Story structures | Writing feature stories about people

After a video summary with timestamps, this description includes some learning resources devoted to feature story structures.

VIDEO SUMMARY

This video is about a story structure for feature stories such as personal profiles.

The content of this video is summarized at 0:56. The main example of the video, which is a story about a member of the Dubai Astronomy Group, is introduced at 02:11. The second example, a story about Russian actor Roman Kurtsyn who performs his own stunts, is introduced at 06:22.

Theory on writing a soft news lead is first discussed at 07:08. Some of the theory points include using news values of proximity (07:31) and novelty (08:03), and writing an anecdotal lead (08:34) or a lead with three examples (09:14).

The nut graf, which is a summary of what the story is about, is introduced at 09:44. Example of a nut graf for Roman Kurtsyn’s story is at 11:07. The nut graf for the astronomy group member is written at 14:01.

The structure for the rest of the story about actor Kurtsyn is at 16:36.

Some theory for writing endings for personal profiles is addressed at 18:51.

The middle of the story for the astronomy group member is written at 19:33.

The ending for the astronomy group member is written at 22:42.

The recap of the video is at 23:51.

LEARNING RESOURCES

Feature stories used as examples:

1. A Word document with the story about the Dubai Astronomy Group member is shared here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i...

2. Photos of Roman Kurtsyn’s story in Russian are shared here (the story was published on pages 26-31 in the August 2008 issue of Mir Kostromy magazine in Kostroma, Russia): https://drive.google.com/drive/folder...

Possible classroom activities:

3. Discussion question: What kind of a lead is used to start this video?

4. Another discussion question: Which news values are used in the nut graf about the actor Roman Kurtsyn at 12:19?

5. Activity: At 06:41, Yulia Medvedeva shows an approximate sketch of a story structure for her story about actor Roman Kurtsyn. How would you sketch the final story structure of the feature about the actor? Can you sketch the story structure for the feature about the Dubai Astronomy Group member?

6. Another activity: Create an approximate sketch of a story structure for a feature about your hobby. Or, interview a classmate and make an outline of a feature story about their hobby with the lead and nut graf written in full.

Thank you for watching!