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Berkeley Global
Develop an understanding of how feature stories blend journalism and art, exploring the dual nature of features based on facts but with the voice of a novel. Learn how to analyze features and how to research, report and write your own. You also learn how to grab the attention of editors and audiences, and create successful feature stories for magazines, newspapers and online publications.
Course Outline
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Course Objectives
- Analyze features written by others.
- Research a feature topic.
- Conduct interviews for a feature story.
- Write and revise a feature.
- Find and analyze a publication that might publish a feature on your topic.
What You Learn
- Definition of a feature, and the differences between features, hard news and opinion
- Uses of multimedia in features
- How to create feature story ideas from more general topics
- Deciding between a profile or a round-up
- The author's role in feature stories
- Possible sources for facts and figures
- Government websites to find demographic and other data
- How secondary sources are used
- Strategies for finding expert sources and for finding people to tell their stories for features; assessing the reliability of potential feature sources
- Interview questions
- Pros and cons of in-person, phone and email interviews
- How to set up and conduct an interview
- Purpose, different types and standard elements of a query letter
- Different types of leads for features
- Using storytelling, including conflict, effectively in a feature
- The value of planning before beginning to write
- Knowing which interview and research material to include in the draft
- How to assess the best structure and organization for a narrative feature
- Using quotations and numbers appropriately in a feature
- Proofreading your draft
- How to critique your own and someone else’s work
- Revision
- The publishing process
How You Learn
- Reading assignments
- Online lectures
- Writing assignments, including a feature draft and its revision
- Discussion assignments
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