Question: You are required to produce an opinion-based feature of 1000 words suitable for an online music/entertainment publication
Choose an artist or act and produce an extended piece of writing on them. Devise a catchy headline.
Advice on how to write this feature can be found here: https://canvas.sunderland.ac.uk/courses/47291/pages/how-to-write-a-feature-assessment-advice?module_item_id=908726
Well, it’s assignment from popular music module so logically, knowledge from popular music module would be useful.
But honestly it’s just a feature article so you just write about any musician you want, you will need to read different articles from the internet to get data for your own feature and then reference your sources
It’s a feature article and you can write about any artist you want.
The lecturer said that we should write about something current or that happened recently, since we write a feature article (not essay) which is a form of news so there should be a reason why you write this, so I think we need to write about a recent occurrence regarding an artist, And referencing is easier, you just do footnotes or endnotes instead of normal referencing.
Also, since it is an article you don’t need to follow any strict rules like in an essay. You can write it in a fun, entertaining way, or with attitude or even in a provocative way.
feature article for assessment 1, the task may seem daunting. But fear not, there are some tried and tested formats that you can borrow from and adhere to in order to make this more manageable.
The standard way to approach this article is by adopting the ' inverted pyramid ' format which typically starts from a position telling the reader what they NEED to know first before drilling down into material that is NICE to know:
Image credit: Ohio State Press
You can find plenty useful guides on this format online, but this Nielson source is helpful. Some publishers avoid this format (some even hate it! ) while many others adopt the listicle structure. Listicles come with their own pros and cons.
The University library has several books on writing for 'magazine' style journalism (the Mary Hogarth one is helpful, but by no means the only one). Check out the ' feature writing' tag for more
Some tips on the first assessment:
1. If you are not writing the piece on a free web-hosted platform where you can easily embed images, music and links then you need to adopt a more laborious format for revealing your sources. In this case you will need to adopt a referencing style like the MLA style (Harvard Referencing normally avoids footnotes/endnotes). It's important to include numbered footnotes - these can be references to newspaper or music press articles about particular comments/incidents involving your case study 'artist'. They can also be the cover of a newly released album, live performance or latest music video. Use of footnotes form part of your assessment so try to be relatively original in how they are used and ensure they fit in with the 'flow' of your writing.
2. Try to have a rationale for your coverage - a new livestream/album/video/single release could satisfy this. It could be a re-release of an earlier album, a concert tour or for a controversial episode involving the artist. Any of these two points (eg album/livestream) can also provide a reason to interview the artist in your case study, and it's common for assessments to often be structured around an interview (but not vital) with the journalist.
3. The interview (if you are doing this; not everyone will!) can be punctuated by other related writing (the journalist's 'voice') on other aspects of interest to do with the artist (remember to combine first and third person 'modes of address'). This could involve their support for certain popular 'causes' such as the role of women or ethnic groups in the music industry, or a controversial aspect about their past.
4. Try to write with brevity if possible - ensure sentences are more packed with detail and descriptive sub-clauses than normally found in academic writing. So try to employ punctuation more than you would normally do in the form of commas, dashes, speech marks, question marks etc. Flow is important.
5. Finally, try to write with a 'persona' in your mode of address to the audience. Certainly, try to sound confident, arrogant and/or witty in your writing so that a personality comes across to the reader. Sometimes humorous anecdotes about the experience of a concert/festival work well so don't be frightened to throw in the odd profanity or controversial episode. Consider employing what the industry calls a 'hot take'
6. Ensure it is well presented - preferably in a way that 'fits in' your artist/music genre. Although this is an assessment about the actual artist, it may be reasonable to expect you to say something about the genre(s) that they work within at some point. Remember, you have only 1000 words therefore limited space for the band/artist and their backstory.
Some useful sites to consider in terms of features and ideas
· FACT
· Complex
· Quietus
· Mic
· Mixmag
· Dazed
· Spin
Every month the Guardian produces a music essay of about 2000 words in length. It's worth checking a few of these out for reference: https://www.theguardian.com/music/series/the-music-essay
Some background info about the readership
(this over rides the info in the module guide so consider this post definitive)
The format the case studies will take will resemble extended feature articles for an online music magazine with the following readership:
· English-speaking audience
· Monthly page views in excess of 250,000 impressions (small, but loyal)
· Regular unique users: 15,000 per month
· Primary age-range of readership: 17-28 years of age (60%)
· Secondary age-range: 29-40 years of age (35%)
· Tertiary age-range: 40+ (5)
· Gender: mixed, but skewed slightly towards a majority male readership (52%)
· Income: average annual income equivalent of readership £29,500 (around average)
· Education: the readership is articulate with the majority (71%) degree qualified
· Location: the majority of readers are UK-based (70%), with readership in mainland Europe (15%), USA (6%), Malaysia (2%), China (1%) and Singapore (1%). The remaining 5% is unspecified.
· The readership is actively engaged with music consumption and tend to purchase music regularly, have at least one active music subscription service, and - where possible - frequent live shows (including music festivals, gigs, buskers events, etc) more than 4 times per year. (f#@£-Corona!)
Good EXAMPLE:
Bad EXAMPLE:
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