Magazine Feature Writing

Catalog description

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. COURSE OVERVIEW. Develops advanced nonfiction storytelling skills through the study and production of magazine-length features, profiles, trend pieces, service journalism and/or first-person narratives. Emphasizes writing for publication across contemporary formats, including print, digital and/or multimedia environments. Involves pitching, researching, drafting and revising multiple feature-length articles under deadline, simulating professional editorial workflows. Includes analysis of publication style, voice and audience expectations across diverse magazine platforms. May involve coverage of current events or human-interest topics, approached through journalistic standards. RELEVANCE AND APPLICATION. Builds professional competencies used by staff and independent writers within journalism, content strategy and media production, including interviewing, audience analysis, query development, revision and editorial collaboration. Supports preparation for publication-based careers as well as academic and civic contexts requiring long-form narrative communication, evidence-based reporting and/or clear voice. DEEPENING UNDERSTANDINGS. Reveals how narrative journalism blends factual reporting with structure, scene-setting, characterization and perspective to build engagement while maintaining accuracy and accountability. Illuminates how credibility is earned through transparency, sourcing and stylistic discipline rather than formulaic structure. Encourages reflection on the responsibilities of representing real people and events in written form. TOPICS AND THEMES. May include study of profile writing, trend stories, service journalism, memoir and first-person features, pitch and query formats, magazine house style and voice, interviewing strategies, source documentation, revision techniques and editorial feedback processes. May involve field reporting, live story pitching and analysis of magazine departments or adopted publications. May draw on real-world reporting scenarios, ranging from lifestyle to public affairs, addressed with attention to fairness, accuracy and professional responsibility. Prerequisites: JOUR 203 ; junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.