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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.