INTRODUCTION

You must have read features times without number without an understanding of what exactly
you read. How do I know this? If you answer yes to majority of these questions, the chances are
high that you have read features before. Have you gone through a magazine before? Have you
read stories beyond the centre page of a newspaper before? Have you read about a prominent
Nigerian in a magazine or the newspaper and you enjoyed it? Have you read about places and
you felt like being there to witness what the writer described? If you answered yes on two or
three occasions, then you have come across a feature story before. The question now is what is a
feature? What are the characteristics of a feature story? Is there any difference between a feature
in a newspaper and a feature in a magazine? What are the types of features we have? What are
the qualities a good feature writer must possess? These questions have been dutifully answered
in this module.

What is Feature Writing?

According to Alexander (2000:2), feature Writing is Writing and reporting, which answers the
questions: What was it like? and/or “what does it mean?” A feature story provides a reader with
the flavor of an event or the nature of a person, not just the facts of what happened or to whom it
happened. It carries its reader beyond the events and leads him to an understanding of them.

Gidean (2009:14) defines feature writing as vivid, sensational writing which appeals to the
emotions of the reader.

Alexander (2003:1), further gives his definition more understanding by stating that feature
writing is writing an arresting story about a bank robbery and a sympathetic story about a
campaign to raise money for welfare agencies. It is giving a reader an insight into how a young
girl feels when, suddenly, she realizes she has been selected as Miss Nigeria or Miss America or
Miss Ohio. It is telling a reader more about a hurricane than just the fact that 6.3 inches of rain
fell within 24 hours and 5000 phones were knocked out of order by the rain and by winds that
rose to 125 miles an hour.

According to Okoye (2006:10), feature is an in-depth and factual write up on a topical issue
which seeks to give comprehensive information in a more captivating and relaxed style than the
straight news.

Feature writing is an attempt to report, inform, enlighten, educate or persuade in a relaxed way.
Whether it is a serious news or just an article, what feature articles or writings seek to achieve is
to pass the message across to the divergent or specific readers in a more expansive, illustrative,
sensational, descriptive or dramatic way. This is achieved through feature writing devices like
quotes, specific details, personality, interesting writing etc.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FEATURE

Wheeler (2009:3) gives the following characteristics of features;

1. Varied Approach: There is no one correct way to structure a feature. There are many ways to
it. This greatly depends on the skill of the writer and how he can drive his point across to the
readers.

2. Individual voice from the writer- A good feature writer will develop his own distinctive
writing style. It may be amusing, serious or sarcastic for example.

3. Can involve Personal thoughts, colours, description- The journalist may become part of the
feature if they try out a new sport or want to draw attention to an interviewee’s strange behavior.
They can describe a big event, and comment on what they see.

4. Longer than news- Features have room enough to breath. Some of the features in magazines or
weekend newspaper supplements may run to several thousand words.

5. Involve narrative background- there is far more space in a feature for the journalist to ink in
background information; in a news story this may be restricted to one or two brief paragraphs.

6. Wide use of quotes and dialogue- News stories will, of course, include quotes, but there are
usually fewer of them. A feature writer has the luxury of more space for quotes, and even
including snatches of dialogue where two or more people may be talking.

7. May have a more distant deadline- News stories are generally written with a tight deadline.
Features however may be prepared a day or more in advance, magazine deadlines may be three
months.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2

I want you to go through the characteristics of feature writing again. Now, do that quickly. Ok,
close this book, take a sheet of paper and enlist four characteristics of a feature.

A feature can appear either in a newspaper or in a magazine. It is important to let you know that
there is no difference between the feature you will find in a newspaper and the one you will find
in a magazine. In fact, most magazine features are essentially like newspaper features. Yet, there
are some silent and sensitive differences between magazine writing and newspaper writing.

The differences are as follows;

1. Specialization: A magazine appeals to a special community of readers; oil men, students,

2. Thoroughness: Another major difference is the thorough nature of the magazine article. Many
newspaper articles are thorough; but a writer cannot wait for events to climax or to terminate, he
reports whatever happens up to the newspaper deadline. A magazine comes out monthly; there is
time to get thorough coverage. Magazines encourage good writing. Not that newspaper don’t but
two things militate against good writing in newspapers, and they are the speed with which a
writer must put together his story and the limited amount of space the newspaper can devote to
each topic. In spite of that, many newspaper stories are extremely well written. Magazines have
deadline that encourage good writing. There’s a month between issues. Magazine stories run
longer, in general, than those in newspapers. They are long enough to include everything that
belongs in the story and there is enough time to decide what to omit.

TYPES OF FEATURE

Okoye (1998:37) in Omojuyigbe (2005:107) identifies six major kinds of feature as;

1. The News Feature

2. The Profile

3. The Expose or Alarmer

4. The Travelogue

5. How-to-do-it yourself

6. Review of work of Art.

According to Omojuyigbe (2005:107), out of the six features outlined above, an editor can allow
a contributor to handle only profile, travelogue, how-to-do-it yourself and review of a work of
art. He may not allow him to dabble in the area of news feature and alarmer if the editor must
hold his peace. This is because news feature is an expanded version of news report and an
alarmer is a story exposing the ills of society. An editor would prefer any of his regular hands to
do either story than to allow a contributor do it.

FUNCTIONS OF FEATURE

According to Okoye (2006:14), while straight news breaks the news of the day, feature helps the
reader to understand better what has happened. Feature is able to do this through indepth
analysis, interpretation, explanantion and focusing on the aspects usually ignored by straight
news.
Secondly, feature summarizes the big news of the week. Because feature is more comprehensive
than straight news, it has the tendency to gather the bits of news that broke during the week and
summarize them in one piece.

Thirdly, feature has the advantage of dealing with areas not usually covered or under covered by
straight news. According to Okoye (2006:14), trivialities and mundane things of life which make
interesting reading are the subjects of good features. Most times, the concern of the feature writer
may be the human interest and their involvement in trivialities or just to make a news out of
these trivialities.

Some examples of these trivialities could be;

- Meet the poorest Nigerian

- Meet the first Professor of Kong fu.

Again, feature articles provide enough materials for those who read for pleasure. Because feature
writing is usually written in a colourful and stylish manner than straight news, its content usually
appeal more to the pleasure reading public who are usually bored by the formal nature of straight
news.

QUALITIES OF A GOOD FEATURE WRITER

Okoye (2004:15), captures four essential qualities of a good feature writer but he cautions that
first a good feature writer must be a good news writer. He must posses the traditional
qualifications for basic journalistic practice, plus an analytical and creative mind slightly higher
than that required for writing straight news. The qualities are;

1. A nose for news- A good journalist must have nose for news. Having nose for news have
many dimensions to it. This range from the ability to recognize that a particular information can
be made of interest to readers, viewers or listeners. It is also the ability to recognize clues in the
environment or a beat which may be very casual but which may lead to the discovery of
important news. Also, it is ability to recognize the possibility of several other news related to the
particular information at hand.

2. Resourcefulness: A good feature writer is resourceful. By resourcefulness, I mean he is good

3. Sound Educational and Professional background: A good feature writer must have gone to
the University or Polytechnic to acquire a degree in Journalism or mass communication. Though,
over the years, graduates of English, Philosophy, Education, Theatre Arts e.t.c have shown
incredible penchant for the journalism practice, it is not important to stress that those who are
schooled in journalism often times stand out and need not be re-schooled vigorously for the
basics in the profession. In Nigeria, there are different kinds of education for a journalist. They
are the University/Polytechnic training and In-house training.

4. Love for Writing: A good feature writer must unavoidably love the art of writing. A feature
writer must be such a person that enjoys the pains that go with the process of writing from
planning to the final draft. Also, he must be someone who is not satisfied with even the final
draft until it is taking to the press.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3

Do you think a feature in a magazine is the same as a feature in a newspaper? Justify your claims
in two paragraphs.

CONCLUSION

From the above, the following conclusions can then be reached.

- Feature Writing is an extension of the hard news

- Feature writing is an in-depth and factual write up on a topical issue

- Feature writing is an attempt to report, enlighten, educate or persuade in a relaxed way.

SUMMARY

In this unit, effort has been made to identify various definitions of feature writing. You have
been exposed to the characteristics of feature writing, the major difference between newspaper
writing and magazine writing, types of feature writing, functions of feature writing and the
qualities of a good feature writer.

Source-

National Open University of Nigeria