Writing effective feature stories relies on imagination and calm. A very effective tactic is "making a mess and cleaning it up" later. Put all your thoughts on a subject on paper or in a word document and then go in and edit out all the grammatical mistakes of misspellings after your draft is written.
Your assignment today -- use prompts, cues to write on a topic and write two-paragraph pieces on three of these topics.
1. Open up a word document
2. Choose three topics from this six topic list.
3. Write a two paragraph piece on each of your three topics.
Here are the topics:
a. invent and describe a new food
b. five years from now, I will be?
c. I have never been more frightened than when...
d. what would you do if 300 mice had just gotten out of their cages in a pet shop where you worked?
e. describe an event that changed your life forever, or make up and describe an event that would change your life forever.
f. If and when I raise children, I will never...
Updated: Here are 50 new prompts. Choose three more to write about:
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Your assignment today -- use prompts, cues to write on a topic and write two-paragraph pieces on three of these topics.
1. Open up a word document
2. Choose three topics from this six topic list.
3. Write a two paragraph piece on each of your three topics.
Here are the topics:
a. invent and describe a new food
b. five years from now, I will be?
c. I have never been more frightened than when...
d. what would you do if 300 mice had just gotten out of their cages in a pet shop where you worked?
e. describe an event that changed your life forever, or make up and describe an event that would change your life forever.
f. If and when I raise children, I will never...
Updated: Here are 50 new prompts. Choose three more to write about:
- Modern day heroes
- Unusual pets
- Unusual jobs (or students who meet famous people as a result of their part-time job)
- Making a comeback—students or faculty who have overcome incredible odds.
- The rescue team—librarians who save your necks during research paper time.
- The library—how much is lost each year due to theft, or books not returned, or vandalism. What is being done to curtail this?
- Brian drain—the most difficult classes
- Making the grade—feature on the students who make A’s in the class or from the teacher no one makes an A from.
- Favorite classes. Why?
- The high price of education—classes that cost additional money like photography, drivers ed, art, computer classes, etc.
- The cost of belonging—activities where you have to pay additional money to represent the school—summer camps, cheerleading uniforms, pompon, dance lines, minor sports, etc.
- Student entrepreneurs
- Volunteers—students/faculty who perform service work in the community
- School traditions
- Athletic superstitions
- Selling yourself—athletes who are real press hounds because they need the publicity to attract college scholarships
- Being recruited—athletes and non-athletes who are heavily recruited by schools, military, etc. Keep track of all the literature received from colleges, etc. Figure postage costs…
- The school junker—the car that’s held together with twine, etc.
- The neatest car in the school—not necessarily the most expensive but the one with the most personality.
- Games teachers play to get your attention or to make a point
- Embarrassing moments in the classroom—for teachers and students
- Breaking curfew
- Excuses—those that students give teachers and those teachers give students
- A day in the life of….your school, the homecoming candidates, the cross-country team, the principal, etc. A journal approach to capturing the day the way it was.
- Sneak attack—a story about tennis shoes (sneakers) in your school. Consider running a survey to determine the average number of sneakers owned, the average cost, and then figure the total cost of sneakers in your school. It’s probably a multi-million business in your school.
- First dates
- Long distance romances—how difficult is it to keep them alive? How expensive are your phone bills? How many letters/e-mails written in a week, etc.
- Techniques for getting noticed by a guy/girl.
- Excuses given from breaking a date
- $5 date
- $500 date
- Over achievers--what drives them to work so hard?
- Students with parents who work at school and the flip side of that--parental reaction to having their children as students/athletes.
- Large families--over 12. How large is the grocery bill? Do they ever get new clothes or do they end up in hand me downs? How long do they wait for the restroom in the morning?
- Heros in hand-me-downs. Junior varsity teams who work hard but seldom have anything new for themselves.
- Team trainers
- On the road again--travel with an athletic team to do a color story on what the road trips are like.
- Bands--students or faculty who have their own bands or play in bands.
- Famous alumni
- Leaders and pleaders--organization leaders who have to beg to get people to do things
- Being clubbed to death--so many clubs and so many choices. Getting overextended in club work.
- Your first credit card
- Driver's test
- Being stopped by the police
- The class clown--there's always one who is really a comedian. What makes him tick?
- Unusual hobbies
- Gameaholics--students who spend all of their time and money on video games or board games
- Student hangouts
- Exciting summer trips or spring break trips
- Students who are taking college credit while still in high school
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