Feature Articles

1
Feature Articles

• A Way to Share your Opinion About Something
  Youve Learned With a Larger Audience Who Needs
  and/or Wants to Know

2
Researching a Broad Topic

• Read
• Surf the web
• Interview experts
• Go on a fieldtrip
• Watch a filmstrip/video
• Take notes

3
Narrowing the Focus

• Search for what intrigues you about your topic.
• Think about what you believe/feel about your
  topic.
• Notice what you find yourself thinking
  about/talking about that youre researching.
• Write some questions that you can now answer or
  would still like the answer to.

4
Considering the Needs of the Audience

• Think about what you now know/believe that others
  need to hear about.
• Narrow your research to answering that question.
• Collect facts, stories, quotes, evidence to
  support your focused purpose.
• Decide what to leave out. Remember, writing is
  as much what you leave out as what you put in.

5
Organizing your Notes

• Put your notes into categories/groups by thinking
  about what they have in common. (These will be
  your train cars.)
• Arrange those groups by thinking of how your
  audience will best understand your information.
• Decide which order the groups of information
  should be shared.
• Think of transitions for connecting the
  groups/train cars.

6
Connecting the Cars

• Line up the train cars/categories in a way that
  will make the most sense to the reader.
• Put cars/categories near each other that are
  closely related.
• Connect the cars with transitions/couplers that
  lead the reader from one thought to another.
• Remember, transitions can come in the middle of a
  category. They dont always have to be the first
  or last sentences.

7
Writing the Lead

• Try several types of leads and then choose your
  favorite question, story, quote, fact, command,
  comparison, list
• Choose the one that gets your audiences
  attention.
• Make sure it lets them know why youre writing.
  The lead has to indicate your focus and be
  connected to your purpose.

8
Writing the Closing

• Be brief.
• Let the reader know that the piece is finished.
• Leave the reader with something to think about,
  laugh at, remember
• You might tie back to something said in the lead.
  

9
Writing the Title

• Try several titles and choose your favorite.
• Get your audiences attention.
• Make sure to indicate the focus.
• Make it narrow, like your purpose. Dont say,
  All About Beavers. Say, How Beavers Bodies
  are Built for Swimming.
• Try to be clever and unique.