News features

Notes by Vinita Srivastava

A news feature:

Explores an issueTells a complete storyProvides research, and factsGoes beyond a single eventUses the writer as witness

A good news feature includes:

Characters

Descriptions

Interviews

The logical process.

Come up with Story Idea

Outline the logical steps

Create a Draft

Edit and Polish

Your Style Choices?

Inverted pyramidChronologicalThe lead and nut graph AnecdotesThe hour glass (news, story

narrative, news).

Your news feature must have:

An interesting lead

A beginning, middle and an end

A good concluding graphFocus

Before you start writing:

Research your ideaGet a clear idea of your topic and

angleCreate one clear, concise

statement that sums up the story you want to tell

Create an outline

Remember your focus: statement of the story you want to tell

Brainstorm the different angles, or ways the story can be told

Chose one of the angles

Chose an angle:

Limited

Clearly focused

A conflict

Make it about People

Go on locationHumanize the storyFind a unique angle

Reporting - Keep it Real:

Writing:

Don’t bury the lead!

Your most surprising fact

Save something for your ending

Connect the end to introduction

Follow your outline and add:

QuotesFacts and numbersReporting ObservationsLead and or nut graphConclusion

Polish and Edit

Re read your story at least three times

Ask someone else to read it

Use your CP stylebook

Check your tenses

No first person

One idea per paragraph

Also check for:

Flow

Fairness

Facts

Example of inverted pyramid Some boos at graduation after judge bars prayer

Associated Press/ May 21, 2001

WASHINGTON, Ill. -- A top student who gave a traditional farewell speech at a high school graduation was booed and another student was applauded for holding a moment of silence after a judge barred prayer at the ceremony.

A federal judge issued a restraining order days before Sunday's ceremony at Washington Community High School blocking any student-led prayer. It was the first time in the 80-year history of the school that no graduation prayers were said.

Natasha Appenheimer, the class valedictorian, traditionally a top student chosen to give the class graduation speech, was booed when she received her diploma. Her family, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, had filed the lawsuit that led to the restraining order. Meanwhile, some stood and applauded class speaker Ryan Brown when he bowed his head for a moment of silence before his speech.

Example of a feature approachSchool Ceremony Downstate Under U.S. Court Order

By John Chase, Chicago Tribune, May 21, 2001

WASHINGTON, Ill. -- It was not the words graduating senior Ryan Brown spoke at Washington Community High School commencement services on Sunday that resonated in this small town just outside of Peoria.

It was what he did before he spoke.

Walking to the podium inside the gymnasium as a scheduled speaker, Brown paused, stepped to the side of the stage, folded his hands and bowed his head in a silent prayer. The gymnasium crowd of more than 1,000 students and adults erupted in cheers, with some standing to applaud while others blew air horns in celebration.

For the first time in this school's 80-year history, no prayer was heard publicly during graduation services, following a federal judge's ruling last week prohibiting it after the class valedictorian, Natasha Appenheimer, and her family obtained a temporary restraining order

against the public school district.