How To Write Special Feature Articles | Page 2

writers. But hugging this delusion does not change the
fact that the intellectual life even of most educated persons, and
certainly of the mass of the population, is fed chiefly by the writers of
our own time....
Every editor of a magazine, every editor of an earnest and worthy
newspaper, every publisher of books, has dozens or hundreds of
important tasks for which he cannot find capable men; tasks that
require scholarship, knowledge of science, or of politics, or of industry,
or of literature, along with experience in writing accurately in the
language of the people.
Special feature stories and popular magazine articles constitute a type
of writing particularly adapted to the ability of the novice, who has
developed some facility in writing, but who may not have sufficient
maturity or talent to undertake successful short-story writing or other
distinctly literary work. Most special articles cannot be regarded as
literature. Nevertheless, they afford the young writer an opportunity to
develop whatever ability he possesses. Such writing teaches him four
things that are invaluable to any one who aspires to do literary work. It
trains him to observe what is going on about him, to select what will
interest the average reader, to organize material effectively, and to
present it attractively. If this book helps the inexperienced writer,
whether he is in or out of college, to acquire these four essential
qualifications for success, it will have accomplished its purpose.
For permission to reprint complete articles, the author is indebted to the
editors of the Boston Herald, the Christian Science Monitor, the Boston
Evening Transcript, the New York Evening Post, the Detroit News, the
Milwaukee Journal, the Kansas City Star, the New York Sun, the
Providence Journal, the Ohio State Journal, the New York World, the
Saturday Evening Post, the Independent, the Country Gentleman, the
Outlook, _McClure's Magazine_, _Everybody's Magazine_, the
Delineator, the Pictorial Review, _Munsey's Magazine_, the American
Magazine, System, Farm and Fireside, the _Woman's Home
Companion_, the Designer, and the Newspaper Enterprise Association.
The author is also under obligation to the many newspapers and
magazines from which excerpts, titles, and other material have been
quoted.

At every stage in the preparation of this book the author has had the
advantage of the coöperation and assistance of his wife, Alice Haskell
Bleyer.
_University of Wisconsin Madison, August, 1919_

CONTENTS



PART I
I. THE FIELD FOR SPECIAL ARTICLES 3
II. PREPARATION FOR SPECIAL FEATURE WRITING 14
III. FINDING SUBJECTS AND MATERIAL 25
IV. APPEAL AND PURPOSE 39
V. TYPES OF ARTICLES 52
VI. WRITING THE ARTICLE 99
VII. HOW TO BEGIN 131
VIII. STYLE 160
IX. TITLES AND HEADLINES 170
X. PREPARING AND SELLING THE MANUSCRIPT 182
XI. PHOTOGRAPHS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS 193

PART II
AN OUTLINE FOR THE ANALYSIS OF SPECIAL FEATURE
ARTICLES 201
TEACH CHILDREN LOVE OF ART THROUGH STORY-TELLING
204 (_Boston Herald_)
WHERE GIRLS LEARN TO WIELD SPADE AND HOE 206
(_Christian Science Monitor_)
BOYS IN SEARCH OF JOBS (_Boston Transcript_) 209
GIRLS AND A CAMP (_New York Evening Post_) 213
YOUR PORTER (_Saturday Evening Post_) 218
THE GENTLE ART OF BLOWING BOTTLES (_Independent_) 233
THE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYHOUSE (_New York World_) 240
THE SINGULAR STORY OF THE MOSQUITO MAN 242 (_New
York Evening Post_)
A COUNTY SERVICE STATION (_Country Gentleman_) 248
GUARDING A CITY'S WATER SUPPLY (_Detroit News_) 260
THE OCCUPATION AND EXERCISE CURE (_Outlook_) 264
THE BRENNAN MONO-RAIL CAR (_McClure's Magazine_) 274
A NEW POLITICAL WEDGE (_Everybody's Magazine_) 281
THE JOB LADY (_Delineator_) 293
MARK TWAIN'S FIRST SWEETHEART (_Kansas City Star_) 299
FOUR MEN OF HUMBLE BIRTH HOLD WORLD DESTINY IN

305 THEIR HANDS (_Milwaukee Journal_)
THE CONFESSIONS OF A COLLEGE PROFESSOR'S WIFE 307
(_Saturday Evening Post_)
A PARADISE FOR A PENNY (_Boston Transcript_) 326
WANTED: A HOME ASSISTANT (_Pictorial Review_) 331
SIX YEARS OF TEA ROOMS (_New York Sun_) 336
BY PARCEL POST (_Country Gentleman_) 341
SALES WITHOUT SALESMANSHIP (_Saturday Evening Post_) 349
THE ACCIDENT THAT GAVE US WOOD-PULP PAPER 356
(_Munsey's Magazine_)
CENTENNIAL OF THE FIRST STEAMSHIP TO CROSS THE
ATLANTIC 360 (_Providence Journal_)
SEARCHING FOR THE LOST ATLANTIS 364 (_Syndicate Sunday
Magazine Section_)
INDEX 369

HOW TO WRITE SPECIAL FEATURE ARTICLES



CHAPTER I
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PART I

CHAPTER I
THE FIELD FOR SPECIAL ARTICLES
ORIGIN OF SPECIAL ARTICLES. The rise of popular magazines and
of magazine sections of daily newspapers during the last thirty years
has resulted in a type of writing known as the "special feature article."
Such articles, presenting interesting and timely subjects in popular form,
are designed to attract a class of readers that were not reached by the
older literary periodicals. Editors of newspapers and magazines a
generation ago began to realize that there was no lack of interest on the
part of the general public in scientific discoveries and inventions, in
significant political and