Description:

If we ask the lay readers why they read newspapers, the obvious answer would be to get news. However, what keeps the newspaper endearing and, in a way, enduring are the longer stories about people behind the news, about the humorous everyday experiences we all have, or the closer look at someone and the unexpected surprises we get in the process. In short, we call these features. In this substantially revised book on Feature Writing, the author with her vast experience discusses various aspects of Feature Writing. She focuses on different types of features found in newspapers—Humour and Satire, Brights, Human Interest Features, Travel Features and News Features—and illustrates each of these. In addition, she provides a detailed description of Profiles, Interviews, and Online Features with examples, and gives a clear analysis of Feature Writing Techniques.

Intended as a text for students offering courses in Journalism, this book would also be extremely useful for freelance writers, and anyone who has a flair for writing.

•  Includes two new chapters on Obituary and Tribute, and Sports and new sections such as Blogs and Professionalism in Journalism.
• Provides more illustrations culled from recent newspapers.
•  Gives explanatory notes on some key words used in the book, and a section on Vocabulary.

In this delightful book on FW [Feature Writing], Meera Raghavendra Rao brings home to us that writing a story or a novel is one way of discovering sequence in experience, of stumbling upon cause and effect in the happenings of a writer’s own life. In my view Meera Raghavendra Rao’s book on FW is an exceptionally good and useful book not only for all students of Journalism but also for all writers interested in FW.

The book is a rather exhaustive guide on ways to tell a feature story. Among the other pluses is the Indianness permeating the book—most sample articles are home-brewn.

—The Hindu, Metroplus Weekend