The Value of Feature-style Writing

One of the most thought-provoking discoveries from the Impact study is the importance of writing style. Feature-style writing is found to increase satisfaction in a variety of topic areas: politics, sports, science, health, home and food among them. A higher proportion of feature-style stories also improves overall brand perception, chief among them how "easy to read" the newspaper is. When we talk about "feature-style" writing, we don't mean "feature stories." We're not describing a story type but a writing style, also called narrative writing. When Readership Institute analysts evaluated newspaper writing, they classified it one of three ways: inverted pyramid (or news style), commentary and feature-style. Inverted pyramid stories are the traditional news stories. They begin with the most important element of the story, then present related facts in order of decreasing importance. Stylistically, inverted pyramid stories follow a fact 1, fact 2, fact 3 format from start to finish. Commentary is characterized by its authorial voice, usually presented in a signed column, review, criticism, advice column, op-ed piece or editorial. Feature-style writing encompasses a broad range of writing techniques, all of which share a few common elements. The writing is more narrative and stories are told with a beginning, middle and end. Stories are often told through the characters or using anecdotes to help illustrate the events. They also tend to use more colorful language, are sometimes more playful, and usually engage the reader more than a traditional news story does. A concern editors commonly express is that feature-style writing means "softening" or "dumbing down" the news. "Feature-style" is not a euphemism or proxy for "soft news" in the research results. It is a description of a writing style. Writers can use feature-style writing to cover hard news stories without compromising the stories' informational value or focus. Here is an example of two approaches to covering a breaking news story; the first is a traditional inverted pyramid approach, the second uses a feature-style approach. Inverted Pyramid Approach Some boos at graduation after judge bars prayer Associated Press May 21, 2001 WASHINGTON, Ill. -- A top student who gave a traditional farewell speech at a high school graduation was booed and another student was applauded for holding a moment of silence after a judge barred prayer at the ceremony. A federal judge issued a restraining order days before Sunday's ceremony at Washington Community High School blocking any student-led prayer. It was the first time in the 80-year history of the school that no graduation prayers were said. Natasha Appenheimer, the class valedictorian, traditionally a top student chosen to give the class graduation speech, was booed when she received her diploma. Her family, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, had filed the lawsuit that led to the restraining order. Meanwhile, some stood and applauded class speaker Ryan Brown when he bowed his head for a moment of silence before his speech. (Clickhere for complete story.) Feature-style Approach School Ceremony Downstate Under U.S. Court Order By John Chase Chicago Tribune May 21, 2001 WASHINGTON, Ill. -- It was not the words graduating senior Ryan Brown spoke at Washington Community High School commencement services on Sunday that resonated in this small town just outside of Peoria. It was what he did before he spoke. Walking to the podium inside the gymnasium as a scheduled speaker, Brown paused, stepped to the side of the stage, folded his hands and bowed his head in a silent prayer. The gymnasium crowd of more than 1,000 students and adults erupted in cheers, with some standing to applaud while others blew air horns in celebration. For the first time in this school's 80-year history, no prayer was heard publicly during graduation services, following a federal judge's ruling last week prohibiting it after the class valedictorian, Natasha Appenheimer, and her family obtained a temporary restraining order against the public school district. (Click here for complete story.) Newspapers in the United States use inverted pyramid style for 69 percent of all stories, feature-style writing for 18 percent, and commentary for 12 percent. While inverted pyramid style is appropriate for most stories, nonetheless there is strong evidence that an increase in the amount of feature-style stories has wide-ranging benefits. For example, newspapers that write more feature-style politics stories have readers who express higher satisfaction with their politics coverage. Considering that only 5 percent of all politics stories are written in feature-style, even one additional feature-style politics story per week would make a difference. Beyond increasing satisfaction with particular content areas, feature-style writing also improves positive brand perception. Newspapers that run more feature-style stories are seen as more honest, fun, neighborly, intelligent, "in the know" and more in touch with the values of readers. Women, in particular, respond to feature-style writing. This preference is more than just a desire for "feature" topics such as health, fashion and travel (which also tend to be written in a feature-style). It's the papers that incorporate feature-style writing in a broad range of topics that see the most benefit in brand perception, in addition to doing more of the traditional "feature" topics. Feature-style writing encompasses many writing styles and the Readership Institute continues to explore what the implications are for reporters and editors. What is clear is that many stories can be written in a feature style without increasing length or compromising informational value.

List of Pulitzer Prize Winners for Feature Writing, That List On Loan from Wikipedia

• 1979: Jon D. Franklin, Baltimore Evening Sun, for 'Mrs. Kelly's Monster', "an account of brain surgery."
• 1980: Madeleine Blais, Miami Herald, "for 'Zepp's Last Stand.'"
• 1981: Teresa Carpenter, Village Voice, "for her account of the death of actress-model Dorothy Stratten." (The prize in this category was originally awarded to Janet Cooke of The Washington Post, but was revoked after it was revealed that her winning story about an 8-year-old heroin addict was fabricated.)
• 1982: Saul Pett, Associated Press, "for an article profiling the federal bureaucracy."
• 1983: Nan C. Robertson, The New York Times, "for her memorable and medically detailed account of her struggle with toxic shock syndrome."
• 1984: Peter Mark Rinearson, The Seattle Times, "for 'Making It Fly,' his 29,000-word account of the development, manufacture, and marketing of the new Boeing 757" jetliner.
• 1985: Alice Steinbach, The Baltimore Sun, "for her account of a blind boy's world, 'A Boy of Unusual Vision.'"
• 1986: John Camp, St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch, "for his five-part series examining the life of an American farm family faced with the worst U.S. agricultural crisis since the Depression."
• 1987: Steve Twomey, The Philadelphia Inquirer, "for his illuminating profile of life aboard an aircraft carrier."
• 1988: Jacqui Banaszynski, St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch, "for her moving series about the life and death of an AIDSvictim in a rural farm community."
• 1989: David Zucchino, The Philadelphia Inquirer, "for his richly compelling series, 'Being Black in South Africa.'"
• 1990: Dave Curtin, Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, "for a gripping account of a family's struggle to recover after its members were severely burned in an explosion that devastated their home."
• 1991: Sheryl James, St. Petersburg Times, "for a compelling series about a mother who abandoned her newborn child and how it affected her life and those of others."
• 1992: Howell Raines, The New York Times, "for 'Grady's Gift,' an account of the author's childhood friendship with his family's black housekeeper and the lasting lessons of their relationship."
• 1993: George Lardner Jr., The Washington Post, "for his unflinching examination of his daughter's murder by a violent man who had slipped through the criminal justice system."
• 1994: Isabel Wilkerson, The New York Times, "for her profile of a fourth-grader from Chicago's South Side and for two stories reporting on the Midwestern flood of 1993."
• 1995: Ron Suskind, The Wall Street Journal, "for his stories about inner-city honor students in Washington, D.C., and their determination to survive and prosper." These articles would later become his first book "A Hope in the Unseen"
• 1996: Rick Bragg, The New York Times, "for his elegantly written stories about contemporary America."
• 1997: Lisa Pollak, The Baltimore Sun, "for her compelling portrait of a baseball umpire who endured the death of a son while knowing that another son suffers from the same deadly genetic disease."
• 1998: Thomas French, St. Petersburg Times, "for his detailed and compassionate narrative portrait of a mother and two daughters slain on a Florida vacation, and the three-year investigation into their murders."
• 1999: Angelo B. Henderson, The Wall Street Journal, "for his portrait of a druggist who is driven to violence by his encounters with armed robbery, illustrating the lasting effects of crime."
• 2000: J.R. Moehringer, Los Angeles Times, "for his portrait of Gee's Bend, an isolated river community in Alabama where many descendants of slaves live, and how a proposed ferry to the mainland might change it."
• 2001: Tom Hallman, Jr., The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), "for his poignant profile of a disfigured 14-year old boy who elects to have life-threatening surgery in an effort to improve his appearance."
• 2002: Barry Siegel, Los Angeles Times, "for his humane and haunting portrait of a man tried for negligence in the death of his son, and the judge who heard the case."
• 2003: Sonia Nazario, Los Angeles Times, "for 'Enrique's Journey,' her touching, exhaustively reported story of a Honduran boy's perilous search for his mother who had migrated to the United States."
• 2004: not awarded
• 2005: Julia Keller of Chicago Tribune, "for her gripping, meticulously reconstructed account of a deadly 10-second tornado that ripped through Utica, Ill."
• 2006: Jim Sheeler of Rocky Mountain News, "for his poignant story on a Marine major who helps the families of comrades killed in Iraq cope with their loss and honor their sacrifice."
• 2007: Andrea Elliott of The New York Times, for 'Muslims in America Series,' "her intimate, richly textured portrait of an immigrant imam striving to find his way and serve his faithful in America."
• 2008: Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post, for 'Pearls Before Breakfast,' "his chronicling of a world-class violinist who, as an experiment, played beautiful music in a subway station filled with unheeding commuters."
• 2009: Lane DeGregory of St. Petersburg Times, for 'The Girl in the Window,' "her moving, richly detailed story of a neglected little girl, found in a roach-infested room, unable to talk or feed herself, who was adopted by a new family committed to her nurturing."
• 2010: Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post, for 'Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the Backseat of a Car Is a Horrifying Mistake. Is It a Crime?,' "his haunting story about parents, from varying walks of life, who accidentally kill their children by forgetting them in cars."
• 2011: Amy Ellis Nutt of the Newark Star-Ledger, for 'The Wreck of the Lady Mary,' "her deeply probing story of the mysterious sinking of a commercial fishing boat in the Atlantic Ocean that drowned six men."
• 2012: Eli Sanders of The Stranger (Seattle) for 'The Bravest Woman in Seattle,' "his haunting story of a woman who survived a brutal attack that took the life of her partner."
• 2013: John Branch of The New York Times, for 'Snow Fall', an "evocative narrative about skiers killed in an avalanche and the science that explains such disasters" and the integration of multimedia elements.

Jon Franklin and a Description of Recent Feature Writing Nominees

I copied this from the Pulitzer Prize site. It looks as if the winner and one of the two finalists would satisfy Jon Franklin's notion of finding the positive angle - though my god the subject matter sounds pretty grim. The third story just seems downright depressing, of the sort Franklin says nobody likes. Interestingly enough, it's the one I went to the trouble to read when it first appeared. Perhaps, I was curious about how one "falls from grace" - a term my religious background floats to my lips - and I was also ready to fill up with anger at yet another pro sport that allows its participants - indeed, encourages them - to do themselves damage so that the sport profits.

 Sometimes, it feels good to feel bad, right?


  Awarded to Eli Sanders of The Stranger, a Seattle (Wash.) weekly, for his haunting story of a woman who survived a brutal attack that took the life of her partner, using the woman’s brave courtroom testimony and the details of the crime to construct a moving narrative. 

 Finalists Also nominated as finalists in this category were: John Branch of The New York Times for his deeply reported story of Derek Boogaard, a professional hockey player valued for his brawling, whose tragic story shed light on a popular sport’s disturbing embrace of potentially brain-damaging violence; and Corinne Reilly of The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, for her inspiring stories that bring the reader side-by-side with the medical professionals seeking to save the lives of gravely injured American soldiers at a combat hospital in Afghanistan.