WRITING THE
FEATURE STORY ENW320
Instructor: Jack
Cavanaugh
email: jcavan3673@aol.com
jcavanaughlit@optonline.net
Objectives of the course: Through lectures and extensive writing, teach
students effective techniques involved in writing feature stories for
newspapers and magazines and to a lesser degree for nonfiction books. Brief overview of public relations writing.
Prerequisites: Basic writing skills and understanding of the
elementary rules of grammar.
Required materials:
* Feature Writing for Newspapers and Magazines. Fifth
Edition. Pearson.
Edward Jay Friedlander and John Lee. This is the main text for the course. The
Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law. Perseus Publishing.
A pocket dictionary
A notebook
Suggested supplementary text:
The Elements of Style. By William Strunk
Jr. and E.B. White. Macmillian Publishing Co. Excellent book on grammar
that many writers resort to throughout, and even beyond, their careers. Highly recommended and also
inexpensive.
Overview of Course:
By the end of the semester, you will have learned, hopefully:
* How to overcome any fears and apprehensions, such as writer's block'
that you
may
* The main differences between conventional news stories and features.
have had at the beginning of
the course.
* How to develop story ideas and then turning
those ideas into interesting and, when
appropriate, entertaining feature articles for newspapers
and magazines.
* The techniques of writing attention-grabbing leads and then building on
those leads
into. well-structured
stories.
WRITING THE FEATURE STORY -- page 2
* How to develop effective story narratives by
writing crisp and colorful copy that
includes a judicious use of good quotes.
* That writing -- good writing, that is -- is
not easy and, indeed, is hard work.
* To use different approaches in writing for
specific publications -- e.g., a more formal
style of writing for publications such as The New York
Times, The Wall Street
Journal, the Atlantic Monthly compared with the more
breezier and informal style for
People, Sports illustrated and the dramatic narrative style
that approximates fiction-
style writing which is required by Reader's Digest,
Guideposts and some other
magazines.
* How to market stories as a free-lance writer -- determining the. appropriate
publications for a story and the most effective means
of approaching editors and then
following up on your proposals.
* Job placement opportunities with newspapers
and magazines and how to take
advantage of them, either as a prospective staff
member or as a free-lance writer,
which is often a very effective way of "breaking
in" with a publication.
* That feature writers are more in demand than
ever as newspapers, in particular, devote
more and more space to non hard-news stories in order to
compete more efficiently
with radio and television which have a huge advantage in
spot news coverage.
* Advantages and disadvantages of writing
feature stories compared to writing
conventional news stories.
Class format:
Early lectures will focus heavily on feature writing as a special craft -- a
distinctive journalistic genre - and some of the pitfalls, most notably
writer's block and, in some cases, lack of confidence on the part of students
and ways to overcome that problem. There will be a
strong emphasis on the growing need for feature writers because of the
ever-growing proliferation of specialized magazines (which by and large have
replaced the old traditional general-interest magazines such as Life) and the
tendency of newspapers -- even such well known publications as The New York
Times and The Wall Street Journal - to rely far more heavily on news features
in their effort to
compete with television.
The various types of specialized writing -- sports, consumer news, humor,
entertainment, science, etc. -- will be explored so that, perhaps, students can
determine whether they would prefer to focus on a particular type of feature
writing rather than write general-interest type features.
WRITING THE FEATURE STORY - page 3
Students will edit, critique and evaluate each other's feature stories in
class, after which those stories will be discussed in class. At
the beginning of the course, students receiving grades below B's will be given
opportunities to rewrite their papers if they so desire with a view towards
both improving the assignments and improving their grades on those papers.
Materials in the main text will be discussed in class. So,
too, will a number of feature stories from newspapers and magazines, including
some of the instructor's from The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, the
Reader's Digest and some other publications. Questions
will be invited on how some of the instructor's stories were inspired and then
developed.
Several experienced nonfiction writers will be invited to speak to the class
and then entertain questions. In advance of those
talks, published works by the guest speakers will be distributed to the class. Students will take notes during the talks and, as homework
assignments, write roughly 300-word feature story reports on them. Last, but hopefully not least, the instructor, when
relevant to the material being discussed in class, will relate some of his own
experiences as a feature writer and relate how some of his ideas have
developed, his extensive dealings with editors of a variety of national
magazines and some of the frustrations he has encountered and his own approach
to the writing of feature stories.
Outside assignments:
Apart from reading assigned chapters in the main text, students will be asked
to write
approximately six feature stories of varying lengths on a variety of assigned
feature genres, including news features, personality profiles,
"unforgettable characters, personality profiles, and destination/travel
and trend features. In addition, students will be assigned
to write one 1,000-word feature story on a topic of their own choosing targeted
for a magazine of their choice. In all instances, the
instructor will provide a list of prospective story ideas to those uncertain of
what to write about.
It will be imperative that students read a variety of feature stories in
newspapers and magazines of their choosing as an aid in developing a strong,
colorful style of writing. At the outset of the
course, the instructor will recommend a number of outstanding nonfiction
writers, from newspapers, magazines and nonfiction books, as a means of
enhancing and improving their own feature writing skills.
WRITING THE FEATURE STORY -- page 4
Requirements
1. All assignments must be typed and double-spaced on
standard 8-1/2 by 11 inch
white copy paper. Whenever
possible, do not break up sentences at the bottom of a page, and make sure to
write MORE at the bottom of a page when your story is not yet
finished..
2. In editing copy, students are to use standard journalistic copy
symbols from the
Associated Press style book. On all
written projects, students must write on
separate lines your name, the course number, the date the
assignment is due (and
in cases when papers are handed in late, the date the paper is
turned in) and the
slug for your story in the upper left hand comer. The
slug should be in capital
letters and should be on the upper left hand comer on every page --
e.g.,
STORM on the first page, then 1st add STORM or STORM/2, etc. on
succeeding pages.
3. All homework assignments must be submitted in class on the due date. Late papers
will cost students one full grade.
4. All work must be clipped together, not stapled.
Grading summary
Class
participation
10 points
Seven feature stories (worth from 10 to 15
points) 85 points
Class
quizzes
5 points
Attendance
Attendance will be taken at the start of each class. You
will be allowed two cuts without penalty. Thereafter,
starting with a third cut, you will be penalized 2 points per cut, meaning that
with, say, five cuts, you will have accumulated 10 penalty points that will be
deducted during the calculation of your final grade. Absences
for valid reason - illness, family emergencies, etc. - must be given in advance
whenever possible or, at the latest, by
WRITING THE FEATURE STORY - page 5
Outside writing work:
Students are encouraged to contribute feature stories to the campus paper, The
Mirror, and, if possible, to do internships or obtain part time jobs with daily
newspapers such as the Connecticut Post or with weekly papers and magazines. Hopefully, some of the feature stories you write in this
class will make it in print in some of these publications. If
they do, your grade on that particular paper will be raised by two-thirds of a
grade - for example, a B will become an A-. Students
who contribute to The Mirror and any other publication on a regular basis will
receive even additional credit toward their final grades.
Instructor's background:
Newspaper, news agency and radio and television reporter for more than 30 years. Currently write for The New York Times, specializing in
sports but also contributing to other sections
of the newspaper. Have written scores of articles for magazines such as
Sports Illustrated, Reader's Digest, Golf Digest, Tennis magazine, The Sporting
News, Venture and the inflight magazines for
American, United and Delta airlines. Author of a
number of stories in the popular Chicken Soup book series. Spent
eight years as an on-air reporter for, first, ABC News and, later, CBS News. Author of the book Damn Disabilities: Full Speed Ahead! Currently writing book for Random House about former
heavyweight champion Gene Tunney, tentatively entitled
Gene Tunney: The Life and Times of Boxing's Brainiest Champion.. In
addition to feature writing, have also taught courses at
Summary:
The course is intended to prepare you for a possible career as a feature writer
for newspapers or magazines or to pursue a career as a writer of nonfiction
books. It will primarily be a hands-on course
involving the writing of approximately seven feature stories which will be
edited, critiqued and graded by the instructor, in addition to being critiqued
by your classmates. Even if you decide not to pursue a
career in journalism, the course should improve your ability as a writer and,
in particular, as a story-teller, since that is the essence of feature writing,
and thus aid you in whatever field of endeavor you choose to follow. Adjustments and alterations to the course may be made as
we progress during the semester. The instructor
encourages suggestions from the students and some of the changes that may be
made could be due to recommendations by members of the class.
I am most definitely open to suggestions as to how, in your opinion, the
course can be
WRITING THE FEATURE STORY - page 6
approved. So please feel free to offer suggestions to
me, either after class, by e-mail or phone or by leaving me notes in my office. In every instance, the written suggestions or comments
must be signed. Once again, you are encouraged to
arrange meetings with me, preferably during the first half of the semester,
after which meetings will be arranged with all students during regular class
sessions.
Academic Honesty:
Under no circumstance shall a student pass of someone else's work as their own. That's
plagiarism, an extremely serious offense in journalism or any other kind of
writing. It is also a violation of the university's
Honor Code and will result in an F and a reprimand or even suspension from the
university. And do not ever submit work that you
previously had written for another course or had had published unless you have
the instructor's permission.
Academic honesty is the very foundation of academic life. The
Examples of academic honesty in this class include, but are not limited to:
· Stealing someone else's work. For example,
submitting someone else's writing or reporting as your own. Such
plagiarism may consist of a phase, a sentence, a paragraph or an entire story
from a newspaper, magazine, book, or from an Internet source.
· Fabricating an interview or eyewitness account.
· Stealing material from a classmate, whether it be on
a writing assignment or a
quiz.
· Libeling an individual (we will cover libel in the course, both in the text
and during class discussions.
· Providing so much information on an assignment to a classmate that
the
classmate's ultimate work reflects your effort as much as it does his or hers.
While you cannot pass off someone else's work as your own, feel free to have
roommates or friends outside the class read your stories before you submit them
to the instructor. But under no circumstances can they
do any of the actual writing.