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Getting Started On Journalistic Feature

The document provides guidance on feature writing for journalists. It recommends a 2 + 1 formula: 1) vividly describing observations through the senses; 2) telling stories of relationships between components of the narrative; and +1) revealing why observations and relationships exist. Executing this approach leads to effective storytelling. The document also stresses developing sentence construction, grammar and vocabulary through reading widely.

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9 views

Getting Started On Journalistic Feature

The document provides guidance on feature writing for journalists. It recommends a 2 + 1 formula: 1) vividly describing observations through the senses; 2) telling stories of relationships between components of the narrative; and +1) revealing why observations and relationships exist. Executing this approach leads to effective storytelling. The document also stresses developing sentence construction, grammar and vocabulary through reading widely.

Uploaded by

CristineManaloYabes
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Getting Started on Journalistic Feature Writing

By Earl Victor L. Rosero, veteran journalist, campus journalism advocate

Feature writing is one of the ways journalists tell stories. The same 5 Ws and H are still
there (as in news writing), but how these elements are expressed is different from the
hard news style.

For young writers still in the process of developing and sharpening their communication
skills, I suggest building upon a 2 + 1 formula:

1 – Convert or express into clear and concise sentences what your senses observe. What
you see, what you hear, what you feel, what you smell, what you taste – all these can
make for vivid descriptions of events, people, places, issues, and situations (the subjects
of journalism) which are what journalists write about in their articles. From among the
various things you observe, choose one feature or one set of features that DEFINES the
substance of the story you will tell or HIGHLIGHTS a key aspect that will draw your
reader or audience to the rest of the story.

2 – Tell the stories of the RELATIONSHIPS of the components of your narrative:


relationships between people, between places, between events, and between facts.
Relationships appeal to readers and audiences because they tell important facets of lives,
issues and situations.

+1 – Reveal or explain in your story why what you observe and why the relationships
are what they are.

When you are able to execute this 2 + 1 approach to feature writing, it will get you on
the right track to vivid, expressive, effective, and powerful storytelling.

Now, how you put together the sentences and paragraphs that will manifest this 2 + 1
approach depends much on you good or how bad your sentence construction, grammar
and vocabulary are.

For lessons on how to construct those sentences and paragraphs, I suggest reading and
studying non-fiction novels, feature articles of the best newspapers and news websites,
and even fiction novels.

Pay close attention to how the published authors describe characters, scenes, and
storylines, the relationships that exist among them, and why all those are what they are
and what they could become.

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