Aura Carmela Ferrariz-Sendico

Presenter
What are Feature Stories?
• Feature stories make news
interesting by revealing the
emotions found in news stories
and clothe it by back grounding
and analyzing the meaning of
news events. Feature shares
information, but it should also
convey emotion and atmosphere
and analyze events and issues.
What are Feature Stories?
• Feature stories strive to inform, but they also can amuse,
entertain, inspire or stimulate. Because of their emotional
appeal, such stories are also known as “human interest
stories”.
What are Feature Stories?
• Feature writers borrow
techniques from fiction
and other creative
writing, often using
description, sensory details,
quotations, anecdotes,
scene setting, plot
structures, dialogue, humor
and color, and other
novelistic elements to
dramatize a story’s theme
and to add more details.
What you need to get for a feature story?

Journalists use three main sources for gathering information:

Elements of Feature Stories
1) FACTS AND FIGURES
•It is one thing to lament the about the Philippines
being “a nation of servants”, but another to
produce statistics confirming that the Philippines
has more citizens going overseas to become
domestic helpers than any other country in the
world.
Elements of Feature Stories
2) ANECDOTES
•Mini-stories that can be funny, sad, awe-inspiring,
etc. What they must be is revelatory.
Elements of Feature Stories
"BEIJING — The first sign of trouble was powder in the baby’s
urine. Then there was blood. By the time the parents took their son
to the hospital, he had no urine at all.

"Kidney stones were the problem, doctors told the parents. The
baby died on May 1 in the hospital, just two weeks after the first
symptoms appeared. His name was Yi Kaixuan. He was 6 months
old.”

-Edward Wong, New York Times

Elements of Feature Stories
3) QOUTES
Three reasons to use it:
•Reveals something about a person
•Important to hear what a newsmaker has to say on
a key point in the article.
•Garnish your feature with witty quotations.
Elements of Feature Stories
4) ATMOSPHERE
•Where hard news zip-locks emotions, feature
stories convey emotions through description,
whether of people, events or by quoting dialogue.
Elements of Feature Stories

5) ANALYSIS
•A journalist does not have to do all the analysis; it is
common for them to draw on the expertise of others,
particularly for complex, controversial subjects such
as crime rates.
Elements of Feature Stories
6) TELLING DETAILS
•Feature writers, like novelists, prize details
embedded in the grain of life because they lodge
deep in the reader’s consciousness.
Ex. The scars on a 16-year-old kargador’s arms is
a telling detail of how difficult it is to make a living
hauling sacks in the Muelle Loney pier.
Features Observe The Rules of Good
Journalism
• Like regular news stories, features must be
journalistically sound.
• Nothing can be made up.
• They must be factual, fair, balanced based on
verifiable information.
• They also must be objective-they are not essays or
editorials.
The Wall Street Journal Formula
Best applied to the Human Interest Story and General Feature
but can be used as an outline for other types of features.
•BEGINNING- Start with an anecdote or an illustration of the
theme.
•THEME -- Shortly after the beginning, state the point of the
piece. Don’t drop this point lower than the sixth paragraph.
•BODY - Provide details that elaborate on the theme. Tell the
reader what is happening and why and what’s being done
about the situation.
•ENDING - Reminder of the lead through a summary or an
example, anecdote or quote.
Writing Techniques
1) Descriptive and Narrative Techniques
Be specific and bring people in
•Not specific: It was a beautiful underground river.
•Specific: The Underground River in Palawan was a wonderful
sight to behold with its bluish-green waters that invite tourists
to experience relaxing boat rides.
•Not specific: He is very angry.
•Specific: His brother was pestering him that John has to punch
him in the eye. He looked like a real boxer who is always ready
to knock out his opponent.
Writing Techniques
2) Animate and Inanimate
•Inanimate: Leaves were on the ground.
•Animate: Leaves lie on the cold floor.
•Inanimate: The mountains had no vegetation.
•Animate: The mountains were deprived of their thick
green vegetation due to the mine’s sulphurous fumes that
intoxicate the new growth.
Writing Techniques
3) Show, Don’t Tell
•Tell: Johnny was happy when he received a gift.
•Show: Johnny, 10, excitedly untangled the ribbon of the gift from
his dad. Tears streamed down his cheeks when he saw the gift he
has been wanting for five years. Then, he uttered a very loud “Thank
You” which made everyone’s eyes turned to him.
•Tell: Vincent worked hard.
• Before the sun could rise, Vincent would prepare his tattered
uniform for the day’s work. He, then, proceed to the street armed
with his weapon that sweeps the plastics and dried leaves near the
school premises.
Writing Techniques
4) Use Figures of Speech
•A simile is an indirect comparison of two objects using the words “Like or as”. Ex. Mike is like
a big teddy bear
Christian smiles like an angel.
•A metaphor is comparing two unlike objects or things may have some common qualities.
Ex. Heart of stone
Time is money
•Personification occurs when a writer gives human traits to non-human or inanimate objects.
Ex. The flowers nodded.
Snowflakes danced.
•Hyperbole uses exaggeration for emphasis or effect. Examples are:
Ex. I’ve told you a hundred times.
It costs a billion dollars.
Writing Techniques
5) Use Your Senses
•Sight- clear, vague, cloudy, dark
•Hearing- loud, soft, high-pitched
•Taste- bitter, sweet, sour, etc.
•Smell- pungent, bland, putrid, etc
•Touch- rough, smooth and silky, etc.
 How to achieve coherence, unity and
emphasis in your feature?
1. To start with, you must know what you want to write. You’re clear with
your topic, theme, key message/s you wanted to impart with your
readers, and the type of feature you’ll to effectively deliver just this.
2. You have a story outline. This will help “X-ray” your thoughts and flow
of story article.
3. You carry the central theme or idea of your story all throughout your
article.
4. You eliminate all details not supportive of or irrelevant to your theme.
5. Bridge the transition from each paragraph to the next one easily and
smoothly. Avoid abrupt changes of thought (s).
THANK YOU FOR PAYING
ATTENTION.
Output
• Write a feature story about the
1) “Experiences and Coping Mechanisms of Students
in Online/Modular Learning.”
2) Summer Vacation Spots in Iloilo City
3) Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City
4) Batchoy as a famous dish in Iloilo CIty
• Provide with an appropriate title.
Deadlines:
• Output 1 – LEAD (Tonight, right after the session. I will
return the edited version by tomorrow and you can
proceed with writing the entire news story.
• Output 2 – NEWS STORY (The deadline for the news
story is June 2.)
• Output 3 –FEATURE STORY (June 6).