feature story notes

• Point of View- All stories need to be written in 3rd person *no I, we, me, my* (except for opinion/commentary pieces)
• Tense- past, present, future; usually past tense *the feature writing story should be in past tense*
• Names- Use first and last name and then after that use only last name, for people with the same last name, ex: Ted Reeves, then later talk about him as last name, then using first name when they share a last name, Jerry Reeves, Ted or Jerry, Tom Reeves, Ted, Jerry or Tom, Tom Reeves jr., Ted Jerry, Tom, Tom, jr.
• Quote/ Transition style- transition statements should be followed by a quote: statement, then quote that goes along with the statement, can be multiple statements and then quote
• Story Telling- don't say the questions, its not about the interview you have to tell the story, have factual statements, the person you interviewed should be telling the story
• Said- there shouldn't be any hint of what the question was, the questions should be turned into statements, always use said every time you are talking about what they told you
• Simple and Concise- Don't have run on sentences, no more than 4 commas in a sentence, they should be short and simple. In most paragraphs there is only one sentence; statement, hit enter, quote, and never have long paragraphs. Should have 25-30 word sentences
• Word Use- Write as though a 6th grader would be reading it, it should be easy for the them to understand. Sometimes big words can be good, but sometimes they can be bad.
• Formatting- should be separate paragraphs for each statement and quote
• Spell Checks and Grammar- no excuses for spelling if using spell check, don't rely on spellcheck to get everything right, double check. Work on grammar; use it correctly. Print and read it out loud to catch any grammar mistakes, read backwards out loud for spelling mistakes.

Edit marks-

ww= wrong word and if it is crossed out it is wrong

punctuation- backwards s with quotation marks and commas in it, switch punctuation

said with line over it connected down and anger another word

L- new paragraph

word underlined or crossed out with an sp mean its is spell wrong

check mark or exclamation point- take it out

brackets- something wrong with sentence or paragraph 

Two vertical lines- extra space or needs space