Public Affairs Qualification Course
Features
Features
In your lessons on hard news writing, you
learned that reporting the facts leaves very little
room for creative writing, if any. Hard news
is, quite simply, the plain, unvarnished facts
arranged in order of importance. When it comes
to writing feature stories, the facts are still
important, but the writing techniques you’ll use
allow your skills as a story teller to really shine.
Features make up the majority of our internal
news source content. The vast majority of the
material in our military publications, websites,
etc., are varying types of features. There are
many reasons for this, but perhaps the most salient
is that it is very difficult, if not impossible at some
commands, for internal information products to be
released with the immediacy hard news requires.
Feature stories, on the other hand, don’t always
need to be timely as long as they’re compelling. You
need to know what features are and understand
some of the inherent difficulties in writing them,
because features are what your staff will be writing
most of the time.
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Features vs News
There are many differences between news and
feature stories, but there are a lot of important
similarities, too. While there are indeed fewer stylistic
constraints on feature writing, features still must
include all the W’s and the H. That’s not to say they
must all be in the lead, though. They don’t. They just
need to be in the story somewhere. In general, it’s
up to you to decide where they each best fit into the
story you’re telling.
Like news, feature stories must also be written in
clear and concise language. While it’s true that
features afford the writer more leeway to use literary
devices such as similes, metaphors and the like,
this leeway is not a license to throw the principals of
good, clear, concise writing out the window.
So what are the similarities and differences between
news and feature stories? Straight news is all about
information, and so are features. But features do a little
bit more. They don’t just inform. They also entertain.
Good features pull a reader into the story, often
engaging them emotionally. Features are often more
labor intensive than straight news, requiring the writer
to interview sources and take notes that engage all the
senses – sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures. It
is the richness of these notes that will directly translate
into the richness of the story and, ultimately, the
richness of the reader experience.
As with any story, photo, press release or general
communication product released from your office,
features must pass the “SAPP” scrub. That is, they
must be consistent with the principals of security,
accuracy, policy and propriety that provide a
framework for the release of information. Simply put,
just like news stories, features must not contain any
information that risks organizational security, your
office’s credibility, violates standing policies or could
be considered generally inappropriate.
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Features
Structure
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Structure (continued)
Feature stories aren’t written with the inverted
pyramid structure you learned about in news writing.
Instead, the structure of a feature story looks more
like an hourglass with emphasis and importance
placed on both the lead and conclusion with the body
of the story falling in between.
The idea is to tease readers into the story by gaining
their attention up front with a strong, compelling
lead. There is no requirement that a feature lead be
a single sentence or even a single paragraph. But
it’s still important to remember that a lead should be
concise enough to function properly as an attentiongetter. That said, the actual length is a matter of
style, and as long as your lead is effective at pulling
a reader in, you have a relatively free hand to
write it the way that best suits your story. We’ll talk
specifically about leads in more detail in the following
section of this lesson.
The next piece of your feature story is called the
nut graph, and its function is similar to that of a
straight news story’s bridge. The nut graph is a
single paragraph following the lead that brings your
story into focus. It clearly states the topic and tells
the reader in no uncertain terms what your story is
about. The nut graph is very important to a feature
story because a feature lead often merely teases
the topic, and you’ll want to get down to brass tacks
immediately after the lead. Chances are, if your nut
graph comes later than the fifth paragraph, you’ve
already lost your reader’s interest.
After the nut graph comes the body of your feature
story. That is, all of your information and quotes set
off by fluid transitions and arranged in the order you,
as the writer, feel best suits the story you’re telling.
At the bottom of the hourglass, in a place of
importance equal to that of the lead, is a strong,
satisfying conclusion. One of the most basic
principles of good storytelling is that it matters how
a story ends. Whereas straight news stories just run
out of gas and stop when there’s no more information
to relay, features stories must have a strong finish for
the same reason movies must end well. There are
many, many ways to end a story, and that’s where
your natural talent will play a role. Some stories end
with a strong quote that puts the story in perspective,
some end with forward-looking information, and still
others end with a tie-back to the lead or a last-minute
twist. It’s entirely up to you. But above all else, it is
imperative that your conclusion leave the reader with a
sense of resolution they can point to when saying that
they really enjoyed your story.
Leads
Feature leads come in at least 31 flavors, but we’re
going to cover the nine common types you’ll find most
useful.
Summary News Lead – The summary news
lead should look very familiar to you because it is,
essentially, the same type of lead you’ve been writing
for your hard news stories. It contains the who, what,
when and where, and it’s very useful for feature stories
in which the facts themselves are compelling enough
to gain a reader’s attention with very little need for
additional artistic flourishes. Consider the following
summary news lead:
“The careers of two award-winning San Francisco vice
squad officers ended today when the police commission
fired them for hiring a prostitute at the police academy
graduation party.”
Narrative Lead – The narrative lead sets the stage
with a sequence of events in chronological order. It
might also be called the anecdotal lead because it often
comes in the form of a brief chronological story unto
itself. It opens the feature much like a video camera
would. It has to pertain to the focus of your story, which
you’ll make clear in the nut graph, and it has to be
compelling enough for the reader to want to continue
reading. Consider the following narrative lead:
“A healthy 17-year-old heart pumped the gift of life
through 34-year-old Bruce Murray, following a fourhour transplant operation Friday that doctors said went
without a hitch.”
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Leads (continued)
Descriptive Lead – A good descriptive lead engages
multiple reader senses to establish the scene. This
can be accomplished by describing a distinctive
sound, an unusual sight, a pervasive smell or even
the way something either physically or emotionally
feels. Consider this descriptive lead and the way it
leverages the reader’s sight.
undesirable. That said, experienced writers can and
do sparingly use the direct address to great effect.
Consider the following direct address lead:
“If researchers can perfect a new laser detection
technique, doctors may start spotting cancerous
breast tumors not much bigger than the period at the
end of this sentence.”
You also wouldn’t think a 66-year-old photographer and
artist who wears rainbow-colored suspenders would be
the San Francisco area’s latest trend setter.
Teaser Lead – The teaser lead deliberately guides
the reader down a certain path, only to surprise
them with the reality. The trick to writing this lead
is that it must still relate to the topic, but it can’t be
too obvious or the twist will lack effect. Consider the
following teaser lead:
“It is mid-afternoon on a Sunday afternoon in August,
and the fog hugging the Golden Gate Bridge and
rocky coastline finally has lifted. Tourists escaping
the cable-car routine, locals fleeing cramped
apartments, surfers who live on the edges of the city
– they’re all drawn here for one thing: Ocean Beach.
With the long expanse of fine sand and the lull of
crashing waves, it looks like a California postcard.
And that’s what makes this such a perfect place to
die.”
Freak Lead – The freak lead is a good choice for
feature stories about the truly bizarre. The appeal of
this type of lead is, for the most part, shock value.
Consider the following freak lead:
“You wouldn’t think that a Hollywood-perfect small town
would go gaga over garbage cans, sparking a trend in
trash that some predict will sweep the nation.
But then, you’ve never met Dick Hoorn – lover of
rainbows, loather of over organization and painter of
garbage cans.”
Quote Lead – As the name implies, the quote lead is,
quite simply, a quote. It’s not just any quote, though.
Quote selection is crucial to the success of this type of
lead. It’s got to be a very strong, compelling quote to
effectively work as a feature story’s lead. Also, using
a quote lead lends itself to also using a quote as your
feature’s conclusion. Because of this, you’ll often need
two very strong, lead-worthy quotes for your story, not
just one. There is no requirement, though, that your
lead be a direct quote. Indirect quotes often work just
fine. Consider the following quote lead:
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said Saturday that
“I would not immediately ask the Okinawan authorities
for approval to begin constructing a long-stalled
American air base, casting doubt on his government’s
hopes to show progress in a troubled base-relocation
plan ahead of his planned trip to Washington later this
month.”
“John Scheer has been designing women’s clothes
for more than half his life. He is now 10.”
Direct Address Lead – The direct address lead is
the only one that specifically addresses the reader by
using the pronoun “you.” This is essentially the direct
address lead’s defining characteristic. While it is an
effective lead technique, it is important to remember
that using the pronouns “you” or “I” elsewhere in
any journalism product is, in general, stylistically
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Leads (continued)
Question Lead – When’s the last time you read a
story that began with a question? Some do. But in
order to be effective, it has to be a thought-provoking
question. Yes-or-no questions make terrible leads
because they allow the reader to simply answer yes
or no and move on without being drawn into the
story. Any question asked in a lead must be open
ended. Consider the following question lead:
“The U.S. military spent the last decade fighting
entrenched insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What will the next war be like? Will it involve desert,
mountains or jungle? An enemy who speaks Farsi
or Korean? A national army fighting with tanks, or
guerillas planting homemade bombs?”
Combination Lead – The combination lead, when
used correctly, can be very effective by combining the
compelling aspects of two or more of the previously
mentioned leads. Consider the following combination
lead and notice how the first sentence is a question, the
second has the hallmark of a freak lead and the rest is
rounded out like a standard summary news lead:
“Take blood from the dead to give to the living?
In Russia they do.
Sgt. Cynthia P. Clinger, a medical sergeant from Fort
Knox, Ky., says there isn’t a need for blood drives
like there is here. They take living blood cells from
cadavers, and as long as that person was healthy, they
can use the blood for transfusions.”
Process
To conceive good feature story ideas, writers must
have a strong sense of their audience. This is a fairly
self-evident concept, considering that you have to
know what your audience is interested in to write
a story it will find interesting. For any given story,
you must have a keen sense of your audience and
what interests them. Then, you have to write for that
audience.
One of the most common mistakes you’ll encounter
is writing a story that lacks focus. Having a strong
focus is so important to your feature story precisely
because a story that lacks focus quickly loses a
reader’s attention by flailing around from topic to topic
while doing justice to none. Details are important to
feature stories, but if a story lacks focus, it is easy to
bog down the story by drowning the reader in details
that are irrelevant. Accordingly, feature stories should
have a strong, sharp focus that makes writing the nut
graph a breeze.
Having a good, sharp focus also helps writers guide
their interviews for the story. Of course, the focus
may change during the course of the interview,
but having a focus allows the reporter to start
somewhere. In selecting your story’s focus, think
about what is unique or original about the topic and
zero in on that because it will ultimately be precisely
what tells the reader the story is worth reading. As a
general rule of thumb, once you’ve got your story’s
focus, narrow it. Then, narrow it again.
Integrating vivid descriptions into your feature story
lends it what profession writers call “color.” Descriptions
provide readers enough detail to get them feeling
involved in the story. Using descriptions effectively
involves more than simply telling the reader, but rather
showing the reader. Instead of telling the reader
someone is tall, say they’re 6-foot-6. Instead of simply
telling the reader it was humid, describe the way
sunglasses fogged up at first contact with the outside
air, the way clothes wouldn’t dry on clotheslines, the
way showering felt so futile. If you relay descriptions
like these, there will be no need to write something as
tired and uninspired as “it was humid.” If you paint the
picture of a humid day, the reader will undoubtedly get
the gist as that picture forms in their mind.
Be sure to involve all a reader’s senses in your
descriptions. This will only serve to further draw them
into the story. Also, remember that your ability to
effectively use descriptions will depend in large part
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Process (continued)
upon the quality of notes you’ve taken when doing
your interviews and research. It is not enough to go
out, talk to people, and collect quotes. Unless you’re
also taking notes on the relevant sights, smells,
sounds and feelings you encounter while covering
the story, you won’t be able to aptly describe them
when writing. This, though, is not to say it’s best to
go wild with your adjectives. Remember that good
writing is still concise. The trick here is not to use a
lengthy string of adjectives to describe a single noun,
but rather to choose the perfect word, the one that
means exactly what you intend.
The concept of choosing precisely the right word
also applies to verbs. Instead of walking, perhaps
your subject darted, ambled, stormed, shuffled or
moseyed. Which was it? Choose precisely, and avoid
bland descriptions. For example, describing someone
as “neatly groomed” doesn’t really help the reader
visualize them. More detail is required. It does no
good to write about, say, a “sprawling military base”
because nearly any military base could be described
as sprawling. But what exactly do its buildings and
roads look like? What does the air smell like? What
do you hear?
Hard news writing does not use transitions to bridge
between facts, but feature writing does. In features,
flow matters. And while different writers often hold
slightly different views on the concept of flow, for
our purposes, your story’s flow will be its orderly and
intuitive presentation of ideas. For this, transitions
are key because they guide the reader seamlessly
from one part of your story to the next. This can be
accomplished by references to a previous comment
or topic, using parallel construction in sentence
structures or even beginning your sentences with time
references such as “earlier that evening” or “later that
day.” Transitions don’t need to be longwinded. Be as
brief and unobtrusive as you would when speaking.
Transitions can be very simple. You can use words as
“indeed”, “but” or a phrase like “despite the problems.”
Consider the following colorful description of former
Minnesota Twins outfielder Kirby Puckett:
“The 35-year-old Puckett, a 5-foot-8-inch, 216-pound
knockwurst of a man, swings with a kick that could
start a Harley Fat Boy and chugs around the
outfield like the little engine that could. Diminutive,
impish, always hustling, he has been as essential to
midsummer nights as Puck himself.”
When writing a feature, you’ll also need to include
quotes from your interview subjects. Quotes are
critical. They breathe life into your story by allowing
the reader to “hear” the person you’ve interviewed.
But unfortunately, not all quotes are created equal,
and it does no good to include quotes just for quotes’
sake. Good, effective quotes must be interesting,
compelling, and they must add something to the
story. The rule of thumb for gauging the quality of
a quote is whether something unique is said, or
something is said uniquely.
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Techniques
Feature stories give the writer a freer hand to turn a
phrase, which is why all feature writers should have
some standard literary devices in their toolkit.
Metaphors are used to make analogies between
two technically unlike things. Consider the following
metaphorical example:
“America’s cities are the windows through which the
world looks at American society.” – Henry Cisneros
Obviously, cities are not windows, but the writer here
offers this label metaphorically.
A simile is a comparison of two unlike things most
often introduced by the words “like” or “as.” Consider
the following example of a simile:
“Walking into my grandparents’ home when I was
a child was like being wrapped in a giant security
blanket.”
Using personification in your writing is the practice of
ascribing human characteristics, traits or actions to
inanimate objects. Consider the following example of
personification applied to snowflakes:
“He could hear the whispers of the snowflakes,
nudging each other as they fell.”
Hyperbole is exaggeration for effect. Overexaggeration is not the only kind. Under-exaggeration
often makes effective hyperbole, too. Consider the
following examples of over- and under-exaggerated
hyperbole respectively:
“She appeared in a mile of billowing chiffon, flashing
a rhinestone as big as an ostrich egg.”
“Tiger Woods knows a little something about
winning.”
Anecdotes are short stories within your story. You
previously read that they can be used as an effective
narrative lead, but they can be put to great use
within the body of your story as well. While these
are all very effective literary devices, it’s important to
note that not every turn of phrase is feature worthy.
Some have been so used and overused that they’ve
become nothing more than tired clichés. Clichés are
to be avoided. As an example, writing that an event
is set to “kick off” at any given time is one of the more
common clichés that appears in military writing time
and time again. Perhaps at one point this was a clever
football reference, but that time has passed. Now it’s
just another example of a tired cliché you should avoid.
Aside from the skill you develop in selecting words and
writing purposefully, some of the most effective featurewriting techniques you’ll employ actually have very
little, if anything, to do with actual writing. One of these
techniques is to review your notes and simply retell
the story to somebody verbally before sitting down to
write it. This will help you find the right conversational
tone for your story, and it will also help you naturally
organize your information. This is best done soon after
you review your notes, and reviewing your notes is best
done soon after the interview when the details are still
fresh in your mind.
You may be surprised how important reviewing your
notes is to the writing process. Coding your notes
at each topic discussed will help you organize your
information and fill in the holes. As always, you’ll also
want to check and double check your facts and figures.
The same goes for the spelling of names.
Make sure all the information you’ve collected, coded
and organized supports your focus. This will keep you
from writing in tangents. Some writers may also find it
very helpful to pre-produce an outline for their story to
ensure it moves in the desired direction and covers all
necessary ground. Having an outline in advance also
allows writers to pre-plan better interview questions or
topics.
Your feature story will be no shorter than 14 paragraphs
and no longer than five double-spaced pages. Your
lead will be between one and four graphs, and the nut
graph will follow immediately thereafter. The body of
your story will then take the reader all the way to the
conclusion paragraph. If the lead was a question, the
conclusion should answer it. If the lead was a quote,
the conclusion should be a complimentary quote.
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Techniques (continued)
By the time you’ve finished writing your conclusion
and placed the final piece of punctuation at the end
of your last sentence, the real work begins. All that
typing is just prelude to the editing, which many
professional writers will tell you takes the lion’s share
of time. Revise and rewrite your work sentence by
sentence, phrase by phrase, word by word, until it
has been polished down to a high-gloss shine. Never
content yourself with the first draft. Skilled self-editing
is the hallmark of great writers. Everyone else is just
typing.
Practice is the key to developing your skills, but there
are other ways to sharpening your writing. You can
always take journalism classes, but reading other
writers’ work has a way of improving your own in the
same way doing pushups helps you do more pull-ups.
Interviews
Interviews are your primary research tool, and
preparation is key. Before you conduct an interview,
it’s good practice to collect some background
information on the issue you’re addressing and the
people with whom you want to speak. If possible,
get a copy of their biography. Conduct an Internet
search for their name. Use your outline to draft a few
questions or topic areas that will lend themselves
to follow-up questions. Lastly, confirm the date,
time and place a day prior. This will prevent your
interviews from falling through.
If at all possible, do your interviews in person. This
will allow you to better collect the sensory details that
will give your story color. Arrive a few minutes early,
but not so early that you’re an inconvenience. Be
courteous and alert. Check your breath.
Never promise that a story will run or that your
interview subject will be able to read it before
publication. Circumstances beyond your control may
conspire to make a liar out of you, and nobody wants
that.
When you’re in the interview, you may choose to
use an audio recording device, and that’s okay.
Just remember to first ask your interview subject if
it’s alright by them if you make an audio recording.
Recording devices are very useful for making sure
you have an exact quote just right, and you can use
time stamping to note specific responses. But always
take hand-written notes, too. Not only are they a
useful backup if your recorder has some kind of
technical glitch, but audio recording devices only take
notes of what’s heard, and you should be mindful of the
notes you can take for the other senses.
Over time, you will become more skilled at taking
handwritten notes. It’s not uncommon for writers to
even develop their own form of shorthand that allows
them to write as fast as their interview subjects can
speak. Devising symbols for words is a very useful
technique in developing your own shorthand.
When handwriting notes, make sure, very sure, that
you’ve gotten and confirmed the correct spelling of
peoples’ names. It may also benefit you to highlight
certain quotes for easy reference later. Review your
notes as soon as you can after the interview so
you can get the information down.Identify the most
important pieces of information and then fill in the holes
as you continue to put together the information. And,
don’t forget that you’ll need to check and double check
all your facts and figures before you actually write them
into the story, so be sure to exercise fastidious attention
to detail in your handwritten notes with regard to dates,
facts and figures.
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Cutlines
Cutlines are the text under photographs that describe
what is going on in the photograph.
The Defense Information School and Defense Media
Activity differentiate between captions and cutlines.
A caption is the description of the photograph that is
part of the metadata. It is not necessarily intended
for print. A cutline is intended for print and should be
written in the form described later in this section and
abide by AP Style. One sentence may be a sufficient
cutline for some photographs, but some may require
two or more (AP).
First sentence (AP)
The first sentence of the cutline should describe who
is in the photograph and what is going on, in the
present tense, active voice, followed by the city and
state where the image was made. City and state
should be written in accordance with AP style.
Cutlines must attribute action not seen. The end of
the sentence should include the date, including the
day of the week if the photograph was made within
the past two weeks, preceded by a comma.
Identification
Identify people by what they are doing, or other
identifying information if possible. Identifying people by
position, i.e. from left to right, is the least acceptable
way to identify subject in a photograph, but ensure
there is no confusion.
Second sentence (AP)
If used, the second sentence of a caption gives context
to the news event or describes why the photo is
significant.
Second and subsequent sentences may be written
in active voice, present tense or in the past tense.
Whenever possible, keep captions to no more than two
concise sentences, while including relevant information.
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Conclusion
Good feature stories entertain as well as inform. They
use a strong, compelling lead to gain the reader’s
attention, bridge to a nut graph that represents the
story’s focus then flow seamlessly through the body
to a satisfying conclusion.
whether they be in a printed newspaper or magazine,
or whether it's on your website. If readers want to read
your articles, and your articles are written with your
commander's communication goals in mind, you will be
accomplishing your commander's intent.
Effective, entertaining features will be crucial to
the success of your internal communication efforts,
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References and Additional Resources
Add the page Additional Resources
Associated Press. (2000) The Associated Press Guide to News Writing, 3rd ed.
Williamson. (1975) Feature Writing for Newspapers
Blundell. (1988) The Art and Craft of Feature Writing
Associated Press (2011) AP Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, 46th ed.
Metzler. (1977) Creative Interviewing
Associated Press (2010) cited on http://editingmonks.blogspot.com/2010/06/ap-stylebook-entry-photo-captions.
html
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