WRITING A FEATURE

ARTICLE

Casablanca Bloggers program 2012

 OUTLINE
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 What is a Feature Article?

 Feature Articles Aspects
 Types of Feature Articles:
 A personality profile.
 A human-interest story.
 An in-depth look at an issue.
 Start Writing a Feature Articles
 Types of Intros:
 Anecdotal Intro
 A Contrast Lead
 A Quote Intro
 The Question Lead
 WHAT IS A FEATURE
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ARTICLE?
 A feature article is a soft news story that can
be delivered in a number of ways. It can come
in the form of:

A personality profile.
 A human-interest story.
 An in-depth look at an issue.

 A feature article is more free flowing and less

restrictive than a straight news article.
 WHAT IS A FEATURE
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ARTICLE?

 Feature articles are not meant to deliver the

news, but they contain elements of news.
Their main purpose is to add the human
element to the news, to add color and feeling.
They often recap major news that already has
been re-ported.
 1- A PERSONALITY PROFILE
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 A feature article can be a personality profile of

a young student participating in the elections
in a particular district in Morocco for the first
time.

 The soft news is the profile of the student, which

brings readers more information about youths
who participate in the elections.
 The breaking news would be the day of the
election itself.
 2- A HUMAN-INTEREST
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STORY
 Human-interest stories are similar to personal
profiles, however they usually do not have a
strong news objective or value. They are
reported because they are touching, unusual
or have emotional or entertainment value.
 A human-interest story can be about a group
of guys in their 60s practicing sport every
Sunday in a public park. Interviews with these
people can be very interesting since we don’t
know their story and what they might say.
 3- AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT AN
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ISSUE
 When writing a feature article that is an in-
depth look at an issue you can take little extra
time to do research on the topic you want to
write about and conduct interviews to go
beyond the basic news story.
 For example, you can spend some time with
street children interviewing them and
discussing their living conditions to see how
they live and how they cope with their
difficulties every day.
 START WRITING A FEATURE
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ARTICLES

 Feature articles are usually not written in the

traditional inverted pyramid form with a hard
news lead. As mentioned previously, people
usually have a little more time on their hands
when they read feature stories. That gives the
writer the opportunity to bring the readers into
the story, to get them involved.
 TYPES OF INTROS
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 A good intro usually creates a mood for the

reader to continue reading a feature article and
therefore you should choose an appropriate
intro to start your feature article with. Here are
a few examples:
 Anecdotal Intro
 A Contrast Lead

 A Quote Intro

 The Question Lead

 ANECDOTAL INTRO
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 Anecdotal - or narrative - intro draws the

reader into the story by setting the scene for
them. It can take several paragraphs to set the
scene before getting to the real reason for the
story. When choosing this type of intro, you
need to get your readers attached to a person
or situation so they will continue reading.
 As a rule, the reason for the story is usually in
the third or fourth paragraph. In journalism
lingo, this is referred to as the nut graph.
► See the example.
 A CONTRAST LEAD
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 A contrast lead makes comparisons such as

old and new, or modern and classic. These
types of intros are great for historical-type
stories.

► See the example.

 A QUOTE INTRO
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 A good quote can be used as an intro to a

feature story, but it must be a powerful quote
to be effective and set the tone for what is to
follow in the story.
 A quote must always be written between
quotation marks “…” and you must always
state the name of the person to which you
attribute the quote.

► See the example.

 THE QUESTION LEAD
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 A question lead is when you ask a question at the

beginning of the story in the first paragraph and
the answer is found in the second or later
paragraph.
 Readers usually don’t like such intro because they
are expecting answers not questions and thus
when you start a story with a question it must be
an interesting and provocative question to grab
the attention of the reader.

► See the example.

 DO NOT FORGET
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1. After the intro, in the third or the fourth paragraph

in the feature story, you should include
information as to why you are writing the story.
2. Include the news in your feature article which
would most likely be information from a
previously written hard news story.
3. Provide plenty of background information in the
feature article because you are expanding on a
news angle.
4. Sprinkle your story with quotes, especially early
in the article, to establish a good reader/source
relationship.
 REFERENCE
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 Ross, R & Cormier,

SC. 2010.
Handbook for
citizen journalists.
Denver, Colorado:
National Association
of Citizen
Journalists (NACJ).