Feature Profile

Lucia Facundo

Lucia Facundo was born in Laredo Texas 1953 and is a counselor at McCallum High school, she had wonderful parents and has 18 siblings. She was offered a job in Austin as a teacher in 1977 after college to work at McCallum. Before counseling she was a science teacher at McCallum but when she heard about the new job opening for counseling she decided to change to it because she knew she would fit the job more. She was very involved in school and her church. "It was a much more..innocent time" she says. As a child she spent most of time outside and hardly listened to the radio. She had one black and white TV and one phone line. "With all those teenagers it was hard getting on a phone". She likes to run and did her first full marathon two years ago, but now she just does half marathons. Her mother and father got little education. "My father maybe got first grade education and my mother got through ninth grade". Her father was from Mexico so English was his second language. Her mother was from San Diego Texas but was raised in San Antonio so English was her first language. Both of her parents showed that you did not have to have formal education to continue your education. Her mother later in life continued her education and got a nursing certificate that made Lucia proud. Facundo debated about having a nursing job "In high school I never thought I would be going into education". She went to Laredo Junior College, then went to Texas Women's University and got her bachelors degree in science. She then transferred to North Texas State university (UNT) and got her masters degree in education. She has a loving husband and has three children of her own, who all live in Austin and all graduated from McCallum. She continues her job with a positive attitude and respects everyone there, but of course, thats what a counselor is for.

The Morning Anchor In The Morning

I do agree that "The Mourning Anchor" deserves to be considered a great piece of journalism because it was very in depth about Bryant Gumbel and had perfect examples of what a feature profile should be. Gumbel seems to be a very unlikable person even from the opening of the feature profile. Gumbel says "It's not that I dislike many people. It's just that I don't like many people."

Reilly probably obtained the information by interviewing him, saw other interviews, and was very involved with Gumbel's life. I believe that the feature was balanced because it gave more than one opinion on Gumbel and more than just the good and the bad things about him.

I don't think that the feature was at the top of the ladder of abstract at all, but I would maybe list it near the bottom or the middle, but not at the very bottom. I believe that the moments described were signatures. The reader will get more knowledge of Gumbel and his life. I liked that Reilly wrote his feature without feeling like he had to make Gumbel and his life seem better/nicer than it is.

Learning How to Write a Feature Profile Part 2 

300 word response 

Dave Hyde's Feature starts off with a setting for his lead. Gisondi says that it is important for there to be a setting because you need to put the person in a physical location to help the reader understand what they are reading. Jake Scott is then described before our introduction to him. Gisondi says your main character (Jake Scott) needs to be fully developed or your reader could get bored or not understand your story, so Hyde's when introducing Jake Scott starts be giving a description of what he looks like and a bit of background on his life. The reporter in the story offers all the events that took place while with Jake Scott, with little details to help relate the story to its main focus. The voice of the reporter is definitely in the story but not so much that it will take away from the story, for example before he meats Jake he adds his own dialogue when he says he is "A writer from florida" when talking to to the man in the driveway. Gisondi says this is okay to do as long as you don't interject yourself into the story. You do not make yourself the main focus because the feature profile is about the character you choose, and David Hyde's does a good job making it not about him.  The news angle was about Jake Scott and what he has been doing with his life as well as clearing up stories that may or may not be true about him.  This feature profile also has a beginning, middle an end like Gisondi recommends. 

Learning How to Write a Feature Profile

100 word summary

Have a begging, middle, and end. Make sure that there is action, something that makes the story propel. 

Conflict should be how the main character wants something but someone or something stands in the way (doesn't always have to be resolved).

News angles give the reason who you are writing about and why.

Setting is to give your character a physical location. Putting your character in a location allows for the reader to follow the story easier.

Your character needs to be fully developed, physical descriptions, actions, thoughts, and dialogue.

Profile stories can include commentary, just don't over do it.

Current Events Warm Up Activity 

Ted Cruz won in the Republican Party in the Iowa caucuses while Hillary Clinton won in the Democratic party in Iowa. Bernie Sanders was in a practical tie with Clinton while Donald Trump was defeated by Cruz. For the democrats I predict Bernie Sanders, now that he has gained so much popularity that he will start beating Hillary Clinton in future debates.

Feature Exploration Day Part 1

I liked both of the feature stories because they both took a good approach on them. They illustrated good feature writing by having interesting true stories, leads, middles, ends, and they both seemed to have worked on there stories for a long time. I liked "It's An Honor" more because I liked that the writer had an original approach by having the grave digger as their subject. I like how Breslin uses people who most people would over look in his stories. Breslin also makes him stories simple enough to read that anyone could understand the goal in his writing.

Feature Exploration Day Part 2

Top Ten Most Important Things About Features 

1) Features have a lead, a middle and end

2) Uses direct quotes liberally

3) Leads must grab the readers attention and should be in third person

4) There are different types of leads like Narrative, Descriptive, Direct quote, Starting Statement, Twist, and Contrast & Compare

5) The lead should open with the specific then go to the general

6) avoid stating the obvious, using cliches, and "imagine this" leads

7) have a strong nut graph (a summary of what the story is going to be about)

8) After the nut graph use the transition/quote formula

9) End your story with a powerful quote or tie the ending back to the lead

10) avoid using a news lead, writing in the passive voice, using too many adverbs and adjectives instead of specific nouns and powerful verbs, messy handwriting, lack of strong quotes.

Part 2 Of Finding Feature Leads 

1)The Recovery of a Boston Marathon Bombing Victim - NYTimes.com Sequence or narrative 

2)http://niemanstoryboard.org/stories/from-esquire-classic-looking-at-john-sacks-m/ 

Description (person)

3)http://niemanstoryboard.org/storyboard-category/notable-narratives/page/10/

Description (person)