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    Feature Writing Tips 90338328C01BE

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    feeamali1445
    Feature stories differ from hard news stories in that they focus more on reader interest than immediacy of events. Features surround facts with elaboration, interpretation, context and emotion to communicate truth in a different way. Story ideas can come from anywhere, and it's important to decide on a clear focus and understand your audience. Thorough background research and collecting more information than needed through observation and descriptive notes is key. The writing process involves using vivid verbs and nouns, selecting the best quotes, providing specific descriptions to create a detailed picture, and revising to clarify the story's focus. Figurative language like metaphor, simile, personification and hyperbole helps recreate scenes while anecdotes, quotes and description engage readers

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    Feature Writing Tips 90338328C01BE

    Uploaded by

    feeamali1445
    65 views2 pages
    Feature stories differ from hard news stories in that they focus more on reader interest than immediacy of events. Features surround facts with elaboration, interpretation, context and emotion to communicate truth in a different way. Story ideas can come from anywhere, and it's important to decide on a clear focus and understand your audience. Thorough background research and collecting more information than needed through observation and descriptive notes is key. The writing process involves using vivid verbs and nouns, selecting the best quotes, providing specific descriptions to create a detailed picture, and revising to clarify the story's focus. Figurative language like metaphor, simile, personification and hyperbole helps recreate scenes while anecdotes, quotes and description engage readers

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    EDUCATIONAL PIECE ABOUT FEATURE WRTITIG

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    Feature stories differ from hard news stories in that they focus more on reader interest than immediacy of events. Features surround facts with elaboration, interpretation, context and emotion to communicate truth in a different way. Story ideas can come from anywhere, and it's important to decide on a clear focus and understand your audience. Thorough background research and collecting more information than needed through observation and descriptive notes is key. The writing process involves using vivid verbs and nouns, selecting the best quotes, providing specific descriptions to create a detailed picture, and revising to clarify the story's focus. Figurative language like metaphor, simile, personification and hyperbole helps recreate scenes while anecdotes, quotes and description engage readers

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    65 views2 pages

    Feature Writing Tips 90338328C01BE

    Uploaded by

    feeamali1445
    Feature stories differ from hard news stories in that they focus more on reader interest than immediacy of events. Features surround facts with elaboration, interpretation, context and emotion to communicate truth in a different way. Story ideas can come from anywhere, and it's important to decide on a clear focus and understand your audience. Thorough background research and collecting more information than needed through observation and descriptive notes is key. The writing process involves using vivid verbs and nouns, selecting the best quotes, providing specific descriptions to create a detailed picture, and revising to clarify the story's focus. Figurative language like metaphor, simile, personification and hyperbole helps recreate scenes while anecdotes, quotes and description engage readers

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    Features Writing Techniques

    Feature Story vs. News Story


    Hard news stories move briskly through the five W's and the H, packing in just enough detail to give readers a clear picture of the news. Immediacy is everything in hard news. In features, the immediacy of the event is secondary. It's replaced by reader interest. Bare facts are surrounded by elaboration, interpretation, mood, context, detailed description, emotion, irony and humor. The goal of a feature story is to communicate the truth -- not fiction -- in a different way than a hard news story.

    Writing Process
    Story Ideas
    Feature story ideas come from everywhere -- from your editor, personal observation, conversations overheard in the dining facility, etc. Once you have a story idea, decide exactly what focus you want to emphasize. Your focus is the angle you want for the story. Remember your audience -- who you're writing for when writing features.

    Collecting the Information


    Always do background research for your story, if possible. You must have a clear idea of your subject before you set the interview. Plan your questions Always collect more information than you need. It's better than not enough. Capture the emotion. People want to know how your subject feels about why he/she does something. Use all your senses. See, hear, smell, touch, taste. Make notes of how people move, dress, speak, etc. Observe. Train yourself to notice everything.

    Write the story


    Use descriptive verbs and nouns instead of adverbs and adjectives. Use only the best quotes. The quotes must SAY or SHOW something. Be specific in description. Create a detailed picture the reader can SEE.

    Revise and rewrite


    Write the story, then polish it. Test your story by asking "What is this story about?" Your lead and focus transition should answer that question.

    Feature Writing Techniques


    Figurative language helps recreate scenes or sensations. It's how a writer shows vs. tells the story. Devices include:

    Metaphor -- An implied comparison between two unlike things. (EXAMPLE: To the soldiers in his unit, Jacobs walks on water." Simile -- A stated comparison between two unlike things. (EXAMPLE: The borders in Israel shift almost as often as the sands in the Judean Hills.) Personification-- Giving life-like characteristics to something lifeless. Hyperbole -- Emphasizing something by deliberately overstating or understating it. Good feature stories contain anecdotes, description, attributive verbs and direct quotes.

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