JOURNALISM

Pasay City National Science High School

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PRAYER
 GOOD
AFTERNOON!
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NEWS STORY/STRAIGHT NEWS

vs. 3

FEATURE STORY
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 Features Defined 1

Feature is an essay based on facts.

Its main purpose is to entertain or
2
present human interest stories. Like
an editorial, it is hung on a newspeg.
It is hard to define a feature article
because it can take many forms and 3
can cover many subjects. However, a
reader may easily distinguish feature
stories from news stories through its
different characteristics. 4
 Main Objective of Features 1

The main objective of news is to

inform, while a feature article 2

aims to entertain. Feature articles

may also instruct, advise, inform, 3

and entertain at the

same time.
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Features and News Compared
Unlike a straight news story, a feature article may be of
T
any length ranging from a rather long magazine article
publishes, for example in the Panorama or Reader’s Digest,
to the short human interest story published in the feature W
page of a campus publication. They may or may not be
timely. Side by side with an earthquake news story may be a
feature article on past earthquakes that had hit the country. T
This is called a sidebar. Also, a feature article may be
written in any form and style. It rarely has a summary lead.
Instead, it usually begins with a novelty lead. F
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News Feature vs. Feature Article T

It is important to stress here that a news feature,

sometimes referred to as featurized news, is not a W
feature article but a news story which is based on
facts but containing explanations, background,
and impression of the writer. Its main aim is to T
inform. It can start in almost any manner and it
usually appears with the author’s byline
F
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News Feature

News Feature vs. Feature Article T

A feature article, on the other hand, aims to W

entertain rather than to inform, although it

may do both at the same time.
T

F
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EXAMPLE
Here is an example on how a feature article differs from a straight
T
(factual and objective) news story or from a news feature.

Suppose a school celebrates its

W
Foundation Day. A straight or
featurized news story about this
will say how the occasion was
celebrated, who the guest speaker T

was and what his message was about,

the highlight of the activities, and the
different contests held. F
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EXAMPLE
Here is an example on how a feature article differs from a straight
T
(factual and objective) news story or from a news feature.

A brief history about the school may

W
be published as a sidebar to the
banner news. This is a feature article.
Another feature article may be about
T
the namesake of the school, usually a
national hero, which may be published
in the features section. F
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EXAMPLE
Here is an example on how a feature article differs from a straight
T
(factual and objective) news story or from a news feature.

It is interesting to note, however, that

W
not all feature articles are related to
the news event which inspired the
article. Even if it were not Foundation
T
Day, the feature editors may write
about national heroes whose birthdays
or martyrdoms fall on the month of F
publication.
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But whether tied up or

not to a newspeg, the 2
feature article is
interesting, thus
entertaining because it 3
reveals something new
about people, things,
and events. Or it
4
revives a memory
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Topics for Feature Stories
What should be written as feature stories? Using a cliché, a feature article,
like an essay, may be on any topic under the sun from A to Z. T
For campus writing the following broad topics are suggested to feature
editors, for their features sections:

Personalities W

Experience and adventure

Description
Narratives T

Backgrounders

Developmental Feature Articles

F
What to Do and How to Do Articles
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1.Personalities

– This feature article, sometimes called a character sketch, is usually T

short. It may be about a student leader, a successful alumnus, a teacher,
a school staff member, or even about an industrious janitor. The student
to be featured should not always be the campus doll, nor the dashing W
Romeo of the class, but the achiever, the builder, or the innovator.

A community member who has raised the biggest squash or the fattest
hog in his backyard deserves to be played up. In writing a character T
sketch, the emphasis should be on the person, what he says and
thinks, and what he does for development. His date of birth and the
bundle of certificates he has accumulated for attending seminars should F
take the back seat.
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2. Experience and adventure
– Suppose a group of science students had attended a national
T
science camp. Each one of them has an interesting story to relate –
the workshop seminar, the feasibility studies, the field trips, the
socials, and the putting out of the newsette. These may be
summarized as one big adventure story or may be written as W
separate featurettes. To make each story interesting, the student
should be made to write his story himself in the first person point of
view. In such a case, the story should appear with his byline. If he
T
can’t do this, a reporter writes the story for him. The byline would
then be written this way:

By Warner Castro F
(as told by Clarence Manuel)
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3. Description
– There are many significant events and special T
festivities in the school and in the community worth
writing about. Also, there are interesting projects made
by the students in the laboratory and their vocational W
and academic classes and by the community members in
their respective homes that need playing up. But in his
description, the writer should as much as possible be T
factual and original. Aside from this, he should use
simple and concrete words that are easily understood
by the layman or by Mr. Average Reader. F
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4. Narratives

T
– There are interesting stories to relate,
especially historical ones. Not all personal stories
W
are on adventures and experiences. An old
person in the community may be asked to narrate
how the district got its name or how in the olden T

days people fished or washed clothes in a

polluted estero nearby. F
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5. Backgrounders

– There are feature articles that T

explain the history or the background

of a certain events. Say for example, W
that the model platoon of a certain
school wins first place in a district
competition. A feature story about T

the organization of the pioneer

platoon is a backgrounder. F
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6. Developmental Feature Articles

– In a developing country like the Philippines, student T

editors should keep in step with developments that affect
mankind and should steer away from routine reporting.
They should not limit their stories to student politics, W

junior proms, and other school affairs. They should help

advance national, social, economic, and educational
T
programs such as those in social action, food production,
fight against dope addiction, criminality and all kinds of
vices, and the implementation of the Green Revolution,
F
CLEAN and beautification drives, and other kinds of
community service.
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T
There are other subjects of feature stories
that interest readers. Some of these are the
latest fads and fashions, book, movie and W
play reviews, and the “How to” articles. The
last one explains a process or a method like
“How to Raise Mushrooms.” It tells, for T
example, how to conserve energy, how to
fight pollution, or how to raise poultry in
the backyard. F
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7. What to Do and How to Do Articles
– There are also “What to” articles.
T
There are those that tell what to do
during an earthquake, a typhoon, an
emergency, or the like. Some of W
these articles can develop the
subject either by a series of rules
starting with “Do” or by having the T
writer describe the process in his
own words. Usually, these kinds of
feature articles are accompanied by F
pictures or illustrations.
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WHAT TO DO/HOW TO DO ARTICLE M

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DEVELOPMENT FEATURES M

F
PERSONALITIES (CHARACTER SKETCH) M

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FEATURE ARTICLES

Questions? W

F
 How to Introduce 1

the Feature Article 2

Unlike a straight news story, a feature article

may begin in any form and in any style. This 3
depends on the topic or purpose of the writer.
Most features, however, may be introduced by
any of the following:
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1. Rhetorical Question

Who says that age is an obstacle to education? T

Take it from Danilo Marcelo of Arayat, Pampanga

W
who stopped going to school seven years ago
after finishing the elementary grades. This year,
at 24, he enrolled as a first year evening student T

at Abada High School

F
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2. Startling Statement
“Hindi pa kami laos!” T

Thus exclaimed the young once teachers,

administrators, parents, community and barangay W

members as they set aside one special day during the

school’s celebration of Community Week to have a
T
share of the festivities, and of course to display their
hidden talents.
F
Title: Hindi Pa Kami Laos
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3. Narrative Opening

Mrs. Adelfa Prado, a fourth year evening student, T

sends herself and her six children to school, acting

as mother and father at the same time. W

Every day, Mrs. Prado divides her time as half time

tindera tending her sarisari store during the day and T

as half-time student studying at night.

Title: Half Here, Half There F
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4. Quoted Remarks

“I earn while I learn.” He smiled at me as the T

interview reeled off. “How can you work, have a

part-time job, and at the same time go to school?” W

I asked.
“Well, it is easy,” he explained. “I don’t do all of T

these at the same time.”

Title: I Earn While I Learn F
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5. An Old Maxim, an Aphorism, or a Salawikain

“Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to T

drink.”
W
This quotation from the Rime of the Ancient
Mariner by Samuel Coleridge does not hold true
any more. Today, even flood water can quench T

the thirst. How?

Title: Drinking Flood Water, Anyone? F
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6. History or Background of the Subject

T
Muslims throughout the world, including our
Filipino Muslim brothers, observe the holy month
of Ramadan starting Sept. 17. Ramadan is the W

ninth lunar month of the Muslim calendar. It is

observed by Muslims just as the Lenten Season is T
commemorated by Christians.
Title: Knowing Our Muslim Brothers F
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7. Problems to be Discussed and
the Article or Fact to be Established
T

There is an answer to the rising cost of

W
vegetables: raise your own.
Title: Backyard Gardening
T

There is no end to interesting, effective openers of

feature stories. There are still many other ways. F
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