Feature Writing Opinión Writing. Feature Writing A colorful story about people, events, places and...

Feature WritingOpinión Writing

Feature Writing• A colorful story about people, events, places and

life.• Researched and creative piece of writing with

information drawn from eye witnesses and experts on the subject.

• Occasionally subjective, but often factual in nature

Feature Writing

• “An in-depth and factual write up on a topical issue which seeks to give comprehensive information in a more captivating and relaxed style than straight news”.

Feature Writing

• Its subject can be anything: places, a community, a farm, a business, education, science, economy, religion, philosophy; events, parades, programs, concerts; people-well known or unknown animals unusual or ordinary; objects of art or product.

• Succinctly features can be anything or everything on which one wishes to write.

Feature Writing

• A feature story must be unusual e.g. car crash (except if it involves a prominent

• personality)

• It must have the human interest dimension as this gives the reader or listener a sense of personal relationship with the subject.

Characteristic of Feature

• Imperishable

• A feature article does not perish, unlike the story which becomes stale the next day.

• The feature story is not attached to such time-frames since it is usually carefully selected and created at the feature writer’s convenience.

Characteristic of Feature

• Cannot be scooped

• Someone’s particular feature article cannot be published in its originality before hand, by another writer.

• The choice of topics for future stories is simply is the prerogative of the feature writer.

Characteristic of Feature

• Can be created from mundane ideas or issues

• The choice of topics for features includes both the serious and trivial.

Characteristic of Feature

• Give in-depth information on topical issues

• Writer must have investigated the topic before presenting the different angles to the audience.

• Relaxed atmosphere gives room for adequate survey of facts and information on the topic to be “featurized

Characteristic of Feature

• Fleshy and Colorful

• The feature writer adds more flesh to the straight news to make it a feature story.

• The language of the feature is supposed to be colorful, having been written in figurative and in flowery constructions.

• Language is quite different from the formal language of straight news. It is picturesque, informal and humorous.

Characteristic of Feature

• Stylish

• To use own peculiar approach to writing which could be in form of own word-coinages, romantic expressions, captivating images or use of language.

• Style differentiates one writer from another and it professionally allows the writer to shift his mode of writing.

Types of Feature Stories

• Categorization of the features into different types.

• But overlaps cannot be ruled out in some cases.

Types of Feature Stories

• Process “how-to-do-it” feature

• Educational because it teaches readers how to do things.

• In a simple playful and funny manner, the audience is informed and educated on certain issues.

• A lot of readers want to learn certain skills.

Types of Feature Stories

• Personal Experience Stories

• A reporter on duty may suddenly find himself in an unexpected circumstance; e.g. beaten up by a mob.

• He may want to narrate his ordeal to the public.

Types of Feature Stories

• Personal Experience Stories

• Some newspapers have columns called the “Reporters Notebook” where journalists recount their personal experiences in form of features.

• Personal experience stories could also be a form of features based on participant observation.

Types of Feature Stories• Personality Profiles• Human interest feature with close look at the

personality of a prominence. It involves achievers• The space allotted to a person’s profile depends

on his prominence. For instance,• an obituary profile could take the whole of a

paper’s front page, depending on the person’s prominence.

• General profiles could be written also on organizations and places.

Types of Feature Stories

• Commemorative Features.

• These are features written to commemorate important events in a nation or in the world.

• For instance, a beautiful feature can be done on the commemoration of the 60 years of World War II.

Types of Feature Stories

• Hobbyist and Odd Occupation

• Feature stories can equally be written on:

• Hobby: A person’s unique hobby could be quite newsworthy and so be featurised.

• Odd Occupation: Odd Occupations such as “reverse driving” can make very interesting feature stories.

Types of Feature Stories

• Participatory feature

• This is quite similar to experience feature. It involves a recount of one’s experience on an event he participated in.

Types of Feature Stories

• The Capsule feature or features

• This is a short snappy, compact feature about people in the news. Some magazines call it newsmakers e.g. Newsweek. Some call it “in the news” as in Newswatch.

• The focus is usually on celebrities and newsworthy people making news in light-hearted manner.

Types of Feature Stories

• The Travelogue

• This is an account of a trip to a place of interest. It informs the readers about life in other places and draws lessons by comparing life in those places with the situation at home.

Types of Feature Stories

• The Exposee or Alarmer

• Type of feature that exposes or identifies something wrong in the society.

• Examples are: Advanced Fee Fraud, Child-Trafficking, Brain -Drain

Types of Feature Stories

• Seasonal Features

• Are those features that are tied to the calendar.

• They deal with different seasons such as Easter, Christmas, Ramadan, Valentine, Children’s day, Worker’s day Independence

Types of Feature Stories

• Specialized Features

• These are features that focus on special areas such as: Science, Farming, Leisure Traveling, Botany etc. Example: A feature on the use of bamboo for furniture and crafts.