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-byplay 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.
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
Next Week’s Home Games