BELL RINGEROn my Journalism 1 site, find

“Directions for Revising Sports Story.”

HAVE NOTEBOOK PAPER AND A PEN READY!

Problems With Your Baseball Stories

• Use of present tense verbs

• Bad lede sentences• Factual errors• Lack of quotes used• Plagiarism

Writing Ledes for Game Stories

The lede should:• Include the names of both teams• Tell the outcome of the game• Include the score (numerals with hyphen between

them• Tell when and where

Example:The New England Patriots defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 11-3 Sunday in Foxboro Stadium.

Write a Lede for New Baseball Story

Who are the teams?What was the final score?Where was the game played (the stadium name)What should you put for when?

Take 5 minutes to write a lede for your baseball story or (if necessary) edit one you’ve already written.

After the Lede…

After the lede is the nut graf, which:• Tells how/why the winning team won• Provides details of the winning play• Explains the significance of the outcome, what’s next• Is 1-3 sentences in lengthy

Example:

The Patriots scored the winning touchdown on a 55-year run by Tom Brady. He scored as time expired by breaking through tackles along the sideline.

Write Your Nut Graf

How did they win?• Describe how the team scored the winning run• Give details of the winning playWhat was the significance?• The teams will play again in Game 7 to decide

which one is world champion• It was one of the greatest games of all time

Take five minutes to write your nut graf.

Profile Feature Assignment

• On Friday, we went over the profile feature• You were supposed to email me 20 questions and tell me

the subject of your profile story. Did you do that?• Now, you should be doing your interviews. On Monday, May

11, I will be checking your interview transcripts for a grade. You need to have written responses to the interview questions. Write this down on the assignment sheet or somewhere else where you won’t lose it or forget about it.

• Remember, rough drafts are due next Wednesday.• We will spend all of next week talking about how to write

your stories.

Bell Ringer

• Find the baseball story you were working on yesterday. If you missed class yesterday, you need a blank sheet of notebook paper and something to write with.

Reviewing Tuesday’s Work

We wrote a new lede with:• Names of teams, name of game, outcome of

game with score, when/where it was played.We wrote a nut graf with:• Description of how team won• Details of the game-winning play (who, what,

when)• Explanation of what happens next

Game Details

After the lede and nut graf, you should include information about key plays.• Add more information about the game-

winning play.• Add information about other key plays.

Add More Details

Write two paragraphs, with 3-5 sentences in each one, telling about other key plays in the game.

Hint: We only watched the 9th, 10th and 11th innings, and you already included information about the 11th inning.

Plays to Include

• Cardinals third baseman David Freese hit the game-winning home run in the 11th inning.

• David Freese hit a two-run double in the 9th inning to tie it 7-7 and send the game into extra innings. It was 7-5 before the hit. And he hit it with two outs and two strikes.

• Texas outfielder Josh Hamilton hit a two-run home run in the 10th inning to make it 9-7.

• Cardinals outfielder Lance Berkman hit an RBI single to make it 9-9 and send the game to the 11th inning.

Using Quotes

Quotes help to put the game into perspective. If it was a great game, don’t have the reporter say it. Have a player say it.

For the World Series story, I uploaded a Word document. That Word document is a list of quotes for you to use in your baseball stories.

Quotes should be sprinkled into the story to describe key plays.

Copy down at least three of these quotes• "If that's not the best postseason game of all time, I don't know what

could top it. That was unbelievable," Berkman said.

• "It's not that easy to win a world championship as we found out

tonight. We had the right people in the right spots. They beat us,"

said Rangers manager Ron Washington.

• "That defines our team, the way we kept coming back. We've been

doing that for a long time," David Freese said.

• "It was an epic game in a lot of ways. It captures our season in one

night. Nobody ever quit," said general manager John Mozeliak.

• "It's not fun to go up there with the season on the line, but the

experience is incredible," Berkman said.

Any Remaining Important Details

• Was anyone seriously injured during the game?

• Was a manager or player ejected?• Was there an earthquake during the game?