Feature Writing 2022

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FEATURE WRITING 101
NOLENE VIV A. INTING
TEACHER III
PRESENTATION CREDIT
BY ANGELINA E. BORICAN, DEM
FOR THE REGION-WIDE TRAINING OF TRAINERS FOR CAMPUS JOURNALISM (DEPED REGION IV-B)
WHAT DO YOU SEE?
WHAT DO YOU SEE?
WHAT DO YOU SEE?
Janela Arcos Lelis, 12, wades through floodwater as she tightly holds the Philippine flag in a heroic act to
save the national symbol from being swept away by the raging water on that stormy day on July 26.
Albay resident Frank Lurzano captured the scene on film.(www.inquirer.net)
A FEATURE STORY IS
•a CREATIVE
sometimes SUBJECTIVE article
designed primarily TO ENTERTAIN
and TO INFORM readers of an
event, a situation or an aspect of life;
it is often NOT PERISHABLE
ELEMENTS OF A FEATURE STORY
1. Creativity
2. Subjectivity
3. Informativeness
4. Entertainment
5. Imperishability
Creativity
not bound by a strict FORMAT or FORM like
news
Subjectivity
Sometimes uses the first person;
own thoughts and emotions
Informativeness
•Though lacking in hard news value,

a feature article can constructively
inform the reader of a situation
or aspect of life
Entertainment
• A break in the monotony
of negative/bad news
•About people, humanness
Imperishability
• not time bound
TYPES OF FEATURE STORY
1. Personality Profile/Sketch
2. Interview Article
3. How-to Article/Self-help
4. Personal Narrative or Anecdotes
5. Travel Story
6. Human Interest Story or True-to-life Drama
Personality Profile/Sketch
❑An in-depth story on an individual that captures the
essence of the person on paper
❑Brings out the person’s distinctive traits or personality
❑E.g. cover stories of magazines, brief biographical feature
on somebody celebrating her 100th birthday
Interview Article
❑You can interview somebody to obtain information about
an issue (e.g. MMDA Chairman about traffic)
❑You can interview about a person
❑You can interview an individual or several people (e.g.
survey on the most embarrassing situation a teen got into)
How-to Article / Self-help
❑Contains information about something/advise
❑Readers are always interested on things that will
benefit them mentally, physically, emotionally
❑E.g. preparing an impressive resume, how to set up an
online business
Personal narrative or anecdotes
❑Deals with an unusual experience as accomplishment
that an author or somebody else has faced
❑E.g. articles on unusual hobbies or extreme sports,
how you survived being trapped in an elevator
Travel Story
❑Focuses on a destination
❑E.g. your travel from house to school
Human Interest Story or True-to-life
Drama
❑Deals with a simple topic given a new attention
❑E.g. How a poor family helped a rich boy find his
mother
PARTS OF A FEATURE STORY
1. Lead
2. Body
3. Conclusion
Lead
❑Sets the tone of the story

FEATURE
❑WRITING
The best rule in feature writing is to observe no rules
aside from those of basic journalistic style and structure.
❑ The best lead for the feature story is a natural extension
of the story.
❑ The best lead is the lead that is relevant, grabs the
reader’s attention and fits the mood of the story.
WRITING FEATURE LEADS
NOVELTY LEADS:
1. Literary allusion lead 7. Parody lead
2. Historical allusion lead 8. Direct address lead
3. Contrast lead 9. Staccato lead
4. Pun lead 10. Anecdotal (story) lead
5. One word leads 11.Then and now (comparison) lead
6. Miscellaneous freak leads 12. Question lead
Relates a person or event to some
character or event in literature.
To have been ordered into battle to attack a group of windmills

with horse and lance would have seemed to Joe Robinson no more
a strange assignment than the one given to him Thursday by Miss
Vera Newton…
Relates a person or event to some character
or event in history.
Napoleon had his Waterloo. George Custer had his Little
Big Horn. Fortunately, Napoleon and Custer faced defeat
only once. For Bjorn Borg, the finals of the U.S. Tennis
Open have become a stumbling block of titanic
proportions.
His wealth is estimated at 300 billion. He controls a handful of
corporations, operating in more than 20 nations. Yet he carries his
lunch to work in a brown paper bag and wears the latest fashions
from Sears and Roebuck’s bargain basement.
Compares extremes—the big with the little, the comedy

with the tragedy, age with youth, rich with poor—if such
comparison is applicable to the news event.
Western High’s trash
collectors have been down in
the dumps lately.
Diana Ross spends most of the day lounging
around her Manhattan apartment. The windows
are raised high through her Fifth Avenue
apartment. She is dressed in black short shorts
and a matching sleeveless blouse with fishnet
stockings and burgundy suede boots. Three or
four bracelets jangle on her left wrist. Her long
nails are the color of pearl, nearly iridescent. She
curls up in a corner of the sofa and sips juice….
The Beatles are back.
Awesome.
That’s the best way to
describe the Hidilyn Diaz,
who notched her gold medal
in Summer Olympics.
For sale: One elephant.
The Manila Zoo is thinking about
inserting that ad in the newspaper. A
curtailed budget makes it impossible to
care for “BoBo”, a half-grown elephant
lodged in special quarters at the zoo
Whisky, whisky everywhere, but ‘nary a drop to
drink.
Such was the case at the City Police Station
yesterday when officers poured 100 gallons of
bootleg moonshine into the sewer.
Speaks directly to the reader on a
subject of widespread interest or
appeal.
Do not expect any pity from the weatherman today. He

forecasts a continuation of the summer heat wave that
has gripped this province for a week.
Lead consists of a series of jerky, exciting
phrases, separated by dashes or dots, used if the
facts of the story justify it.
Midnight on the bridge…a scream…a shot…a
splash…a second shot…a third shot. This morning
police recovered the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Dela
Cruz from the Abaton Bridge. A bullet wound was
found in the temple of each.
It was 1965 and the Dallas Cowboys were making good use out of an
end-around play to Frank Clarke, averaging 17 yards every time a
young coach named Tom Landry pulled it out of his expanding bag of
tricks.
One day, Clint Murchison, owner of the Cowboys, wondered aloud in

Landry’s presence how successful the play might be if Bob Hayes rather
than Clarke ran with the ball. Hayes, after all, was the world’s fastest
human. “Tom gave a lot of mumbo-jumbo about weak and strong side and I nodded sagely and
walked away,” Murchison told the Dallas Morning News.
A few weeks later, Landry called a reverse. Bob Hayes got the ball.
“We lost yardage,” Landry recalled. “And I haven’t heard from Clint since.”
The Rio Grande once flowed through here, a wide and
robust river surging between steep banks as it followed a
southward course hugging the state’s curvy profile.
No more.
Four-plus years of drought in West Texas and the
neighboring state of Chihuahua have turned the storied
river into a trickle meandering through mud and gravel
fields adorned here and there with discarded tires.
You think you’ve had it bad?
Consider Ron Mullens. Once vice president of a major real estate
corporation, he is today penniless. Once married to a beautiful model,
he now wanders the back roads of America alone, in search of a smile
and whatever odd jobs fall his way. You think Ron Mullens is upset by
this turn of events? Not on your life.
“I gave it all up for the opportunity to see America as it really is,” he
said.
• Body
❑The essential ingredient of a good feature story
is extensive, thorough research
❑Quotes and descriptions
❑Observation, take down notes
•Conclusion
❑Ties the story together
❑Several ways to end a feature –
1. Lead replay or summary ending 4. Word play ending
2. Proximity ending 5. Quote ending

3. Restatement ending 6. Surprise ending
Surprise ending
▪One of the most effective endings;
▪Writer builds suspense in the story, then
startles the reader at the conclusion
Surprise ending
• “I’ve always said I’m going to write a book someday and that it’s
going to be about me,” Cheryl said. “I’ve read all those cancer
books, but they left me in tears because the person dies. This
book would be different because I’m still alive – and intend to
stay that way!”
• On March 1, Cheryl died in her sleep at the Philippine General
Hospital.
TIPS IN WRITING A FEATURE ARTICLE
✔ Limit your subject to only one area.
✔ Think of a more interesting & fresh angle of the
topic.
✔ Make an outline.
✔ Play with figures of speech
✔ Vary sentence length.
✔ Use graphic description. Don’t just tell, show it
through the use of senses.
TIPS IN WRITING A FEATURE ARTICLE
✔ Use simple words & shorter paragraphs
✔ Avoid being wordy
✔ Use active voice
✔ Avoid clichés by reconstructing them.
✔ Tie up ending with the opening paragraph.
✔ Make a striking title.
“JOURNALISM IS NOT JUST
A PROFESSION;
IT’S A COMMITMENT.”

Feature Writing 2022

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VERBAL

•Though lacking in hard news value,

❑Sets the tone of the story

To have been ordered into battle to attack a group of windmills

Compares extremes—the big with the little, the comedy

Do not expect any pity from the weatherman today. He

One day, Clint Murchison, owner of the Cowboys, wondered aloud in

2. Proximity ending 5. Quote ending

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