Some Tips for Writing a Terrific Feature Article
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
by Diane E. Samson
Feature articles are the ones we love to read when we have a few moments to ourselves. We’re not necessarily reading to just get the facts like we would from a news article. The feature explores the human side of a story. When we are finished reading a feature, we should be changed a little bit. Our emotions might be stirred, or we might be challenged in some way.
Well, that’s the ideal, right? Now for the nuts and bolts. All articles should have a basic structure. Features are no exception. Here are some points to make your feature articles stronger.
1. Write a great lead. This is may be obvious, but you must pull your reader into the story. Leads often come to me after I have interviewed the primary person in the article. What were they most passionate about? Remember details from your interview. How did the person look, feel or act? Bring some of the setting into the story. The lead should be only one paragraph.
2. Make the next paragraph the “nut ” graph. This is the paragraph that basically sums up what the article is going to be about.
3. Give the background of the story. The next paragraph can tell some background information your reader might need to know about this subject. If your main subject shows horses, for example, you might have to share some of your research about the horse show world.
4. Now begin making three or four points of your story. If you are interviewing more than one person, sometimes it is helpful to keep the quotes from each person together. Readers sometimes get confused when you add quotes from a person early in the story at the end. Sometimes, though, it’s ok to break this rule if what they have to say fits better elsewhere in the story. You might have to reintroduce that person, however.
5. Now is time for the closing. Begin to summarize the main points of the story.
6. End with a kicker. This is something you want the reader to take away from the story. You want your reader to think about this story throughout the day.
Hopefully these tips will help you in your feature writing. Of course, the fundamentals of good writing never change, no matter what you are writing or who the audience is. These include simple, clear sentences and proper grammar and punctuation. Showing details, keeping a consistent pace in the story and writing with good appeal to the reader’s senses also are important parts of good writing.
Topics: Uncategorized |