By Aqilah Bahar
In reference to — https://www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/sunday-vibes/2020/09/624094/local-entrepreneur-cooks-new-trend-malaysia
An interestingly punny headline written by Elena Koshy featured a story of a flourishing entrepreneur and her latest venture, Cookhouse: a space for folks who would love to experience one of those Masterchef moments or simply need a kitchen space for cooking with complete and upscale kitchen utensils.
Needless to say, the writer made a great wordplay with the headline by assembling words that share a gist of what the story is all about; entrepreneur, cooks, trend. It circulates around an entrepreneur that built up a place for amateur cooks that is indeed refreshing and trendy all in one short length.
Reading through the story is like taking a leisurely walk, not only it is easy to pursue but you get to experience the locality of the event. The story is descriptively written and visually presented, allowing readers to read through while picturing the path as if they were a part of the story, witnessing exchanged dialogues:
As my car rolls to a stop in front of the Cookhouse in Petaling Jaya, the clouds finally give way to a torrential rain and winds that threaten to pull my umbrella out of my grip.
Walking into the open loading bay, I make my way into the building, my dripping umbrella clutched in my hand.
A smiling stocky-built woman is waiting for me in the reception area. “I’m Su San,” she says, her hand extended in welcome, while someone else discreetly removes my wet umbrella from my grip.
This article makes a solid news feature with the sole interest on a person’s profile while presenting fundamentals on the odyssey of a 36 year old entrepreneur, Hue Su San.
As the story unfolds, the information becomes more consequential, although a longer time needed for significant points to be made. It has something to do with the fact that a feature story does not necessarily give important details right there and then. Instead, it is written in a structure that is compelling, creative and engaging, identical to Elena’s approach.
Vividly, Elena explained the depth of Su San’s venture whilst providing both facts and her own voice as an author. Seen below are portions that communicate how she excelled in integrating facts and personal remarks:
Leading me into a theatre-like setting, I find myself imagining that I’m walking into the set of my favourite cookshow, MasterChef.
The 16-station set up with individual induction stoves, bathed in spotlights and tasteful orange deco is the proverbial rabbit from her magic hat of tricks.
I’m duly wowed indeed. The area is sleek and promises to be the perfect setting for a cooking demonstration, classes or even team-building events — if you and your colleagues want to bond over cooking, whisking and knife skills.
“There’s potential for a lot of activities,” she agrees, grinning.
She should know about that. After all, recognising potential is Hue Su San’s “superpower.”
As the narratives develop in the later parts of the article, the author separated the topics into different sections to give it more focus. Subheadings are used to label each content focusing on a single idea that serves as an outline.
This approach used by Elena in her published feature story helps readers to stay focus and have some time for themselves to digest and comprehend the kind of information that the author wanted to convey; that is the twists and turns of Hue Su San’s life as a thriving entrepreneur that owns multiple business ventures and how she comes up about the idea of Cookhouse that is benefitting for others.
Oftentimes when the story is driven by information gathered from interviews, it is easy to simply quote every spoken word which could come across as lazy and boring since there is no creative flow that entices the readers.
Elena however, marshalled the story with excerpts from interviews and narratives of her own. She penned in sequence, and avoided jumbling up interview pieces in one single paragraph.
Engagingly, the interviews are written in the form of quotations and descriptions to create distinctive elements that are uniquely coherent. This gives variant to the article by introducing a different voice which personally belonged to the subject of the interview, at the same time breathing life into the story.
By quoting directly, it informs the readers that the opinions belong to Hue Su San which gives an intimate value to the interview piece. Elena is seen demonstrating the interviews in quotations most times and rarely by descriptions:
Her father, a retired contractor and mother, a remisier, are no strangers to the business world, she adds with a laugh.
From a young age, she was intrigued with business. “One part was of course making money, but most importantly, I loved the idea of creating something valuable out of nothing or bringing different components together that other people would value,” she muses.
“Cement cracks were not the cause of poor workmanship. It’s because we didn’t have the technology to prevent these things from happening. Normal cement will crack, which was why cement flooring wasn’t a popular choice for most homeowners.”
She did a lot of research and found out that there were such things called “modified” cement that couldn’t be found in Malaysia.
Two important aspects of news feature is to tell a story and deliver information. The author successfully embraced both the story-telling and conveying information while also examining the latest trend of a shared kitchen.
She not only informed the readers of a newly built space for those who enjoy cooking and need a place to start a food venture, but also somehow encouraged them to take an action.
This article exhibits a great example of how a feature story should be written.***
(This article is written as part of individual assignment series for Feature Writing class)