On my last full day of the summer institute at the University of Florida, I took a class on the difference between hard news and feature stories. I learned that hard news should be straight and to the point while feature stories are supposed to be very detailed and make the reader feel emotion.
We were given a situation and were told to write two similar but different stories on it; one looking at it as hard news and the other as a feature story. Here is what I wrote.
Hard news
A fire in the apartment complex on NW University Avenue left 80 percent of the building uninhabitable and 38 people unhoused. The fire, caused by faulty electrical wiring in Unit 43 of the apartment building, now has the complex's residents, some like Julie Taylor, mother of three with no renter's insurance, homeless.
Feature story
With no bathroom to shower in and no bed to sleep in, the three children that once lived on NW University Avenue now have no where to go. The fire that started in the apartment complex left 38 residents with no home. Julie Taylor, the mother of these three children, spoke to reporters. "Everything we owned was in this apartment. We don't have renter's insurance and have no other place to go."
We were given a situation and were told to write two similar but different stories on it; one looking at it as hard news and the other as a feature story. Here is what I wrote.
Hard news
A fire in the apartment complex on NW University Avenue left 80 percent of the building uninhabitable and 38 people unhoused. The fire, caused by faulty electrical wiring in Unit 43 of the apartment building, now has the complex's residents, some like Julie Taylor, mother of three with no renter's insurance, homeless.
Feature story
With no bathroom to shower in and no bed to sleep in, the three children that once lived on NW University Avenue now have no where to go. The fire that started in the apartment complex left 38 residents with no home. Julie Taylor, the mother of these three children, spoke to reporters. "Everything we owned was in this apartment. We don't have renter's insurance and have no other place to go."