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Chapter 10 writing features part 3 journalism
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Chapter 10 writing features part 3
Organizing Your Material
• When you are reporting, you should write down any observations out of the ordinary.
• Eliminate any unnecessary details that don’t add anything to the story.
• Rounding out a Profile: show don’t tell
2. What are you trying to say?
• Tone – the mood of the story. This should always match the content, as well. Don’t make a story about a car crash humorous, for example.
• Use vivid description in your features. Use taste, sight, smell, hearing, and feeling.
• Write a headline or phrase that summarizes the subject.
• Use an active verb.
• Example: Student council president embezzles funds.
• Also, you could plan the ending of the story first and work backwards.
What’s Your Subject?
• Select the good details from the boring ones.
• Talk to a friend or teacher about your story, bounce ideas off them
• Focusing: narrowing; in journalism, reducing a large quantity of material to a usable amount.
• Example: the North Attleboro Football team
• Focused: the Thanksgiving game.
3. How will you say it?
• Structure: the organizational pattern a writer uses to establish relationships between relevant pieces of information.
Types of Structures:
• Hourglass: begins as an inverted pyramid, with information in descending order of importance. Below the waist of the hour glass (half-way down the page), you introduce the information in chronological order.
• Spatial story: use physical space rather than logical sequencing. Example: wandering through a mansion and describing each room.
• Story in scenes: Show your subject in different scenarios.
4. Refining the Story
• Parallel Narratives: See both sides of the story. Example: observe and write about both the Patriots and Redskins preparing for their game on Sunday.
• Have you said it well enough?
• Let your story sit for a while. Go back and re-read and make the proper adjustments.
Finding the right voice
• Everybody speaks to his or her parents, friends, and co-workers differently. Pick a specific voice you want to use.
• Persona – the character taken on by a writer/narrator.
• Make sure the persona has conveyed the story the best way possible.