What Makes a Pulitzer Prize Feature Story?

This Webinar was originally broadcast on:
April 21, 2011 Enroll Now
Watch and listen to the original one-hour Webinar in its entirety. This Webinar recording features the full presentation led by Poynter faculty and visiting faculty including Q&A from the audience and resources from the presenter.

Course Overview

Title:
What Makes a Pulitzer Prize Feature Story?
Type:
Webinar
Cost:
$29.95
Originally Broadcast On:
April 21, 2011
Time Estimate:
One hour for the main presentation and questions. Sometimes presenters stay longer to answer additional questions from participants.

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About Webinars

In this virtual classroom, participants can join in a seminar led by Poynter faculty and visiting faculty. This screencast includes live audio and a slideshow presentation in which participants can post questions and respond to poll questions posed by the host.

There's no specific formula to writing a great feature story, but there are common elements in award-winning feature stories that can guide you.

Now that the 2011 Pulitzer Prize winners have been announced, learn the lessons for all writers. Poynter faculty Kelly McBride will reveal what she learned after sorting through more than 120 feature story entries as a 2011 Pulitzer juror. She'll talk about what made some entries mediocre and were easily cleared from the table. And she'll describe what made the finalists worthy of a Pulitzer.

What Will I Learn:
  • How to identify a great story
  • How to take a good story and turn it into a Pulitzer-quality feature story
  • The role of multimedia in good feature stories
  • The common elements in award-winning feature stories that you can use in your writing
Who Should Take this Course:

Feature writers (or any writers) looking to improve what and how they develop a feature story.

Course Instructor:

Kelly McBride

Kelly McBride is a writer, teacher, and one of the country's leading voices when it comes to media ethics. She has been on the faculty of The Poynter Institute since 2002. She currently runs the Ethics Department and also works in the Reporting, Writing and Editing Department at Poynter. Before coming to Poynter, she was an award-winning religion reporter at The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, WA.

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