Your feature is not an English Essay. It is a feature story for a mass communication outlet. The two are not the same.

Here is a reminder of what we discussed in class:

• Make sure you have sufficient direct quotes from the subject of your story.
  • Show us what’s in your subject’s heart and head.
  • Don’t use a direct quote for facts: “The road is 26 miles,” he said.
• Put commas after FANBOYS in compound sentences and after intro phrases/clauses
• Use semicolons properly. You get only one in this story, and it can’t be in the lead. Avoid semicolons and colons if you can’t remember how to use them.
• Be consistent in your tense for verbs of attribution. Pick either “said” or “says” and stick to the tense.
• Watch placement and punctuation of “however”
• Remember these banned words/phrases
  • When asked
  • Went on to say … would go on to say
  • Watch it/its/it’s. Its’ is not a word.
  • Don’t say “…and many others.” Either leave that phrase out or say what the others are.
  • Very
  • … said of …
  • A lot of (or lots of)
  • “Mentioned” as a verb of attribution
  • “Talked about” as a verb of attribution
  • “Claimed” as a verb of attribution
• Don’t use feel/felt for verbs of attribution.
• Don’t say he loved his Nike running shorts (Save the word “love” for your grandmother and BFF.)
• Properly set up quotes
• Avoid run-ons and fragments, especially in direct quotes.
• Watch for subject/verb agreement
• Watch for noun/pronoun agreement (Watch out for collective nouns: The group of girls likes to watch scary movies.)
• Keep a proper graf length (four typed lines MAX)
• Avoid essay endings/leads. Don’t wax eloquently. Let your subject do that instead.
• Don’t switch person. (Stay in third person for your story. Only use first/second person in direct quotes.)
• Sufficiently ID people/organizations in your story
• Don’t use abbreviations of organizations on first reference
• Don’t begin a sentence with “it was” or “there is”/”there are” … Avoid MMWs.
• Keep yourself out of the story.