Feature Writing Preview

1. What is the difference between a hard news lead (lede) and the one you read above?
It doesn't give a brief summary of all of the information given in the article like it would in a hard news lead, instead it draws the reader in. 

2. What paragraph(s) did you learn the following information?
a. Who
Ted Williams
b. What
His voice
c. Where
Hudson Street northbound off I-71
d. When
January of 2011
e. Why
He's on the streets because of bad decisions he made. 
f. How
He's using his vocal talent to get himself off the street. 

3. Are there quotes in this story?
Yes.

4. Are those quotes arranged in the "quote-transiton" style we used in news writing?
No. 

5. Who is quoted in the story?
Ted Williams, Kevin McLoughlin, Doral Chenoweth III, Ken Andrews, Tony Florentino, Shane Cormier, Frank Wilson, and Patrick Harris.

6. What quote is the most powerful in the story, in your opinion?
"My boss said to me, 'If you don't get him hired, you're fired.'" 

7. How many paragraphs is the story?
33

8. How many words is the story (hint: you can copy and paste into Word and get a word count)?
762.

9. What is significant about the lead (lede) and the final paragraph of the story?
The lede ,"That voice." and the final paragraph, "That voice could be his." are significant because they tie into each other, almost as if the first one is a question and the last one is an answer. "That voice you hear? This guy could be that voice." 

10. Why do you think the writer did that with the lead (lede) and final paragraph?
It adds interest to the story, making the writing more interesting to read than that of hard news, which you only read to get information about events.

11. Was the story interesting to read?
Yes. 

12. When you finished the story, but BEFORE you watched the video, did you want to hear the voice?
Yes. 

13. Multimedia approaches are powerful tools, what impact did the video have when watched directly after reading the story?
It gave you an image and a sound to what was described in the story—the video made you connect what his voice actually sounds like to people's reactions towards it. 

14. Would the story have lost its impact without the video?
Yes. 

15. Did the writer try to come up with a way for you to hear the voice, i.e. did he try to describe the voice or give you a way to "hear" the voice without really hearing it?
Yes. 

16. How did the writer do that?
The writer uses the words "radiant pipes" and uses the phrases he says in the voice in the writing to bring to mind the voice-over voices, which allows you to "hear" what his voice must sound like.