Feature Writing

Feature writing Human interest stories about people, places or situations

• An article written in an individual style • It shows than tells • Has more details • Has more colour • Told in a less hurried way and more creative way • A feature dramatizes and supplements facts by providing detailed information • descriptive

Different ways of writing a feature • • • • •

Choose a topic/compelling story Do your research, talk to relevant persons, visit the scene Focus on a single person for your lead Focus on an incident Describe a setting/scene – Guddi, the shortest mother, Charkhi Dadri crash – man looking for his sister who wore a red saree • Start off with a single person/incident and then bring in the overall picture • Juxtapose, draw a parallel – feature on Agra dacoits

Broadly two types of features – news features and otherwise Journalistic standards of accuracy, fairness and precision are applicable to features. Types of features – Personality features – success stories, obituaries etcetera, Social features (issue-based) – problems of society like brideburning, dowry, urban and rural poverty, discrimination against girl child, Culture features – art, culture, music, archaeology, architecture, Science and Technology features, Career features, historical features, travel features, feature on offbeat, weird people/events (Coverasiapress, newslions) and Health features and photo-features (displaced people in Assam after communal riots). Eyewitness reporting Beginning, middle and end (conclusion).

• Personality feature – example monkey woman in South Delhi • Obituary- Inderjit Gupta • Archaeology feature – Rakhigarhi • Science feature – DRDO research • Narrative feature – messenger of god • Crime feature – jagendra singh • Weird people – Ravana’s village, Bastar women • Photo feature – camel fair, displaced Muslims in Assam

Structure of a feature Intro, Elaboration, Elucidation, Interpretation, narration – mixing facts with examples experiences (Sunita Aron’s book on Akhilesh Yadav, Gurmeet Ram Rahim – the messenger of God), happy ending – drawing lessons, further possibilities, Conclusion. News features – Gulf News and other foreign newspapers (Senior Care givers).

Difference between a news report and a feature • News is told in a matter-of-fact way/tone while feature will have individual style • A feature dramatises and supplements facts by providing detailed information. News story is based on facts and facts alone • News story only informs. Feature attracts, charms, educates, entertains, fascinates and may even suggest a solution • News has a lead and a body. Feature has a conclusion as well • News is topical, lasts a short duration. Feature has a much longer life • News reports were present in pre-independence period. Feature has developed after 1950s.