SPORTS STORY

Three (3) types of sports stories can be written. These are the ff:

1) The advance story – sometimes called dope or prognostication, builds up enthusiasm for coming events. It may be one of the three types:

a) straight news story, b) background story, andc) prediction story

2) The coverage story – is an on-the-spot coverage of an actual game or event.

3) The advance coverage story – includes the information of a coming event as the first part of the story and the information on the past event as the last part of the story.

QUALITIES OF A GOOD SPORTS WRITER

The sports writer should also have the ff. know-how:

1. Must know sports: rules, strategy, team, and players’ records.

2. Must attend the games or meet as a reporter, not as a spectator or cheerer.

3. Must know coaches and players as intimately as possible.

4. Must observe accuracy.

5. Must be able to take notes quickly without losing the sequence of the play.

6. Must be fair and unbiased in reporting, even though he has a favorite team.

7. Must not make comments without supporting them with facts on which they are based, although sports writers have more freedom than any other news writers.

8. Must use the specialized language of the particular sports that he is reporting.

9. Must avoid sports slang and trite expressions which hack writers use today. He should tell the story in plain, factual terms that describe the action.

10. Must bear in mind that he writes for his readers and not for himself.

Top Ten Tips for Tiptop

Sports Writing

1. Reporting Comes Before Writing

You MUST do the hard work of reporting before you sit down to write a story

Remember, sports is one of the most statistics- and facts-heavy subjects out there – you have to have those at your fingertips to write good sports stories. That means you have to find out who has them, or keep track of them yourself.

2. Don’t Try to Do Too Much

Find a SINGLE FOCUS and stick with it!

Don’t try to tell someone’s life story It’s tough to tell more than one

person’s story at a time, so avoid the temptation to tell the story of entire teams. Pick a player or two, not the whole offense or defense.

3. Show, Don’t Tell

OK, so this is perhaps a bit of a cliché, but it’s important that you understand what it means – you have to put the readers in the story.

Some examples: Use DESCRIPTION

and get the DETAILS! How? DO YOUR

REPORTING!

4. Avoid Clichés Like the Plague

If you’ve heard it before, figure out how to say it another way.

An example: He took it to the hole in a gut-check game. “It’s all about the team,” Smith said. “There isn’t any ‘I’ in TEAM, so I played my own game and took it up and down the floor at 110 percent, and then let the Ws and Ls take care of themselves.”

5. Avoid ‘Jock Talk’

With all-ESPN all the time, this is a pernicious, difficult problem to avoid, but you must endeavor to only use intelligent, meaningful quotes.

Suggestions –

1. Some coaches and athletes will fill SILENCE with more thoughtful remarks, so learn to WAIT for better answers.

2. Don’t ask cliché questions.

6. Use Dramatic Story-Telling Devices to Tell Your Stories

Use the drama of sports to write more dramatic stories.

Consider literary devices like foreshadowing, etc.

Consider story-telling approaches like italics to set off events in a different time or place, etc.

7. Don’t Always Write The Obvious Story

Look for the little-known, unmined nuggets on your campus.

Look for the stories that people don’t know about. Those are the stories people will want to read.

8. Sports Is Also News

Just because it’s going in the sports section doesn’t mean it needs to be soft and squishy and entertaining. Even on high school campuses, sports has its share of hard-news stories that are begging to be told.

9. Read Good Sports Writing!

There is plenty of bad sportswriting out there. Try to avoid it.

Find the good stuff and use it as a model for reporting and story-telling techniques.

Examples: The Best Sports Writing of the Year, Sports Illustrated, ESPN the magazine, the L.A. Times, the Boston Globe and many others.

10. Read..Read…Read…

Please

Read!

Writing theSPORTS STORY

The LEADSports Lead – is the attention-getter, the news in a nut-shell.

The Classic “Five W’s” appear in the sports lead as:

1. Who won?2. Against whom?3. By what score?4. Where?5. When?

EXAMPLE:

(1) The MCAP National High School Quintet

(2) poured 10 baskets in the last three minutes to edge out the Osmenians

(3) 65-63

(4) at the opponents’ home ground

(5) yesterday afternoon

The Philippines fought with steel nerves and refused to be crushed by a giant’s 55-points might to nip favored North Korea 87-86, in its biggest triumph yesterday in the Asian Men’s Basketball Championship.

(This kind of summary lead may vary.)

The NUT•The nut of a sports article is the paragraph that summarizes the main conflict and story. It is the place for vital information that doesn’t appear in the first paragraph—and if a reader wanted to stop reading at this point, they should walk away with all the necessary answers.

• Example: This was the last game of the 2003 American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox and their archrival, the New York Yankees. Not since 1918 had the Red Sox advanced to the World Series—and fans were watching with bated breath to see whether the curse would be broken. This was not to be.

The INFORMATION(Who, What, When, Where, Why, How)

The body of a sports article sounds like a real news article. It includes complete information and details about a game, in logical order.

Example:

Who was the star player? How did the game end?

What was the final play? The winning score?

The CONCLUSION •The conclusion lets the reader know what will happen as a result of the events described. It does so in a creative and interesting way.

Example:

Everyone was surprised when the ball landed in Bernie Williams’s glove. A collective groan rose up from the Red Sox fans. Their team had lost. The Yankees had won again.

The HEADLINE

USE THE ACTIVE VOICE

Good: Vikings Trounce Steelers

Not So Good: Steelers are Trounced by Vikings

USE THE PRESENT TENSE

Good: Cubs Pitchers Blank Braves

Not So Good: Cubs Pitchers Blanked Braves Last Night

Don’t Use Periods, and Use Commas instead of ‘And,’‘But,’ and Other Connecting Words

Good: Penguin’s Martin Suspended, Jailed

Not So Good: Penguin’s Martin Suspended and then He’s Thrown in Jail.

Avoid Editorializing, and Stick to Everyday Words and Expressions

Good: Piniella’s Cubs Drop Ten Straight

Not So Good: Piniella, Epitome of Managerial Ineptitude, Leads Cubs on Losing Streak

VERBS USED IN SPORTS WRITING

EnglishBagGrabHarvestSweepTriumphClinch Take

FilipinoNakamitDinurogNapasakamayNamayaniNamayagpagNangunaNasungkit

EnglishClaimCopSeizeReign supremeRule Hack out

FilipinoNaghariWinalisNasulotNaagawNagkampeonNanalo

EnglishBlankOverwhelmOutsmartOutclassDestroyDemolishKnock outShockShame

FilipinoHinagupitGinulantangNilupigHiniyaPinaluhodPinabagsakNagapiNaungusannilupig

Prevail overSnatchPocketCaptureRomp awayBring homeChalk up

NakopoHumakotBumanderaUmaniNakuhaNaibulsanaangkin

Beat RipBatterNipOverpowerCrushPulverize

DinurogPinulbosGinapiPinatulogPinatumbaPinataobPinadapa

Ms. Gizzelle A. Pangilinan

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