Monday, 18 November 2013

Introduction to feature writing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25035280

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/magazine/casey-affleck-should-be-more-famous.html?ref=magazine&_r=0


http://longform.org/stories/zepps-last-stand


http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21590100-after-dreadful-decade-abroad-americans-are-unduly-pessimistic-about-their-place





Feature writers.
Lynn Barber – the Observer
Patrick Cockburn – the Independent
Deborah Orr – the Independent
John Pilger
Barbara Ellen – the Observer/Guardian
Miranda Sawyer – various
Simon Barnes – the Times
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

In features you cannot forget the...
WHAT
WHERE
WHEN 
WHO 
WHY
HOW

         When writing features think of news being a pyramid, most important information at the top as the story goes on it get more into details and is longer. Features are usually longer, they are more thought about and researched into, they contain comments, they are a form of entertainment but still have hard facts and allows the writer to write about theories aswell as facts. 


•Peg: how you lure readers in
•Angle: slant, approach, interpretation
•Quotes: bring feature to life
•Colour: detail descriptions
•Tone: how you say something
•Voice: words author, expert, friend, gossip
•Packaging: pics, graphics, sidebars, case studies, Q&A, audio, video

         Different type of features may include, profiles, trends, first person: eye witness, confessional human interest, news backgrounder/ colour, lifestyle, travel, follow-up news feature, leader/ analysis and a review. 

"Grab the reader by the throat in the first paragraph, sink your thumbs into the windpipe in the second and hold him against the wall unti the tag line." - Paul O'Neil - American Writer. 


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