50148 Print Features
UTS: Communication: Creative PracticeCredit points: 8 cp
Result Type: Grade, no marks
Requisite(s): 50115 Journalism 2 OR 50235 Journalism 2
Handbook description
This subject is designed to introduce the skills required in feature writing. It aims to give students an insight into the breadth of style and genre of feature writing, including essays, columns, profiles and new journalism, and to explore more in-depth features. A range of techniques of researching, interviewing and writing is practised and critiqued. Ethical considerations are discussed in the context of particular examples of production.
Subject objectives/outcomes
On completion of this subject students should be able to:
- prepare a story based on recent events
- develop a publishable feature story
- demonstrate an imaginative and discerning eye for a potential story
- demonstrate excellent interview skills
- engage in critical discussion of the quality of feature articles in magazines and newspapers
- critically evaluate their performance as a feature writer.
Contribution to graduate profile
This subject provides students with:
- a knowledge and critical understanding of the media
- the skills to enter journalism professional practice
- a knowledge of the historical, philosophical, ethical and cultural foundations underpinning journalism and strive, throughout their careers, to promote the important role of professional and ethical journalism in the service of the public
- an understanding of the role of the media in local, regional, national and global contexts
- strong research skills and effectively retrieve and analyse information from a range of sources
- an understanding and commitment to ethical journalism practice.
Teaching and learning strategies
These will include lectures, discussion, on-site location exercises and practical assignments.
Content
This subject encourages students to take on the full time role of a feature writer, to look for story ideas, angles, anecdotes from friends, family, local community; to study newspapers, magazines, the broadcast media, advertising, marketing, and public relations in order to identify trends and ideas.
This is the kind of journalism where your imagination and creativity play an important part. Be a writer 24 hours a day: in your daily life: look out for story ideas, angles, anecdotes from your friends, relatives, the local shopkeeper, whoever. Be curious. Watch the rest of the media with a writer's eye. Look for follow-ups.
The idea is that each cohort of students becomes a features section with the lecturer as features editor and the students as writers. In classes/editorial conferences – as in the workplace - students are expected to regularly contribute original story ideas for group discussion.
The coursework requires students to write three features for potential publication: a news follow up feature, a profile and a major feature. Coursework will also require students to analyse and discuss features, go on location for observational work and present – in the weeks allocated – an individual analysis of feature stories (text or weblink for the article chosen for analysis MUST be provided to the class by the week before the student's individual presentation).
Students are also required to keep a working diary, making entries at least weekly re ideas/potential follow up, stories encountered etc. Final reports to class will utilise these diary entries.
Assessment
Assessment item 1: A 1,000-word feature story
| Objective(s): | Prepare a follow-up feature story based on recent events |
| Weighting: | 25% |
| Task: | To source, research and write a feature story of publishable quality. |
| Assessment criteria: | Assessment criteria includes quality of the idea, quality of the intro and the degree to which it demands attention, demonstrates newsworthiness and narrative value, the breadth of source material, a demonstrated understanding of the subject matter and the issues involved, the imaginative shaping of the content, and the quality of structure, clear writing and correct English expression. |
Assessment item 2: Short profile (800 words)
| Objective(s): | Demonstrate an imaginative and discerning eye for the details, quotes, anecdotes that make for a strong profile. Demonstrate interviewing skills |
| Weighting: | 25% |
| Task: | The aim of this task is to develop an imaginative and discerning eye for a potential story; to be aware of people, their lives, their hopes and dreams; to learn to engage in conversation with a person with the intention of seeking out his or her story. |
| Assessment criteria: | Assessment criteria will take into account imaginative projection, narrative value, and use of colour and quotes. |
Assessment item 3: A 1,500 word feature
| Objective(s): | Develop a potentially publishable feature story |
| Weighting: | 30% |
| Task: | To identify a strong feature story with a currency that recommends it for publication. |
| Assessment criteria: | Assessment criteria include quality of the idea, quality of the intro and the degree to which it demands attention, demonstrates newsworthiness and narrative value; the breadth of contacts, a demonstrated understanding of the subject matter and the issues involved, the imaginative shaping of the content, and the quality of structure, clear writing and correct English expression. |
Assessment item 4: Class Presentation
| Objective(s): | Demonstrate an imaginative and discerning eye for ideas and stories. Engage in critical discussion of the quality of feature articles in magazines and newspapers. |
| Weighting: | 20% |
| Task: | Students will evaluate in detail a substantial feature originally published in a newspaper or magazine. |
| Assessment criteria: | Assessment criteria includes regular class attendance, lively participation in discussion and exercises, evidence of wide reading and thorough research, demonstrated awareness of feature content in local newspapers and magazines, and quality of presentation. |
Minimum requirements
Students are expected to read the subject outline to ensure they are familiar with the subject requirements. Since class discussion and participation in activities form an integral part of this subject, you are expected to attend, arrive punctually and actively participate in classes. If you experience difficulties meeting this requirement, please contact your lecturer. Students who have a reason for extended absence (e.g. illness) may be required to complete additional work to ensure they achieve the subject objectives.
Recommended text(s)
Learning from other writers is established methodology in this discipline. Apart from staying abreast of daily news/current affairs (essential for follow up ideas), extensive reading of a wide range of features in a wide range of both online and print publications is expected. As a compulsory starting point, students are expected to READ and RETAIN each week the Good Weekend and the Weekend Australian Magazine, as current features will inevitably be analysed. Students should make themselves familiar with online and print magazines from Australia and overseas that regularly publish features, e.g. Rolling Stone, The Monthly, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, Marie Claire etc. Many print magazines also make features available online.
Indicative references
The following texts are recommended as useful references for this subject (some of the excerpts in the online readings are from these texts.)
Eisenhuth, Susie & McDonald, Willa, 2007, The Writer's Reader, Understanding Journalism and Non-Fiction, Cambridge University Press
Ricketson, Matthew, 2003, Writing Feature Stories, Allen & Unwin
Hutchison, E.R. 2008, The Art of Feature Writing, Oxford University Press
Perl, S. & Schwartz, M 2006, Writing True, The Art and Craft of Creative non-fiction, Houghton Mifflin Co, USA
Miller, Adrienne (editor), 2003, Esquire's Big Book of Great Writing, Hearst Books
Fogg, Christine, 2005, Release the Hounds, Allen & Unwin
Pilger, John (editor), 2004, Tell Me No Lies, Investigative Journalism and Its Triumphs, Jonathan Cape
Garner, Helen, 1996, True Stories: Selected Non fiction, Text
Leser, David, 1999, The Whites of Their Eyes: A Collection of Feature Stories from the Good Weekend, Allen & Unwin
Zinsser, William, 1994, On Writing Well: An informal guide to writing non-fiction, Harper Collins
King, Stephen, 2000, On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft, Hodder & Stoughton
Carey, John (ed.), 1987, The Faber Book of Reportage, Faber
Wolfe, Tom, 1973, The New Journalism, Harper and Rowe
Didion, Joan, 1993, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, (features collection, originally pub. 1968)
Mitford, Jessica, 1980, The Making of a Muckraker, Quartet
Malcolm, Janet, 1990, The Journalist and the Murderer, Bloomsbury
Richards, Ian, 2005, Quagmires and Quandaries, Exploring Journalism Ethics, UNSW Press
Wilson, Ruth, 2000, A Big Ask: Interviews with Interviewees, New Holland
Silvester, Christopher, 1993, The Penguin Book of Interviews, Penguin
Strunk, W. & White, E.G., 1972, The Elements of Style, Macmillan (Complete copy also published on the internet.)
Students must also ensure they have access to a good quality dictionary and a thesaurus. A book of English expression such as Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, Oxford Uni Press, will also prove useful.
