Those that have been reporting for even a short time know there is a harsh difference between feature and hard-hitting news writing. Working for the Student Life desk at Central Michigan Life, I've been exposed to both forms, each taking a little while to get the hang of.
Feature writing is so much more fun and energetic in my opinion. I can make a creative story using any angle I want. I've found that through interviews and story formulation, you can discover more about your creative writing abilities than you ever knew possible through the outlet of feature writing. Below is a link to my first front-page feature story I wrote on an Internet poet success story - an amazing guy and so fun to work with.
CMU alum becomes successful Internet poet
Hard-hitting news is much different and is almost formulaic in the way it is produced. The who, what, when, where, why and how are the most important aspects and it's guaranteed that they'll all have their own graph with a lead and some quotes placed intermittently. It's almost like creating a puzzle with a different picture, but all the pieces are identical as every other puzzle. You know just where to find them and right where they fit, but each time a new story is being told. That's not to say I don't like news writing - I actually love it. Producing news and letting the masses know important information is one of the key responsibilities of a newspaper and individually, the reporters themselves. While regular news writing can be formulaic, that's not to say you can't spice it up and add a little of your own writing style into it, as long as the facts are being conveyed accurately.
Below is a link to a news story I wrote about a Unified Sports soccer league that combined Special Olympics athletes with Central Michigan University students to create a unified team. While it was event coverage (and thus, more of a hard news story), I took more of an emotional approach to appeal to more readers.
Unified Sports
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