Writing Sports Stories

Key Terms “Slanguage” –In sportswriting, trite expressions stemming from the jargon of sports (for example, pigskin for football) Featurize –To make a hard news story into a feature by interjecting anecdotes, background, and similar information

Key Terms Pregame Story –An advance story about a sports event, which may include background and other information about both teams. Pregame stories are generally featurized. Game Story –A sports story recounting the play-by- play activities of a game

Key Terms Postgame story –A follow-up story about a sports event. Such stories are nearly always featurized

Sportswriting Sportswriters, although they must be objective, are allowed more freedom to be partisan. They are allowed to do more than just describe the event, they are allowed to interpret it. For example: –If a coach rants and raves on the sideline, or if the spectators boo the officials, sportswriters are free to pick words more descriptive than “angry”.

Sportswriting Sportswriters are expected to convey a word picture of exactly what happened, and this inevitably leads to colorful language However, this does not mean that you can use profanity!

Sportswriting Sportswriters must be aware that the events they describe may have been witnessed on television by millions of people and these people don’t need a play-by-play rehash of the game. They want to know how the coaches and players reacted. This is called interpretive reporting

Sportswriting Sports fans want the stories they read to reflect the tension, the color, an the excitement of the event Why?

Slanguage Sports reporters tend to be the worst overusers of cliches. Sportswriters should just be conscious of good english Readers of the sports page appreciate plain english and lively verbs as much as anyone else. Sports writer need figures of speech. –For example: The USC varsity hits the field like a broken ketchup bottle. They’re not a team; they are a horde. You can’t beat them; you must dismember them. The USC varsity hits the field like a broken ketchup bottle. They’re not a team; they are a horde. You can’t beat them; you must dismember them.

Understanding Sports Before writing one word about a sport, you must know as much as possible about that sport; all the rules, the various strategies, and the reasons behind them. You need to read the sports pages thoroughly, watch sports evens on television, maybe even participate in sports.

Understanding Sports Above all, get to know the coaches and players (your sources of information) Once you thoroughly understand what you are going to write about, you can plan your coverage.

Sports Coverage Sports coverage means you cover winning teams as well as loosing teams. The conscientious sports editor doesn’t ignore the so-called minor sports To write compelling sports stories, reporters need to get across the feelings and motivation of coaches and players.

Group Work Number off 1 to 5 - 1’s with 1’s, 2’s with 2’s….. Find the cliches in the sport story on the handout Be ready to share

Daily grade – DUE Next Friday Attend any school sports event next week and write a sports story on it. Write about everything that happens…the cheerleaders, the crowd, the weather, the excitement, players and coaches, and so on. Should be at least 1.5 pages –Typed –12 pt font –Double spaced DUE next Friday when you come to class

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