FEATURE WRITING

When new reporters first learn the basics of news writing, many complain that the
standard inverted pyramid technique cramps their style and limits their creativity.
There are some things that a writer can't do in an eight-inch news piece – like set a
scene, narrate a story, explore several different aspects of an issue or profile a
person's life or career. That's why there are features.

News stories and features are meant to complement each other, and allow a
newspaper to offer well-rounded coverage that varies in depth and timeliness. While
the two styles share basic elements, they differ in the treatment of an issue, the
depth of research, the style of writing and the structure of the piece.

WHAT IS A FEATURE?

Perhaps it's easier to define a feature by saying what it isn't. A feature isn't simply a
long or extended news story. The inverted pyramid style works fine on short-to-
medium length stories, but it can be tedious to read and downright boring in longer
pieces.

Neither is a feature an editorial or opinion piece. Departing from a straight news

structure doesn't mean we forget research, attribution, quotes and attention to
several sides of an issue.

And while a feature is similar in structure to an essay, it should not read like an
academic paper. Scholarly writing is difficult to read precisely because it is written
with scholars in mind. Don't lapse into jargon, stilted language, windy paragraphs
and an academic tone when you are writing for a general audience.

If the news story structure is known as an inverted pyramid, the feature could be
described as an hourglass. Instead of starting with the most juicy, timely or relevant
details – and working down to less gripping information – the feature pulls the
reader in with the lede, winds through with a narrative based on research and
interviews and then leads to a conclusion.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF FEATURES

Features can serve many different purposes for a journalist.

For instance, investigation features usually evolve from an insider tip or a hunch by
the journalist that things are not what they seem. The reporter is prompted to
investigate an issue and clarify the elements. The story becomes longer, more
detailed and more informative than the original news story.

To use an example, your paper may have published a brief sports story on an athlete
suspended for steroid use. This could become a starting point for an investigative
feature on drug use in university sports. Who knows, you may discover performance-
enhancing drugs are rampant across Canadian campuses. Or that a drug company is
making millions off the sales of steroids.

Another strength of a feature is that it gives a writer an opportunity to profile

someone’s life and career. So look to artists, educators, politicians, community
activists, business people, scientists and others in your community and campus. And
don't just interview them – talk to the people they work and live with and anyone
who's been affected by them.

HOW TO GET STARTED

A good feature writer is always paying attention to what is going on around them.
They read everything they can, listen to gossip and other people's conversations,
watch television and listen to radio, and observe everything they encounter in their
daily life.

By immersing yourself in information, you can develop a germ of an idea and let
yourself go with it. Brainstorm by jotting down every aspect of a topic – but don't
edit yourself at first, just come up with a slew of ideas until you hit on an interesting
theme. After you have decided on a focussed subject for an article, look critically at
your ideas. Toss what’s been done to death and come up with a fresh angle. Narrow
your idea into a tightly-focussed story proposal by describing it in a five-word title, or
maybe shape it into the main question you'd want your story to answer.

Once you have chosen a topic to write on, it’s research time. Look through back
issues of your paper, the city paper and publications related to the topic. Once you're
familiar with your area, decide who you'll talk to, look for their phone numbers and
draw up a list of questions for them.

Like a news story, interviewing people for a feature means you must listen carefully
to the answers. But the process should be aided by keeping your eyes and ears on
alert for detail: the way people look, talk, and move. What does a place look like?
Pay attention to the sights, sounds and smells around you. And watch for physical
elements that can act as a metaphor. Books on a bookshelf, for instance, are a great
way to illustrate someone’s mindset.

Most straight news writing tends to be very dry. But in a feature, you can add lots of
colour by giving the players in your story a human face. What would be useless
information in a hard news piece – the way someone dresses, a person’s daily
routine, the decorations in someone’s office or apartment – can become very
important in a feature.

As you have probably figured out, however, a feature requires you to synthesize a lot
more information than a news piece. That is why the first draft of a feature is simply
a way to get all your information down on paper or onto the computer screen. Type
the most important parts of your notes out, write key sections, then cut-and-paste
them into some sort of coherent order. You can refine your lede, add or delete
quotes or whole interviews, and juggle the sequence around as you progress.

As you write your second or further drafts, you may discover that some questions
are left unanswered and that more research or additional interviews are needed.
Have someone read your drafts and offer an outsider's point of view before you fine-
tune your final version.

The final step is to edit your feature for clarity and colour. It is at this point where
you refine sentences, find better choices for words, cut out wordiness and clutter,
and ensure your story flows in a coherent fashion. Pay special attention to the lede –
the opening lines of your story, which serve to grab the interest of your readers and
pull them into the story.

In the middle, make sure you build your thesis up carefully, point by point. But avoid
“ping-pong journalism.” Don't just bounce from one source to another, contrasting
their arguments. The reader will go bug-eyed. Interject differing opinions selectively
within a section.

Finally, the conclusion should not trail off as many news stories do. It should draw
the strings together and give the piece a sense of cohesion. As with the opening
paragraphs, select quotes or an anecdote that illustrate your conclusions, or sum up
with an irony. In a feature you have lots of space to work with, so do not feel like
you have to write an upbeat ending, or decide the fate of the world in one final
sentence.

PROFILES

In non-journalists' terms, a profile is a side view of somebody's face. The written

profile, similarly, takes a look at a person from a particular angle -- although the
power of words allows us to rotate, cross-section and fracture that image to get a 3-
D portrait across. A profile is a mini-biography, a character sketch, a celebration or
an expose of a particular person or group of people.

Why write profiles? First, because human beings are inherently interesting, if you
write about them well. Writing about people helps your readers (who, believe it or
not, are people) identify themselves with the story. Second, it similarly allows you to
humanize social situations and political issues. If you profile a politician,
administrator or community leader, readers get a glimpse of what motivates their
actions for good or for ill. If you profile someone living through oppression or fighting
for her rights, it dramatizes the issues involved. And if you place a person in a social
context, it gives the reader an idea of what it might be like to experience life in
another place or from another perspective.

You can cover a sleazy administrator, an interesting student, or a little-known

professor. Or choose someone from the surrounding community who is at the centre
of some controversy or some innovative program or group.

Before arranging any interviews, find out everything you can about your subject.
Talk to some of his/her/their friends, associates, enemies.

What stands out about your subject? Think of your first impressions of that person.
Have they changed since before the interview (better or worse)? What about them
makes them significant to the readers' own lives? Whatever the primary impression
is, use it as the centrepiece for your profile.

The end result should be something of a mini-drama, blending description, action,

and dialogue. The source(s) should do most of the talking, not you. Profiles should
include plenty of quotes, and should usually touch on the following, in whatever
order works journalistically:

1. The person's background (birth, upbringing, education, and occupation)

2. Anecdotes and incidents involving the subject

3. Comments by the individual about herself, and about the subject that makes her
newsworthy

4. The reporter's observations

5. Comments of those who know the interviewee (friend or foe, ideally both)

6. A news peg, whenever possible, which indicates why the subject is significant

After reading your profile, the readers should not be asking themselves why they've
read that story. If that's the case, you haven't done your job. You haven't made the
person appealing or repulsive, or demonstrated where they fit into a certain
structure or problem, or anything. Never leave the reader indifferent.

ADVANCED FEATURES: THE NEW JOURNALISM

A significant development in the art of feature writing over the past few decades is
the rise and decline of what's called New Journalism. This style of writing challenges
the traditions of objective writing in the commercial press and relies on a more
literary style.

New Journalism can be traced back to the 1960s, when reporters like Hunter S.
Thompson and Tom Wolfe turned news writing on its head. Central to the philosophy
of New Journalism is the belief that a reporter should become part of any scene they
are reporting on. This call for subjectivity, in sharp contrast to the detached
approach advocated in most newsrooms, is a radical step.

Most reporters make sure they participate as little as possible in any event they’re
covering. For instance, a reporter writing on a demonstration will refrain from
marching in the rally. In contrast, New Journalism advocates that reporters become
part of the event. So when Hunter S. Thompson wrote Fear and Loathing in Las
Vegas – his seminal 70s novel on a drug-crazed adventure in Vegas – he didn’t
interview policemen, gamblers or tourists. Rather, he got stoned out of his gourd and
chose to portray Las Vegas through his own drug-crazed eyes.

Not all New Journalism is as crazy as the writings of Thompson. A reporter who
sleeps on the street for a period of time, while working on a feature of
homelessness, is engaging in New Journalism. This is also called participatory
observation.

New Journalism, however, is not synonymous with mainstream investigative

reporting. A key difference between investigative journalism, as practised by the
Washington Post during Watergate, and New Journalism is found in distinct writing
styles.

Investigative reporters rely on standard writing techniques, such as the inverted

pyramid. New Journalists, on the other hand, revel in unconventional writing forms.
These flowery techniques range from word play to descriptive phrases that are more
at home in a novel than a conventional newspaper.

New Journalism provides a fascinating form for a reporter to work with. Be wary,
however, of succumbing to ego. Too often reporters experimenting with New
Journalism begin describing themselves and their fantasies at the expense of the
larger story. Like all experiments, use this style with caution.

MAKING FEATURES A REGULAR PART OF YOUR PAPER

Find a freelance writer or a reporter at your local paper who writes features to share
their secrets with budding feature writers.

Draw up a list of features you'd like to tackle in your paper each semester. Assign
them to interested writers as you would news or entertainment stories. Pairs or
teams of feature writers can often accomplish more together by dividing up the
interviews and fighting it out at the computer keyboard on how the story will read.

Reserve space for the scheduled features and do a good job on layout and design to
highlight these stories. If writers spend time, energy and creativity on their pieces,
they ought to see their work treated well in your pages. Put notices on your front
cover, or in the previous issue, telling the readers to watch out for the hot feature
coming up.

Clip and post examples of good features you find in newspapers and magazines.
Reading good writing is a great way to get motivated to do some good writing