1. CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Spring 2013
Feature Writing (Room 434)
Prof. Roslyn Bernstein
Mondays: 2:00 p.m. to 4:50 p.m.
Week-By-Week Schedule
This is a basic week-by-week outline but keep in mind that there will be changes. The key topic
of each week is in boldface.
January 28/Week One. Discussion: A course overview.
What is a feature story? How does it differ from a news story? How do you find one? In
particular, how does a profile differ from a biography?
Reading 1: “The Professor of Micropopularity,” NYT, November 26, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/magazine/28Schamus-t.html?_r=1&sq=profiles&st=cse&sc
p=5&pagewanted=print
Reading 2: “Once Upon a Time, There Was a Person Who Said, ‘Once Upon a Time’, NYT,
January 11, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/magazine/once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-person-who-said-
once-upon-a-time.html?pagewanted=all&pagewanted=print
Writing Assignments:
1) Write an essay on an “about face” in your life—a moment when you made a significant
decision, a turning point. (It may be a decision inflicted upon you.) Due: 2/11/13
2) Write a blog post selecting your beat for the semester. Include a paragraph or two describing
why you have chosen this beat and include a list of possible stories ideas.
3) Write a “pitch,” or a proposal for a profile, with particular emphasis on why you chose that
person. (Note: The profile subject must be someone drawn from the beat. It cannot be a family
member, friend, significant-other or anyone else you know personally.)
All writing assignments must be emailed and blog posts uploaded by 5 PM Sunday before our
Monday class session. Writing assignments should be sent as WORD attachments.
2. February 4/Week Two.
Beats and Profile Pitches
In-class workshop on your beat and profile pitches.
Reading: Telling True Stories, pp. 66-74; Lawrence Wright, “The Apostate,” pp. 30-45, The
Best American Magazine Writing 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/books/going-clear-by-lawrence-wright-examines-scientolog
y.html
Discussion: How features are reported and written. Using different examples, we’ll look at
ledes, structure, voice and use of scene and description, all subjects to be explored in detail
later. In particular, we’ll talk about “theme.”
Writing Assignment: Media Critique of Joel Lovell’s “George Saunders Has Written the Best
Book You’ll Read This Year,” New York Times , (blog post)
February 11 /Week 3
Discussion: The Art of the Profile
Discussion: The art of interviewing. How to prepare, how to act, how to avoid asking the
wrong questions. The importance of pursuing motivation. How to coax color from someone.
Who We Are: Sharing the About Faces Posts
Reading 1): “The James Franco Project,” New York Magazine
(See Sidney Awards 2010 by David Brooks)
Reading 2): Telling True Stories, pp. 19-45.
February 20/Week Four. (Class meets on Wednesday)
The Art of the Profile
Guest Speaker: Julie Satow (2:00 –3:15 PM)
Reading: “Amanda Burden Wants to Remake New York. She Has 19 Months Left.”
Writing Assignment:
1)Write a blog post on the Satow visit.
2) Finish the first draft of your profile for Feb 25th. (Note: a “draft” is not an outline but rather a
full story. It is not merely a couple of paragraphs, followed by notes).
February 25/Week Five.
In-class workshop on Profiles
Reading: Joe Gould’s Secret by Joseph Mitchell
3. Writing Assignments:
1) Final version of profile due March 4th
.
2) Write a “pitch” for an explainer about a controversy in your beat area, telling us the issue, a
possible theme and a key question you hope to answer.
March 4/Week Six.
A look at Explainers. What are they? How do you report them?
In-class Discussion: Pitches for Explainer.
How to begin a feature story.
Why the opening is the most important part. How to sift information and pick an opening that
captures the reader’s attention. What are “immersion” openings?
Reading:
1) Telling True Stories, pp. 97-104;
2) John McPhee, “Structure,”
The New Yorker, January 14, 2013;
3)“Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the Backseat of a Car Is a Horrifying Mistake. Is It a
Crime?” The Washington Post (Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing)
Writing Assignments:
Final Version of the Profile
Continue to work on explainer
March 11/Week Seven. You have a lede. Now, what comes next? Structuring stories. More
on “summary” or “nut grafs.” Do you always have to have one? Should you outline? How do you
use quotes? How do you keep things moving? Transitions. Why momentum is essential.
Reading: Lance DeGregory, “The Girl in the Window,” St. Petersburg Times; Telling True
Stories, pp.125-159.
Writing Assignment: Finish the first draft of the explainer story for March 18th.
March 18/Week Eight.
Discussion: First Drafts of Explainer Stories
What it means to write with voice. It’s an elusive thing – but critical to creating a sense that an
article has been written by you, not a committee or a machine. It’s related to making judgments
in print, i.e., offering opinions without saying, “I think.”
4. Reading: Charlie LeDuff, “What Killed Aiyana Stanley-Jones?” Mother Jones; Telling True
Stories, pp. 104-109.
Writing:
1) Final Version of explainer due April 8th
.
2) Submit a pitch for a narrative, explaining not only the tale you’d like to write, but what
broad message or impression you wish to leave with readers. Most important: Tell us what
events or places you intend to see or re-create to give readers a sense they were there.
April 8/Week Nine.
Discussion: Narrative Writing. Narratives are fun to write, easy to organize, but difficult to pull
off. The art of creating suspense. Stories with mystery and tension. The need to get sources to
visualize the past. How to think in chapters.
Reading: Luke Dittrich, “Joplin,” in The Best American Magazine Writing 2012, pp. 2-29; Telling
True Stories, pp. 109-121.
Writing Assignment: Select a magazine that you enjoy reading ( for example, the Atlantic,
Harper’s, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair or Esquire or an online
publication like Slate or Salon), and write a blog post discussing the magazine’s tone and style.
Analyze the type of articles it runs, the readers it appeals to, and competing publications. B) In a
one/two page pitch letter, propose a story you’d like to write for the magazine, and what its
theme would be. Make sure that is NOT a story that the magazine or its competitors have
already written.
April 15/Week Ten.
Discussion: Pitching a Feature
Discussion of your blog publication and pitch posts
Assignment: Continue working on your narrative. Submit an outline of it.
Reading: Telling True Stories, pp. 197-221.
April 22/Week Eleven. Due: Outline of narrative. Discussion of outlines.
Guest Speaker: Andrea Elliott (2:00-3:00 PM)
Reading: “A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds,” The New York Times.
Writing Long Form Narratives
Assignment: Submit first draft of narrative.
April 29/Week Twelve.
Due: The first draft of your narrative. Discussion: The Honest Writer.
5. Especially in feature stories, reporters often skim over inconvenient facts, inflate minor ones or
fail to be logical in presenting information. The result is stories that hype the message – or fall
apart.
In-class workshop: Narrative Stories
Reading: “Arms and the Dudes,” in The Best American Magazine Writing 2012, pp.206-240.
May 6/Week Thirteen. Discussion: Other forms of non-news feature stories. The Q & A, the
review, the column, the trend, the analysis. How it is possible to write fairly, but with subjectivity.
How to build an argument in print. How to lose an argument in print.
Guest Speaker: TBA
Assignment: The second full draft of the narrative.
May 13/Week Fourteen:
Workshop in Editing and Fine Tuning the Narrative
May 20/Week Fifteen: Final Class: Due: Your Narrative Story.
Discussion: We’ll review the basics learned during the semester, with a discussion of how they’ll
help no matter what kind of writing you wind up doing, or job you wind up having. Tips on how to
get a job.
