NOTES PREPARE BY ALEMKENG RICHARD

INTRODUCTION TO FEATURE WRITING

0 Introduction
1 What is Feature Writing?
2 Characteristics of Feature
3 Differences between Newspaper Feature and Magazine Feature
4 Types of Feature
5 Functions of Feature
6 Qualities of a good Feature Writer
6. Tutor Marked Assignment
7. References/Further Readings

INTRODUCTION
You must have read features times without number without an
understanding of what exactly you read. How do I know this? If you answer
yes to majority of these questions, the chances are high that you have read
features before. Have you gone through a magazine before? Have you read
stories beyond the center page of a newspaper before? Have you read about a
prominent Cameroonian in a magazine or the newspaper and you enjoyed it?
Have you read about places and felt like being there to witness what the
writer described? If you answered yes on two orthree occasions, then you
have come across a feature story before. The question now is what is a
feature? What are the characteristics of a feature story? Is there any
difference between a feature in a newspaper and a feature in a magazine?
What are the types of features we have? What are the qualities a good
feature writer must possess? These questions have been dutifully answered
in this module.
What is Feature Writing?
According toAlexander (2000:2), featureWriting iswritingand reporting, which
answers thequestions: What was it like? and/or “what does it mean?” A
feature story provides a readerwith the flavor of an event or the nature of a
person, not just the facts of what happened or to whom it happened. It
carries its reader beyond the events and leads him to an understanding of
them. Gideon (2009:14) defines feature writing as vivid, sensational
writing which appeals to the emotions of the reader.

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Alexander (2003:1), further gives his definition more understanding by
stating that feature writing is writing an arresting story about a bank
robbery and a sympathetic story about a campaign to raise money for
welfare agencies. It is giving a reader an insight into how a young girl feels
when, suddenly, she realizes she has been selected as Miss MTN or Miss
Cameroon or Miss tourism. It is telling a reader more about a hurricane than
just the fact that 6.3 inches of rain fell within 24 hours and 5000 phones
were knocked out of order by the rain and by winds that rose to 125 miles
an hour. According to Okoye (2006:10), feature is an in-depth and
factual write up on a topical issue which seeks to give comprehensive
information in a more captivating and relaxed style than the straight news.
Feature writing is an attempt to report, inform, enlighten, educate or
persuade in a relaxed way. Whether it is a serious news or just an
article, what feature articles or writings seek to achieve is to pass the
message across to the divergent or specific readers in a more expansive,
illustrative, sensational, descriptive or dramatic way. This is achieved
through feature writing devices like quotes, specific details, personality,
interesting writing etc.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FEATURE
Wheeler (2009:3) gives the following characteristics of features; 20
1. Varied Approach: There is no one correct way to structurea feature.
There are many ways to it. This greatly depends on the skill of the writer and
how he can drive his point across to the readers.
2. Individual voice from the writer- A good feature writer will develop his
own distinctive writing style. It may be amusing, serious or sarcastic for
example.
3. Can involve Personal thoughts, colors, description- The journalist may
become part of the feature if they try out a new sport or want to draw
attention to an interviewee’s strange behavior. They can describe a big
event, and comment on what they see.
4. Longer then news- Features have room enough to breath. Some of the
features inmagazines or weekend newspaper supplements may run to
several thousand words.
5. Involve narrative background- there is far more space in a feature for
the journalist to ink in background information; in a news story this may be
restricted to one or two brief paragraphs.
6. Wide use of quotes and dialogue- News stories will, of course, include
quotes, but there are usually fewer of them. A feature writer has the luxury
of more space for quotes, and even including snatches of dialogue where two
or more people may be talking.

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7. May have a more distant deadline- News stories are generally
written with a tight deadline. Features however may be prepared a day
or more in advance, magazine deadlines may be three months.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2
I want you to go through the characteristics of feature writing again. Now, do
that quickly. Ok, close this book, take a sheet of paper and enlist four
characteristics of a feature.
A feature can appear either in a newspaper or in a magazine. It is important
to let you know that there is no difference between the feature you will find
in a newspaper and the one you will find in a magazine. In fact, most
magazine features are essentially like newspaper features. Yet, there are
some silent and sensitive differences between magazine writing and
newspaper writing.
The differences are as follows;
1. Specialization: A magazine appeals to a special community of readers; oil
men, students, fashion designers, sport enthusiasts, Christians,
Muslimsetc., while a newspaper appeals to a cross section, whose only
common interest is their geographic location in the same city.
Alexander (2003:240). A feature writer should however know this toavoid
lackof focus. Because if you are writing for a magazine that has children
as the readers and your language could not meet their needs, then
you have not achieved much.
2. Thoroughness: Another major difference is the thorough nature of the
magazine article. Many newspaper articles are thorough; but a writer cannot
wait for events to climax or to terminate, he reports whatever happens up to
the newspaper deadline. A magazine comes out monthly; there is time to get
thorough coverage. Magazines encourage good writing. Not that newspaper
don’t but two things militate against good writing in newspapers, and
they are the speed with which a writer must put together his story and the
limited amount of space the newspaper can devote to each topic. In spite
of that, many newspaper stories are extremely well written. Magazines have
deadline thatencourage good writing. There’s a month between issues.
Magazine stories run longer, in general, thanthose in newspapers. They are
long enough to include everything that belongs in the story and there is
enough time to decide what to omit.
TYPES OF FEATURE
Okoye (1998:37) in Omojuyigbe (2005:107) identifies six major kinds of
feature as;
1. The News Feature
2. The Profile

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3. The Expose or Alarmer
4. The Travelogue
5. How-to-do-it yourself
6. Review of work of Art.
According to Omojuyigbe (2005:107), out of the six features outlined above,
an editor can allow a contributor to handle only profile, travelogue, and how-
to-do-it yourself and review of a work of art. He may not allow him to dabble
in the area of news feature and alarmed if the editor must hold his peace.
This is because news feature is an expanded version of news report
and an alarmer is a story exposing the ills of society. An editor would prefer
any of his regular hands to do either story than to allow a contributor do it.
FUNCTIONS OF FEATURE

According toOkoye (2006:14), while straight news breaks the news of the
day, feature helps the reader to understand better what has happened.
Feature is able to do this through in-depthanalysis, interpretation,
explanation and focusingon the aspectsusually ignoredby straightnews.
Secondly, feature summarizes the big news of the week. Because feature is
more comprehensive than straight news, it has the tendency to gather
the bits of news that broke during the week and summarize them in one
piece.
Thirdly, feature has the advantage of dealing with areas not usually covered
or under covered by straight news. According to Okoye (2006:14),
trivialities and mundane things of life which make interesting reading
are the subjects of good features. Most times, the concern of thefeature
writer may be the human interest and their involvement in trivialities or just
to make a news out of these trivialities.
Some examples of these trivialities could be;
- Meet the poorest Beamlike Man
- Meet the first Professor of Kong Fu.
Again, feature articles provide enough materials for those who read for
pleasure. Because feature writing is usually written in a colorful and
stylish manner than straight news, its content usually appeal more to the
pleasure reading public who are usually bored by the formal nature of
straight news.
QUALITIES OF A GOOD FEATURE WRITER
Okoye (2004:15), captures four essential qualities of a good feature writer
but he cautions that first a good feature writer must be a good news

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writer. He must possess the traditional qualifications for basic journalistic
practice, plus an analytical and creative mind slightly higher than that
required for writing straight news. The qualities are;
1. A nose for news- A good journalist must have nose for news. Having nose
for news have many dimensions to it. This range from the ability to
recognize that a particular information can be made of interest to readers,
viewers or listeners. It is also the ability to recognize clues in the
environment or a beat which may be very casual but which may lead
to the discovery of important news. Also, it is ability to recognize the
possibility of several other news related to the particular information at
hand. 23

2. Resourcefulness: A good feature writer is resourceful. By resourcefulness,

I mean he is good at finding ways of improving himself and improving
the quality of his writing. A resourceful featurewriter consistently
solvesproblems arising or that may arise from the beat.
3. Sound Educational and Professional background: A good feature writer
must have gone to the University or Polytechnic to acquire a degree in
Journalism or mass communication. Though, over the years, graduates
of English, Philosophy, Education,Theatre Arts etc. have shown incredible
penchant for the journalism practice, it is not important to stress that
those who are schooled in journalism often times stand out and need not be
re-schooled vigorously for the basics in the profession. In Nigeria, there are
different kinds of education for a journalist. They are the
University/Polytechnic training and In-house training.
4. Love for Writing: A good feature writer must unavoidably love the art of
writing. A feature writer must be such a person that enjoys the pains that
go with the process of writing from planning to the final draft. Also, he must
be someone who is not satisfied with even the final draft until it is taking to
the press.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3
Do you think a feature in a magazine is the same as a feature in a
newspaper? Justify your claims in two paragraphs.
6.0 TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT
Submit a two-page essay (A4, double spacing) where you spell with detailed
explanations the qualities of a good feature writer.

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS

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Okoye, I. (2006) Feature Writing; Theory and Practice (2nd ed) Lagos.
Malthouse Press Limited.