STRUCTURE The basic structure of the feature story is divided into three parts: the lead, the body and the conclusion. Lead Any standard news or magazine-style lead maybe used to begin a feature story. It should, however, always be written in a reamer appropriate to the subject. Alight, humorous  lead,  for  example,  has  no  place  at  the beginning of a serious article designed to provoke deep and serious thought in the reader. On the other hand, a ponderous lead is no way to begin alight or humorous piece. A  simple  summary  lead  was  used  to  begin  the following  story: A  six-month  renovating  job  on  a dilapidated   70-year-old   house   won praise from a local real estate board for a U.S. Navy captain stationed here. The  preceding  lead  is  adequate  as  a  starter,  but another writer used a question lead. The question lead is  often  used  to  good  effect  in  feature  story  writing. Leads  like  these,  when  well-phrased,  send  the  reader along  into  the  body  in  quest  of  an  answer  to  such  a “way-out” question: Ever hear of a “hurevac”? It is a hurricane hideout. The 8,000 acres   that   constitute   the   Naval Auxiliary Air Station Meridian, Miss., are  a  rolling  woodland,  and  it  would seem they would be unaffected by the hurricane   season   hundreds   of   miles away from Florida. Such, however, is not the case. Note that in feature writing, the lead often consists of  more  than  a  single  paragraph  Sometimes  the  lead runs for several paragraphs. Take the following feature lead for example: Fifteen months ago, a young Greek Cypriot landed in New York and took a job in a Brooklyn factory devoted to the manufacture of electrical appliances. When  he  landed,  he  could  speak only a few words of English and that in a thick accent. Today that young man is Fireman Andreas  Kalivakis,  serving  as  an electrician   aboard   a   U.S.   Navy w a r s h i p .    H i s    a c c e n t    i s    f a s t disappearing;  his  English  vocabulary  is excellent and he is the owner of a new certificate indicating he has passed all the tests required to prove he has the equivalent  of  a  U.S.  high  school diploma. That lead stands the test for feature story leads; it grasps the reader’s interest immediately and makes the reader  want  to  read  more.  A  Marine  Corps  release excited  the  curiosity  of  the  casual  reader  with  the following  lead,  then  added  a  startling  transition  that prepared the reader to take pleasure in completing the story: Okinawa is far from the green hills of   the   United   States,   but   an old-fashioned  American-style  still  is  in daily   operation   there   alongside   the radio   section   of   Headquarters Company,   Ninth   Marine   Regiment, Third Marine Division. The still, however, doesn’t produce alcoholic   beverages   —   it   produces pure,  distilled  water. Often a lazy journalist — relying on the belief that sailors  are  naturally  interested  in  articles  concerning their food, pay and equipment — will hang a dull lead on stories about those subjects. However, professional writers will give their best to those stories, because they know these stories will be read by the greatest number of people and be of service to them. A dramatic example of wide interest to food comes from the guided-missile destroyer USS  Semmes. Annual competition for the Ney Award for the best mess afloat sparked  an  enterprising  skipper  to  support  wider dissemination  of  his  ship’s  cooking  secrets.  Semmes published   a   cookbook   of   Navy   recipes,   cut   to manageable portions, and the whole country took note. Food  editors  featured  the  story  in  papers  in  New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, St.  Louis  and  Boston,  as  well  as  Charleston,  S.C., Dayton,   Ohio,   Evansville,   Ind.   and   Norfolk   and Portsmouth,  Va.  Also,  numerous  network  and  local radio/television stations made wide use of the feature material. 3-4