BASIC CAMPUS JOURNALISM

P R E PA R E D BY

JONALD JUSTINE U. ITUGOT

WRITING FEATURES

The Feature Story

Should not be written like a biographyUsually has a single focus onlyUses a lot of direct quotations

The Feature Story: Structure

Feature articles do not follow the inverted pyramid structure

The Feature Story: Structure

Features usually follow either chronological, logical or narrative pattern.

The Feature Story: Lead

Purposes of the feature lead:1. To draw the reader in2. To make the reader curious

EXAMPLEA decade of hard work, hundreds of manuscripts, and millions of pesos later, the UST Publishing House has finally achieved

its ambitious goal: “400 Books at 400.”

WHY A DECADE? WHY SO EXPENSIVE? WHY 400?I WANT TO KNOW MORE!!!

The Feature Story: Body

A feature story…1. May take nearly any format2. Should be in the 3rd person’s point of view3. Contains many direct quotations

The Feature Story: Content

A good feature story contains more than 50% direct quotations.

Author’s Writeup

Direct Quotations

The Feature Story: Content

Feature writers should avoid

SUGARCOATING(sentimentalizing)

EDITORIALIZING(opinionating)

The Feature Story: Tone

Unlike in standard news writing

FEATURE STORIESmay have an informal tone through

contractions

don‘t, ain’t, won’t, can’t

The Feature Story: Conclusion

The final paragraph usually…Refers back to the leadUses a quotationRefers to the future

Sample Feature Story

AMADEA REMEMBERSTHOMASIAN CENTENARIAN TELLS HER STORY

To her, UST will always be a majestic “castle in the middle of the desert.”

Meet Amadea Medina, one of the few Thomasians who have seen the University back when it was just a lone building in the middle of a lot in Sulucan Hills, where trees stood high and bushy and any interaction between the descendants of Adam and Eve was forbidden.

Sample Feature Story

AMADEA REMEMBERS (…2)

This century-old Education alumna endeared herself to the predominantly young Thomasian crowd during the Quadricentennial Grand Program last January 27 at the UST Grandstand.

“I feel proud to be a Thomasian,” Lola Amadea said with a smile.

Her parents wanted to giver her Catholic upbringing so they decided to send her to UST after…

Sample Feature Story

AMADEA REMEMBERS (…3)

… she graduated from St. Theresa’s College in Manila, an exclusive Catholic girl’s school.

The UST she knew then was but a quiet Main Building where students learned from high-caliber professors, she recalled.

“It was just quiet then and very religious, maybe because of the times,” she told the Varsitarian in Filipino. “I learned a lot from the professors. They…

Sample Feature Story

AMADEA REMEMBERS (…4)

… were very good teachers.”Lola Amadea said the Faculties of Philosophy and

Letters (now Arts and Letters), Pharmacy, Medicine, and the College of Education were the most popular choices of students at her time. And unlike the present campus, which has parks and benches for friends and lovers, the old UST had none. It was a reflection of one of the University’s main rules – no interaction…

Sample Feature Story

AMADEA REMEMBERS (…4)

… between members of the opposite sex. Time was when male and female students walked along separate corridors...

(An excerpt from, “Amadea Remembers”, 400: The Varsitarian Quadricentennial Supplement, Manila: 2011)