Feature Articles

A feature article is a longer and more in depth article, often they can be based on interviews. Many celebrities use them as positive PR for themselves or to promote something in particular. Unlike a media release, feature articles often use indirect headlines as a way of attracting an audience because if the headline is irrelevant or odd sounding it will make them want to read on and find out what actual content the article includes. This is where the sub-heading comes in as a way of explaining in more depth about what the article will actually be about and potentially its purpose. The by-line will come afterwards in order to inform the audience of who it was written by and who the interviewer was if relevant.

I found it difficult to think of a headline, I decided I wanted to use an indirect headline as it would provoke the reader to actually think for themselves about what the topic of the article could be. My feature article is based on the interview I conducted with another member of my PR seminar group: Anna. In the interview Anna described what it was like when she moved from Poland to Bournemouth to begin her university degree and how she felt about the whole transition. I originally couldn't think of an indirect headline that would catch the audiences attention and make them properly question what the article was about. However, eventually with help from my peers around me and after considering any quotes I had from the interview, I came up with the headline "In a Pickle." This headline was based on the part of the interview where Anna had spoken of what she missed about Poland and stated that although she enjoys a lot of the British food, she misses Poland's pickles. This quote is quite an odd one and many wouldn't automatically think of pickles when reading an article on an individuals experience of moving to a different country, therefore I felt this was an effective indirect headline as it doesn't give away much of the articles content.

The opening paragraph is currently something I'm finding difficult to write as I know that the common techniques to entice a reader to continue reading are to use either: a rhetorical question, a quote, a statement or a sentence describing different senses e.g. what the person could see/touch. However, it is hard to decide on which one to use as I have numerous quotes from the interview that would effectively open the article, however I need to focus it on a specific concept/topic and not just base them on the interview in general. Once I think up a specific topic to base my interview on e.g. what it is like to move to a complete new country or an article with the purpose of encouraging students to consider studying internationally etc, then it will be easier to write my paragraphs and to structure my feature article in an effective way. I am likely to focus my interview with the purpose of informing the reader and base it on the original concept of "what it is like to move to a different country by yourself/when you're a teenager/for a better education." If this fails then I may change my idea and place focus on the differences between Poland and England and the positives and negatives of both as described by Anna. I will work on a few opening sentences for both ideas and see which quotes from the interview fit most effectively with which concept and then I will decide on which would be more interesting as a feature article and go from there.