Feature articles are longer and more in depth than regular news articles. They cover one subject from multiple angles and are written in a more creative, entertaining format.

Lead sentence Grab and hook your reader right away! I was like a seeker in the game of quidditch, but I wasn’t searching for the golden snitch...I was searching for the golden actors who star in the latest Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Introduction Which facts and figures will ground your story? You have to tell your readers where and when this story is happening. Kopra has been living on the International Space Station (ISS) since the space shuttle Endeavour crew left him there in mid-July. The space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, August 28, with his replacement, Astronaut Nicole Stott, on board.

Opening quotation What will give the reader a sense of the people involved and what they are thinking? "We need to be appropriately concerned," Dr. Trochet said. It cannot be ignored, but it can be prevented with easy measures, she stressed.

Main body What is at the heart of your story? The process is simple. Researchers are asking people to count the fireflies they see in their backyards or in a nearby field once a week. Participants then send their findings to scientists through the Firefly Watch Web site. Experts will use the information that volunteers collect to track firefly population and health. Firefly Watch The project is called citizen-science because anyone, including you, can participate. I am involved in the project and so is Kid Reporter Caitlin Wardlow. I live in New Jersey. Caitlin is counting fireflies in her backyard in Connecticut. Most of the counting is being done east of the Mississippi River. "I had never caught fireflies before," Wardlow said. "But my mom was telling me how when she was a kid all the kids in the neighborhood would run around at night and collect them in jars. Then they let them go." You don't have to catch fireflies to count them. All you have to do is find a good location that meets Firefly Watch guidelines, stand still, and count all visible fireflies. The area has to be free of any uncontrolled light, like from cars, buildings, or street lights. On my first week of counting, I saw 18 fireflies in 10 seconds. My sister saw 20. I estimated there were about 100 blinking lights from the fireflies in my one-acre backyard at that moment. Wardlow also counted about 20 fireflies her first time out. She and I both did some research on the bugs. Did you know that they flash so they can find each other in the dark? Male fireflies flash while patrolling an area. If a female is impressed with his flash, she answers him by flashing back, usually from a perch. If she doesn’t like the flash, she just stays quiet and dark, while the male flies on flashing away.

Closing quotation Find something that sums the article up in a few words. “Remind your readers to turn off lights and the television when they leave rooms,” he said. The Ellenbogens have something really cool for this. They can control the lights and temperature in each room by computer!

Conclusion (optional—the closing quote may do the job) What is a memorable way to end your story? The end quote is a good way to sum things up. That doesn’t always work. If you are quoting more than one person with different points of view in your story, you cannot end with a quote from just one of them. Giving one of your interviewees the last word can tilt the story in their favor. In this age of the Internet, you can also end your story with a link to more information or even your own behind-the-scenes blog post!

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