph itself. E.g. The convict hanged himself. 6. CONTRAST LEAD points out the opposite and extremes. 7. NARRATION LEAD 8. SUMMARY LEAD

BODY Must have unity, coherence and emphasis. Must hold and sustain the interest of readers. The writer makes use of descriptions, narrations, figures of speech, idiomatic expressions, quotations, surveys, statistics, interviews and anecdotes that gives color to the story. A central idea or theme must be carried all throughout the story.

CONCLUSION It must bring impact. May give condensed summary, state the salient points, the highest point of interest or the most important fact in the feature. Come up with something for the reader to remember. End with a BANG!

DONTS IN FEATURE WRITING

DO NOT EDITORIALIZE OR APOLOGIZE DO NOT USE WORDS OR PHASES WITH DOUBLE MEANING DO NOT USE AND SO THUS THEREFORE EXCESSIVELY DO NOT USE NICKNAME , AND UNFAMILIAR ABBREVIATION DO NOT USE SUPERLATIVE EXCESSIVELY DO NOT USE THE NAME OF THE SCHOOL WRITE THIS YEAR. DO NOT REPEAT THE HEADLINE IN THE FIRST SENTENCE

DOS IN FEATURE WRITING

WRITE IN PAST TENSE THIRD PERSON USE A FEATURE FORMAT NAME ALL PEOPLE, PLACES, EVENTS RELEVANT TO THE STORY WRITE IN NATURAL OR INFORMAL STYLE USE CLEAR LOGICAL TRANSITION INTERVIEW TO CAPTURE FEELINGS AND PERSONAL REACTION USE CLEAR , CRISP AND STRONG ACTION VERB USE GENTLE HUMOR WHENEVER POSSIBLE

Thank you