Please leave a comment on some of the viewpoints that were expressed in the video.

Thomas McHale, an English teacher at Hunterdon Central Regional High School, who is passionate about good writing, has asked me to provide five tips for feature writing. I’ve been a feature writer most of my professional life, and these following tips have served me well. I hope you find them useful.

1) Show, don’t tell.

Anyone who reads my stories will see that they rely heavily on telling details and quotes. My goal is always to create an image in the mind’s eye of the reader, to let him see. I do this by trying to create scenes, by observing the subjects of my stories doing what it is they love. The best quotes often come not from direct interview questions, but from observing the subject of my story interacting with others. Let’s focus on the story at my website, www.michaelvitez.com under “my favorites” titled Penn’s Greatest Success Story. It is about a custodian named Dan Harrell. He is in charge of the Palestra basketball arena, and also had spent ten years working on his undergraduate degree and was about to graduate in his 50s. I chose to focus the story around his busiest and most exciting day — the last home game of the basketball season — against Princeton. You can see all of my five rules put to good use in that story. For this particular rule — show, don’t tell — I point to the ending of the story. I let the reader see. This is my favorite ending of any story I’ve ever written.  

If the link to the story doesn’t work for any reason, read it in a Word document by clicking on the link below.

The Greatest Penn Success Story.doc

2) Spend the time.

This is bedrock and fundamental. Too many feature writers in America today are in a hurry, and don’t appreciate the value of spending the time. Well, you won’t get the scene you need, or the details, or the quotes, to make your story powerful and the best it can be if you don’t spend the time. Good writing depends on good reporting. When you spend the time, gather the great quotes and telling details, gain a certain level of confidence, then you can write with voice and passion and authority. I repeat: good writing depends on good reporting and good reporting takes time. Going back to the story on Dan Harrell, the custodian _ I waited a few weeks to do the story, because I wanted to base it on the day of the Penn-Princeton game. I was there by 5 a.m. when he arrived to sweep and mop the Palestra floor, and I was with him all day, even when he took a break to do homework, and back at night for the men’s and women’s games. I was with him probably 14 hours that day, and it was worth it. Had I not been with him earlier in the day, when he was cleaning the locker rooms, and putting little cards into the lockers of the seniors, I wouldn’t have understood the impact of what I saw later that night, which led to my favorite ending of all time.  A good feature writer will only use his best stuff, and throw away the rest. Feature writing in one sense is very inefficient — you’re spending a lot of time — but the outcome should make it worthwhile. This is all relative. Some features require months of work, others all you have is a few hours. But don’t take the shortcut.

3) Prepare in advance.

This is important for several reasons. It is insulting to the people or person you are writing about if you show up and are clueless about the subject of your story. He isn’t going to like you, trust you, open up to you or take you seriously if you haven’t done your homework in advance. So read up or do some interviews in advance if you can. Also, in a feature story like my profile of Dan Harrell, I knew that I was going to make the day of the Penn-Princeton game the basis of my narrative, the heart of my story. So that day I wanted mostly to observe, see him in action, stay out of my own way. Of course I asked him questions throughout the day, but these were mainly in response to things I saw him do or heard him say. Well in advance of the big day, I interviewed his wife and daughters by phone, interviewed a couple of his professors, and sat down with him to talk about his course work, etc. You can see how I wove all that stuff seamlessly into the story. By the way, I thought the beauty of this story was that he wasn’t just a custodian but a student, and that’s part of what made this profile so good and different, I thought it was important to focus on that aspect. In fact, the editor wanted me to start the story with something from his academic life. All of which leads me to rule 4.

4) Follow your gut

The world will knock you down. Editors will say your ideas are stupid. You will struggle in the middle of your stories, wondering why you chose this idea, uncertain how it will end up. Have faith in your idea. Follow your instincts. And here is a corallary to following your gut: be curious about the world. A good feature writer must be interested in the world, see things and find wonder in things, be willing to talk to anyone, ask questions that might seem embarrassing but are necessary. Essentially what I’m trying to say is have no fear. Pursue what you think is a great idea. Because if you love the idea, your passion will come through and there is a good chance the reader will love your story, too. But if you are bored with your story, not interested in it, how do you expect the reader to care? So don’t be embarrassed or intimated. Go for it!

5 Write soon, and tell the story to your keyboard first.

This is a practical tip I learned the hard way early in my career. When I was starting out in journalism, i covered cops and courts in Portsmouth, Va.  I was a suburban kid and this was a poor Southern city — a completely new experience for me. I’d often come back to the office filled with wonder and awe at what I’d seen. My editor would ask me about my story, and I’d tell him with all my enthusiasm and detail. Then I would write the story, and he’d inevitably be disappointed, crushed. The story I had written in now way resembled the story I had just told him. I learned that I tell it best when I tell it first. And editors and readers respond best the first time they hear it — so let them read it first!  When I come back from a story, or, for instance, after I’d spend the day and night with Dan Harrell at that Penn-Princeton game, either late that night, or first thing in the morning, before speaking to anyone, I sat down at the keyboard and wrote. I might write stream of conscious, just getting it down in story form, and go back and check the quote and details from my notes once I got the basic draft down. When I’m doing stories that I’ll work on for months, I also write scenes and critical moments right away, while fresh, when the story is still pouring from my fingertips. If you wait a week, or maybe a few days, or even a few hours, the memory and enthusaism will fade. This is not necessarily true for news stories, or complicated budget stories. Talk to your editor, figure out the news angle that’s best, or make sure you understand the critical components. But for scenes and feature moments, tell the story to your keyboard first — and soon!

Hope this helped you all.

Best,

Michael Vitez

staff writer, The Philadelphia Inquirer 

author, Rocky Stories: Tales of Love, Hope and Happiness at America’s Most Famous Steps.

www.michaelvitez.com

winner, 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism

Here is an example of a piece of my feature story:

“My parents really wanted me to take honors algebra 2 in my freshman year of high school,” said Ethan. “They wanted me to take it because they felt that it would impress many different colleges. I had no choice but to listen to them because they were…you know…my parents. I ended up getting a “C” in the class which still haunts me to this day. If I didn’t take the class, I definitely would have gotten put on the honor roll. The class not only prevented me from getting straight “A’s” but it also deprived me from sleep. I would stay up to midnight studying for the tests and doing the homework. As a result, I got sick often which really made me frustrated.  I even stayed after three times a week but the class was just too difficult for me. I put so much effort into this class. My grade in it really disappointed me.”

I included the sentence, “Ethan Spitz, a sophomore from Hunterdon Central, has firsthand experience of this pressure” at the end of my nut graph so that it leads into the quotation smoothly.

What do you guys think? Is this quotation too long? Is there any way for me summarize my sources’ thoughts so that it makes the paragraph shorter?

A young boy, who had digestive problems has been diagnosed with Celiacs 50 years later.  Celiacs is a intolerance to wheat and gluten, and eating any items containing these.  As Celiacs is becoming more known, alot of people are trying to figure out how to help students with food allergies.  The people in the artivle have opened up a gluten free bakery, that has catered to many people.  Education is key.  Alot of people who don’t have the disease have no clue what it is.  Not only is a gluten free bakery catering to people with the intolerance, but educating the people around it.

1. What are your schools doing to help students with food allergies

2. Can the schools offer special menus?

3. How common are food allergies

4. What to avoid?

I find this interesting because, I myself, have a food allergy and was wondering what schools could do to help the students. I am writing an article about this for Journalism.

Here at Hunterdon Central Regional High School a majority of students give consent to be randomly drug tested if they participate in clubs, sports, and/or activities. If students are under suspicion of drug use they are allowed to be drug and alcohol tested. Consequences for testing positive for drugs and/or alcohol are as follows: for first offense temporary suspension of activities,  five in school suspensions, five drug and alcohol education classes, and five student assistant counselor meetings.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) states that drug testing programs are ineffective and inaccurate. There are many ways to beat the tests and many people will go out of their way to make sure they have a clean drug and alcohol test.

The ACLU Drug Policy Litigation Project (DPLP) believes such drug testing policies to be both invasive and counter-productive. Involvement in extra-curricular activities has been shown to be one of the most sure-fire ways to keep kids out of trouble.

What do you think?  How does your school handle student drug and alcohol use?  Do you think it is effective?  Has a story ever been done on it in the school paper?

            Sending photos of this nature has been deemed with the term ‘sexting.’ This issue could easily be replicated at Hunterdon Central if people aren’t careful.

 The act of ‘sexting’ is becoming a lot more common, and there have been quite a few incidents of this have arisen. A survey conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy has concluded that 22 percent of all teen girls and 11 percent of teen girls ages 13-16 years old, have sent nude or semi-nude photos electronically or posted then on the internet. This act has raised much suspicion, even to the point of legal action.

Some Questions to create an article would be:

1.      Have there been similar incidents at your school?

2.      What could be done about the bullying?

3.      Are counselors prepared for a problem like this?

4.      Are students thinking of consequences when they do these things?

High school students can explore this controversial issue and gather opinions from classmates.

Is it ethical to look at the genetics of a child?

Does this practice put too much pressure on young athletes?

Does this procedure give an unfair advantage to those who have DNA that is coded to make them successful athletes?

Is there a clinic in your area that will perform a procedure like this one?

The Andersons think there is nothing wrong with the procedure. “So many parents thought their kid was going to be the next Bo Jackson (a former pro football and baseball star). There are going to be those parents, unfortunately, who push their kids, who live through their kids,” said Hilary, a personal trainer who played college volleyball. “For us, this was just a little side thing to help make it be fun. If Ava would rather do music or dance, that’s fine.”

I found this site useful because it can give you and gave me good cold hard facts. The site has alot of interesting facts about the american people, population, huosing, business, governement, and maps.  This is a trusted site because it is put out by the governemen and is updated often.  The United States Census Bureau, who put out this site takes censusus often, and would be a good place to find if you want facts about the united states and its people and given information.