Feature Articles & Magazines

EQ: What are the characteristics of Feature Articles?

FEATURE ARTICLES are creative articles that deals with real events, issues, and trends. However, unlike the news articles you have been writing, the emphasis is placed on the people involved rather than on just reporting the facts of the news. Think "human interest" stories. Feature articles are often longer than the 300-400 word articles you've been writing. Most magazines include feature articles along with columns and shorter articles (depending on the magazine and its audience). 

There are seven types of feature articles. NOTE: Most feature articles have elements of more than one kind--so note please that as a writer you can combine these basic types. [The following information is adapted from Webster’s New World High School Writer’s Notebook:]

THE HUMAN-INTEREST FEATURE

• This is the most common type of feature article.

• This type typically reports on someone’s success in spite of great odds.

• It may recall a tragic predicament (like Hurricane Katrina, etc.) but the angle of the article is to show how human endurance or adaptability overcomes tragedy.

• It may share or expose a continuing struggle against adversity, supported only by human hope and faith.

THE PERSONALITY FEATURE


• The subject of the article may be someone famous or not so famous, but someone who has done something of interest 
  

  to others.

• This type of feature usually shows how a person gained recognition or why this person should be noticed or recognized.

• The personality feature is very much like a character sketch.

“THE BEST” ARTICLES


• The Courier-Journal has a column that publishes reviews of the “best” products of all kinds.

• This type of article usually includes the writer’s personal experiences with the product in question (computer games or tech devices, appliances, cars, tools, music, food items, clothing, etc.)

• It includes proof and examples that the product is the best of its kind.

• The article includes information about where to get the product and how much it costs.

THE NEWS FEATURE

• The article usually has a catchy title.

• This type of article brings a human-interest focus to breaking news.

• It adds personal involvement to what may otherwise be a distant, seemingly unimportant event.

THE HOW-TO FEATURE

• This article explains how to do something – usually a complex process that most people would not know how to do.

• The best how-to articles begin by telling the reader why it is important or beneficial for him or her to know how to do this.

• The article explains the steps of the process in enough detail so that another person can do this process.

• This article also includes a list of all of the materials needed to do this process.

THE PAST EVENTS FEATURE

• This article focuses on an historical event or historical celebration.

• The article typically includes research. The article serves as a human interest history lesson.

• This type of writing usually puts a “human face” on history. In other words, it lets the reader know something about the people who were part of history.

THE INFORMATIONAL FEATURE

• This type of article shows insightful coverage of a topic.

• It gives detailed information focused on one aspect of a given topic.

• The article often refers to sources of research but is not like an encyclopedia report. Instead, the writer makes a personal connection to the subject and includes his/her voice.

How to Tell if an Article is a Feature (suggestions to use for writers of feature articles)

• Anecdotes Examples/Non-examples

• Vignettes Tables/Graphs/Charts

• Descriptions Facts

• Comparison Contrast

• Snapshots Pictures/Drawings

• Reasons Quotations

• Flashback Foreshadowing

• Imagery 

• Headings

• Fonts

• Subheadings

• Bullets

• Offsets

• Text Boxes

• Photography/graphics

• Color Ink

• Italics

• Bold Font

• Underlining

• All Capital Letters

As you search and read feature articles, notice how writers include various ways to use details and description in an article or feature.

7th period lab task: please check out the following 3 websites. For each site, find and identify one feature article. Choose the article that sounds the most interesting to you. Use examples and textual evidence from the article to support your answer as to what type of article this feature could be classified as (see list of 7 types above) for full credit. Turn in your answers at the end of period 7 before we move to the library. On your paper, please include the title, author, and short 2-3 sentence summary of the feature, along with your reasons for classifying it as one of the 7 types of features.

• The Atlantic
• The New Republic
• Harper's Magazine
• Utne Reader

8th period library task: 

Then, let's head down to the library to do two things: 

A. Analyze a magazine (see the following steps)

1. Choose a magazine from the library.  

2. Identify the specific target audience for the magazine: look at ads, departments, articles, features, and "letters to the Editor" for clues. 

3. Read the magazine cover to cover, flip through, read at least 1 feature article for step #4. 

 4. Complete the questions and graphic organizer for the article/feature you chose to read carefully. Turn this in at the end of class today. 

B. Pick up and check out our next non-fiction feature memoir:  The Other Wes Moore by ... Wes Moore.

HOMEWORK: Please read the introduction (pages xi-xiv) in The Other Wes Moore. We will read the first chapter together next class. Please bring your books back with you Thursday. If you missed an assignment, (see blog posts assignments below) please complete and turn in late for partial credit.