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.A personal experience article allows you to do much more than the usual feature article because you, as a writer, can become highly involved in the storytelling.Most beginning writers have been encouraged to take themselves out of the story—to deÂpersonalize the article—as much as possible.However, personal experience feature writing offers something unique in journalismÂthe chance to become part of a personalized story.Readers got the personal view when GQ magazine food and wine critic Alan Richman (1998) went to dinner in New York with actress Sharon Stone.He not only wrote about the internationally known actress, but also wrote about his impressions of watching her dine, the food and wine, and the complete experience of the evening.The result was a mixture of food and wine criticism, celebrity profile, and personal experience feature rolled into one firstÂperson narrative—with a minimum of quotations or dialogue of recreated conversations.The British edition of Esquire magazine recently published a firstÂperson narrative by British Special Branch agent Martin McGartland (1998) as told to writer Simon Cooper that was excerpted from his new book, Fifty Dead Men Walking.The article tells readers about McGartland's experiences as an Irish Republican Army infiltrator.Few feature writers will have experiences like that to relate to readers, but you may have a chance to work with someone who has a truly unique story to tell, as did Cooper.Regardless whether you are telling a story from your own experiences or shaping someone else's personal experiences for publication, these are stories readers seem to love.Most nonfiction writers have experienced events in their lives that would make good foundations for personal experience feature articles.One enterprising college student writer jumped out of an airplane (with a parachute) toPage 356write a feature about skydiving for her biweekly campus newspaper.Without that frightening experience, she might not have had the right mood, the touch of drama and fear, and the right words for her firstÂperson feature article about skydiving.Atlanta writer and poet Rosemary Daniell wrote a remembrance piece for Atlanta magazine on the first anniversary of the 1997 death of poet and novelist James Dickey.Daniell, author of six books, recalled the influences that Dickey's work had on her life.She described in detail how she first heard him read his poetry and how it changed her as a writer.Using first person, Daniell established the significance of Dickey to her and to the nation as a poet and author.She wrote: ThirtyÂfive years ago I sat among a small audience at an art gallery on Atlanta's Peachtree Road, listening to a poet read from his first book.The poet was James Dickey; the book was Into the Stone and Other Poems, a volume that included the works of two younger poets.Dickey was the first live poet I had heard read from his works, and I was transported, caught up in a nearÂreligious thrall, hardly able to believe that language—words arranged on a page in a certain way, with a certain rhythm, then read aloud—could convey such beauty, such emotion.At the time, I was newly in love with modern poetry and, at the whiteÂhot speed that had come to dominate my life, was writing poems everyday.Dickey, it turned out, was a person of equal fervor.(Daniell, 1998, p.38)When you become part of your story as Daniell does, your readers become closer to you because they find they can identify with you.You gain detail in your writing from closeÂup observation.This type of personalized feature article can be as simple as spending a shift at work with someone—getting involved personally.Personal writing is a broadÂbased approach to your craft.Your own point of view makes a difference in any story, but on these types of assignments, you can let it become part of the story itself.Approaches to Personal Experience ArticlesGenerally, there are only two approaches to personal experience articles:Page 3571.Personal experiences of others about which you write.These articles describe in detail the unusual and appealing experiences of individuals in a highly personal approach but are not written in first person.These are your descriptions as a writer who uses the experiences of another person for the basis of the article.2.Personal experiences of your own.These are commonly called firstÂperson articles.These articles draw on your own experiences for primary material for the article.These articles are often stories of medical problems, trips, crime incidents, life or death accident situations, human relationships, family experiences, and countless other similar events.You are the reporter, storyteller, and the central sourceÂor one of the major sourcesÂin the article.These can be everyday occurrences, but the articles that receive the most attention are unusual, adventurous, frustrating, or dramatic.Ladies' Home Journal editor Shana Aborn (1995) asks four questions about possible personal experience stories before she decides they are marketable.First, she wants to know if the experience is dramatic.Second, she asks if it is timely.Third, she checks to see how involved the author is in the action.And fourth, she checks to see if these was an ending or resolution to the experience.She also strongly advises new personal experience writers to stick to the facts, do interviews with experts and witnesses, begin the story with impact, and organize it well so the chronology is clear.Furthermore, Aborn recommends using direct quotations in the storytelling, develop the people involved as you would do characters, avoid too much detail and personal emotion, and keep an eye on the tone of the piece.Fort Worth StarÂTelegram columnist Bob Ray Sanders—who writes his column 3 days a week—took a narrative firstÂperson approach to tell readers about his recent visit to a large local corporation whose employees were collecting canned foods to help families that are in need during the holiday season.Here's what he wrote:Arriving at Northrop Grumman's massive plant in Dallas on Tuesday, I really didn't know what to expect.Waiting for me at the gate was a smiling woman wearing a Cowboys jersey, No.22, who was my chauffeur for the day
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