Personally I haven't tried writing a feature article myself, but I have some notes on studying feature articles...which I'm not sure if they'll help but I'll post them anyway
Conventions to consider when studying a feature article
1. What does it say? (content)
- What is the subject?
- What are the main events of the story or the main purpose of the arguement?
- What are the central meanings? What are the central concerns? With what problem or conflict does it deal with and with what outcome?
- Are several themes woven together?
- Are the themes universal or perennial ones? Can you link them with the themes of any other writing? Are they linked with the concerns of the author's times? Or ours? How important are the themes?
2. What is it trying to do? (aim)
- Inform us?
- Persuade us?
- Stimulate our imagination? Make us feel as the author feels about scenes, incidents and people?
- Challenge us?
- Criticize certain aspects of the world?
- Who is the target audience?
3. How is it written? (style and positioning devices)
- What is the standpoint form from which it is written? Point of view?
- If it is a piece of argument or exposition, is it written using the first or third person point of view? What effect does this have?
- If it is a story, is it in the:
- First person as participant?
- First person as observer?
- Third Person as participant?
- Third person as omniscient - but limited to one individual?
- Third person as camera eye?
- What effect does this have on the way it is written?
- Is the writing primarily objective or subjective? Does it exclude or reveal the feelings and attitudes of the writer? Is it a mixture of the two?
- What level of language is used - formal, colloquial or slang? Is it a mixture of these? Could it best be described as semi-formal or informal? Is there a use of jargon?
- What kind of language is used?
- Straight forward?
- Literal?
- Coloured and emotive?
- Unfavourable/favourable
- Tone of words and phrases used?
- Is there a significant use of figurative language (similes, metaphors, personification, sensory imagery)
- Sound devices such as alliteration and onomatopoeia>
- Irony, puns
- Direct comparisons - similes, and indirect comparisons- metaphors, invite the reader to make certain associations which are powerful positioning devices
- Is there use of symbolism, allusion or contrast?
- How are the senetences constructed?
- Long, short, simple or complex?
- Are they all statements or is use made of rhetorical questions, exclamations or orders?
- What effect does the sentence structure have on the writing? Speed it up, slow it down, give variety?
- Does it use repetition of words or phrases or even of particular sentence shapes?
- Use of punctuation or exclamatory sentences
- Are the paragraphs long or short and what is the effect of this?
- Does the passage make use of factual data? Statistics? Graphs?
- Does it refer to and/or quote from experts?
4. What does it tell us about the writers attitude?
- What can we tell from the content - what has been said which indicates approval or disapproval, praise or criticism, sympathy or intolerance, or, is the detail omitted significant?
- What can we tell from the style? - A plain, straight forward, objective style will usually indicate a neutral or balanced attitude. Whereas, a more coloured, subjective style immediately introduces bias in a direction
- Which values and attitudes does the passage position the reader to criticise and reject; endorse and accept?
- What is the approach?
- Emotive (subjective)
- Scientific (objective, based on fact, no personal opinions)
- Blends (mixture) or both emotive and scientific
- Didactic = more fact than opinion, purpose is to instruct
- Persuasive = has more opinion than fact, purpose is to persuade
- Propaganda = lies, false information or distortion of facts, purpose is to persuade
5. How is it constructed? (structure - how are the main parts of the passage related to one another and to the whole?)
- Logically? (a feature of argument)
- Is it a statement followed by reasons, examples or a definition, or is it a statement of cause and effect? Or perhaps it is a question followed by an answer?
- Topically? (a feature of description and exposition)
- Are the various aspects of the subject treated in turn? The order may be arbitary but it may be engineered to produce a pattern of some kind, or it may be a contrast
- Chronologically? (a feature of narration)
- Are the events described in the order in which they occurred, or perhaps there is some departure from the normal time sequence eg. a flash back?
6. Is the passage successful as a whole? (effect)
- Has the writer succeeded in their aim?
- Which aspects of the writing contribute to the success or lack of it?
- Can you make any useful comparisons with another piece of writing?
- What effects does it have on you?
Hopefully it was some help to some people? =P Hopefully my english teacher wont notice that her notes are now on the internet
Any tips on writing one would be very helpful, cheers.
