Understanding various writing styles can prove to be highly beneficial as it empowers us to modify our writing to suit the specific purpose and audience we are targeting. By familiarizing ourselves with different writing styles, such as descriptive, argumentative, persuasive, narrative, or expository writing, we can choose the most appropriate style that will help us communicate our message effectively to our intended readers or listeners.
News writing serves the purpose of keeping readers informed and educated about the latest happenings in the world. They are written in a way that provides a detailed account of current affairs and events, including politics, business, sports, science, and entertainment, among others. Such articles are usually published in newspapers, magazines, online news portals, and other media outlets that cater to the public’s need for reliable information.
The primary goal of news articles is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information on the topics they are interested in. Journalists and reporters use various sources, including interviews, press releases, official statements, and eyewitness accounts, to gather information and write informative, engaging, and easy-to-understand news articles.
Feature writing is a form of journalism that focuses on exploring and highlighting human-interest stories that are relevant to its audience. The primary objective of feature writing is to capture the reader’s attention and connect with them emotionally. It accomplishes this by utilizing storytelling techniques, vivid descriptions, and personal anecdotes to create a compelling narrative.
This style of writing’s purpose is to engage the reader, evoke their emotions, and ultimately leave a lasting impression on them. This form of writing allows readers to experience a wide range of emotions, including empathy, excitement, and even humor, depending on the subject matter. In essence, feature writing is all about forging a meaningful connection with the reader through the power of words.
The advantage of feature writing over news writing is that it allows for a more in-depth exploration of a story or a specific angle of the story. Instead of merely summarizing the subject matter, a feature article focuses on one aspect or significance of the story. Such content often includes human interest stories about individuals, events, or places. The stories have a captivating effect on the audience, compelling them to read more.
One of the best advantages of feature writing is that it can be published at any point. The writer can take their time and include as much or as little as they want to. However, news writing is time-sensitive and must be put out for immediate release. Every media company wants to be the first to report on an important news story to catch their audience’s interest while the story is hot.
Feature writing’s big weakness is the fact that it will usually get pushed aside when there is breaking news that takes precedence. News stories are condensed and to the point, usually between 300-500 words, while features can be more than 2000 words. In traditional print media, the amount of space available for publishing lengthy features is often limited. So, in print media especially, news stories will always take precedence over feature writing.
Both news writing and feature writing serve an important purpose for readers. News writing provides timely and relevant information about current events, while feature writing offers more in-depth stories and human-interest pieces that can be both informative and entertaining. Both are beneficial in their own way and cater to different reader preferences. The more you can learn these writing styles, the more you can enhance your writing skills.
Melanie DuBose 