Feature Writing
Articles/Feature stories/feature articles/features
A feature writer should be fond of accuracy, love brevity and be devoted to clarity. He should be a topic-explorer and have the craft of kindling interest in insipid ‘ideas’. A good public pulse reader, a charming discoverer of life in words and a possessor of effective writing skills to spin magic in the content is what all is required from a good writer who is actually, in this case, a presenter of useful knowledge.
Good feature writing is tough but can be made easier if you are able to distinguish the focal point and address it in an appealing way. Delve into the archives because the perceptual skill in writing a feature commands a lot of research and an equal measure of common sense.
You will wonder if there is any difference between an article and a feature. Certainly not. Write-ups are generally called articles by most people and feature is an additional word for it, perhaps, conceived by the media world. Like people outside the media world call a news item an article but journalists refer to it as a story. So don’t rake your brains further.
An extensive version containing various aspects of an issue of a current news is usually called a news feature. Other than the news-based, there are several topics on which features are written which may not necessarily be pompous in style but should carry most information that the reader may like to know. A well written feature with an effective and attractive headline and a brilliant slug guarantees a sound reading.
Hard news is shackled with the five Ws (what, where, when, who and why) and one H (How) while feature stories are not bound by any structural guidelines and are allowed to fascinate you by an intelligent mixture of writer’s creativity and available facts on the subject. It is well said by an Englishman Lord Northcliffe that ‘it is hard news that catches readers. Features hold them’.
Suppose you are writing a feature to
A feature writer should be fond of accuracy, love brevity and be devoted to clarity. He should be a topic-explorer and have the craft of kindling interest in insipid ‘ideas’. A good public pulse reader, a charming discoverer of life in words and a possessor of effective writing skills to spin magic in the content is what all is required from a good writer who is actually, in this case, a presenter of useful knowledge.
Good feature writing is tough but can be made easier if you are able to distinguish the focal point and address it in an appealing way. Delve into the archives because the perceptual skill in writing a feature commands a lot of research and an equal measure of common sense.
You will wonder if there is any difference between an article and a feature. Certainly not. Write-ups are generally called articles by most people and feature is an additional word for it, perhaps, conceived by the media world. Like people outside the media world call a news item an article but journalists refer to it as a story. So don’t rake your brains further.
An extensive version containing various aspects of an issue of a current news is usually called a news feature. Other than the news-based, there are several topics on which features are written which may not necessarily be pompous in style but should carry most information that the reader may like to know. A well written feature with an effective and attractive headline and a brilliant slug guarantees a sound reading.
Hard news is shackled with the five Ws (what, where, when, who and why) and one H (How) while feature stories are not bound by any structural guidelines and are allowed to fascinate you by an intelligent mixture of writer’s creativity and available facts on the subject. It is well said by an Englishman Lord Northcliffe that ‘it is hard news that catches readers. Features hold them’.
Suppose you are writing a feature to