Moody's words of wisdom

Jennifer Moody is very personable, very knowledgeable and very well spoken. Did I also mention she is a reporter at the Albany Democrat Herald? She spoke with the Features Writing class at Linn-Benton earlier this week, imparting her own words of wisdom and answering questions.

"The rest of the story," or "And then what happened?" are how she defines what writing features is all about. It can also be hard hitting or light hearted. The main difference between writing news and writing features is the lack of immediacy in the latter.

Moody spoke of her 20 years in a newsroom, including a stint as an editor at the Stayton Mail. Mostly, however, she spoke of what makes a good feature and writing in general.

Her main points included that, like a news story, a feature must be fair and accurate. Another point she stressed was keeping yourself out of the story. "But the voice is yours."

Is a good nut graf important? According to Moody, yes it is. "What is the story and why does it matter?" She pointed students to Chip Scanlon of the Poynter Institute as a great example of a writer who creates good nut grafs.

She also spoke about when to quote and when not to quote. Her best advice was to let the person you are interviewing say it if they are saying something the rest of the story doesn't. She also said it was important not to use a quote to say something that has already been said.

Focusing your feature is another important aspect Moody talked about. "Don't write about the bakery, write about the piece of pie."

Other tips Moody imparted were to ask the right questions and that, especially in a small newspaper, it helps to be flexible.

Whatever the class took away from Moody's talk, one thing is certain. She is her own best example about the importance of being flexible. In the past week, she has covered school board happenings, an honor given to Harrisburg cheerleaders, the changes coming in Girl Scouts and a school bus wreck.

At a glance
2009 ONPA awards
Mother of two daughters
Works part time at Democrat Herald