Feature Writing

 Feature Writing

Feature Writing is a literary and critically recognised form of writing in Journalism. It involves writing featured articles on trending topics, great personalities and relevant issues. This form of writing is generally longer than a specific news story and more informative in nature. Feature writings are used extensively in magazines, newspapers and online media. It covers a story in great depth and is intended to captivate the audience’s attention to a specific cause by looking at the story from a different angle. Did you know there is a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing? Keep reading to know more about feature writing and how to craft the best feature!

What is the Difference Between a News Story and a Feature Story?

People are often confused between a news story and a feature. Here are some basic differences between the two –

  1. While a news story usually covers recent or breaking news, feature writing can be issue specific that might not be recent. 
  2. A news story summarises the story whereas a feature focuses on anecdotal references.
  3. A feature contains a number of angles and sources whereas on the contrary a news story general is from a single source or angle.
  4. If we compare the structure of the forms of writing, the news story follows an inverted pyramid structure while feature writing has a flexible structure and can take a linear/non linear scale. Conclusion forms a very important part of the feature.

Different Types of Feature Writing

According to The Universal Journalist written by the British journalist David Randall and a critically acknowledged masterpiece on Journalism elaborates on the following different types of feature stories:

  • Colour Piece: A feature story that essentially tries to inform readers regarding a particular theme or subject.
  • Fly on the Wall: A feature story that is conceived and narrated unobtrusively and mostly without the explicit permission of the subjects.
  • Behind the Scenes: A feature story that shifts its focus from the principal event to the background and narrates an interesting tale.
  • In Disguise: A feature story that is told while the storyteller is a part of the event.
  • Interview: A feature story that develops itself around questions asked to a respondent, who is usually in a place of prominence.
  • Profile: A feature story that is based on the exploits of a particular eminent person with or without his/ her interview.
  • How-To: A feature story that is dependent on research and helps readers in solving a problem or deciphering a scenario.
  • Fact Box/ Chronology: A feature story that provides plain and simple facts mostly in a chronological order.
  • Backgrounder/ A History of: A feature story that provides detailed information.
  • Full Texts: A feature story that is nothing but extracts from a book or transcripts of an interview.
  • Testimony: A feature story that is the first-person account of an individual. 
  • Analysis: A feature story that scholarly analyzes an event.
  • Vox Pop/ Expert Roundup: A feature story that accumulates opinions from the general citizenry and thought leaders concerning a subject.
  • Opinion Poll: A feature story that conducts a research of opinions and presents a generalized summary of the accumulated opinions.
  • Review: A feature story that reviews a work of art and presents a generalized opinion.

 

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