Summary

Featured Writing is an event where students are tasked with creating a journalistic featured
story based on a given story with quotes. They must form a lead(hook), nut graph, and several
quotes/transitions. These make up the basic components of a featured story.

Rules

For this event, you are given one hour to write a feature story for a high school with the
provided information. You may write as much as is needed to complete your story. You can
also bring a highlighter and dictionary if needed. You have the option to either write
or type out your essay. Note however, that you must have your essay printed out before
the hour is up.

Tips

• As you go through the story for the first time, try to find good quotes to use.
  This will help you once you start writing.
• While searching for quotes, try to identify what you think is the most powerful
  one. You can mark this with "ppq" or "possible powerful quote".
• When practicing, try to pace yourself over the course of a hour. Time goes by
  a lot quicker than you think.
• The lead should be engaging and relevant to the story. It should make the reader
  want to read the rest of your story. Try to include imagery and onomatopoeia to
  add "emotion" to your lead. It also shouldn't drag on for too long.
• Your nut graph should include the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the
  story. The whole point of this section is to summarize what the story is about.
• Your quote/transitions should be ordered from the most important information
  to the least important. If there are multiple sides to a story, try and include
  both in some way to highlight the value of each.
• The whole story should be ended off with the most powerful quote. This is
  essential to a good featured story.
• If you start to run out of time, try to lower your scope of quotes. You may
  not be able to include them all, but make sure you include your powerful quote.

Examples

Click the boxes below for some example essays and prompts.

• Prompts
• Essays