SPORTS

1
SPORTS
Writing
LIZA M. GUINGGUING
Resource Speaker
2
Sports writing allows you to go to town in
describing plays, the atmosphere, fans and other
colorful aspects of a sporting event.
3
The advantage of sports writing is that you are
allowed a little it more leeway in your choice of
words. In crime or business writing, you are
restricted in your use of adjectives and adverbs
and are encouraged to focus more on nouns and
verbs.
4
Ideally, any sports story would have quotes from
the winners and losers. Indeed, many sports
articles are written around what athletes say
rather than what they have achieved on the field
of play.
5
STRUCTURES OF A SPORTS NEWS
Sample News based on structure NBA game between
Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers on April 1
as our example article.
6

• Intro the most important news aspect of a
  sports game is the score. Who won? How did they
  win and what effect did the victory have? Also
  important is whether we are writing from a Boston
  perspective or Cleveland. In this case, we will
  go with Cleveland.
• Cleveland Cavaliers lost 98-96 to the Boston
  Celtics after Delonte Wests sank two free throws
  in the final seconds, dropping three and a half
  games behind the Pistons for the best record in
  the Eastern Conference."

7
2. More info The above is enough for those who
have a passing interest in the sport. However,
NBA fans would want more information and you
could give it to them in one or two paragraphs.
8
The Cavaliers were without star player LeBron
James, suffering from a knee injury, while the
Celtics were minus Paul Pierce. Gerald Green led
the way for Celtics with 25 points while Kendrick
Perkins had 12 points and nine rebounds. The
Cavaliers, for whom Larry Hughes scored 24 with
Sasha Pavlovic scoring 17, have already qualified
for the play-offs while Boston are out of the
running."
9
3. Quote This is where you can provide a quote
from the coach or a key player from both teams.
You can precede each saying with a lead-in
paragraph or go straight into the quote.
10
Celtic forward Al Jefferson, said They were
missing their best player and we were missing our
best play. We just stuck in there. Cavs coach
Mike Brown said James absence was a key factor
in their loss.
11
4. The rest Once you got the main information
and key quotes out of the way, you can go on to
describe the game. Even better would be to
describe just one or two plays and include more
quotes.
12
10 tips for improving scholastic newspaper sports
writingSteve Row, Journalism Education
Coordinator, Richmond Newspapers Inc.
13
1. Write about players and teams, not about
games. When school papers come out once every
four to six weeks, stories about individual games
a month earlier serve little purpose and in fact
are a waste of space.
14
2. When writing about players, always identify
them by class in school and position on team.
Don't say "John Smith" when you can say "senior
tackle John Smith," and don't say "Sue Jones"
when you can say "sophomore goalkeeper Sue
Jones." And don't use double-digit numbers to
refer to either grade in school or year of
graduating class.
15
3. Keep up with team statistics and use them
frequently in stories. Find out who keeps the
scorebooks for various sports, and review the
stats often.
16
4. Keep up with individual statistics and use
them frequently in stories. If a player sets or
ties a school or local record, note it in a
story. Maybe highlight it as its own story. Be
sure your coaches and/or athletic director inform
you when an athlete or team ties or breaks a
record.
17
5. Know sports writing style scores are numerals
separated by hyphens (12-6, not 12 to 6) team
records are numerals separated by hyphens (8-2,
not 8 and 2) winning scores always come first,
even if your school did not win the contest (your
team lost 12-6, not 6-12). Spell your opponents'
school name and nickname or mascot correctly.
18
6.Make sure your sports stories are the last
stories turned in before deadline. This is so the
stories can contain the most up-to-date records,
standings.
19
7. If you are writing about a team, watch the
team practice and watch the team play. You must
be present to know what happened, and you must
take notes on what you are watching. You cannot
write a good sports story on the basis of what
someone tells you from memory.
20
8. If you are doing a profile on an athlete,
watch that person at practice and watch that
person in competition.
21
9.Look for opportunities to do sports feature
stories that are not tied directly to games.
These might include stories about student
trainers, the pre-season tryout process,
different coaching philosophies, why benchwarmers
persist in trying out for teams when they know
they won't get much playing time.
22
10. Sports writing can be more flexible than news
or feature writing, but remember that even in
sports writing a clear distinction exists between
reporting and commenting. If you are writing your
own opinion about a team or a sport or a sports
issue, that is commentary.
23
SPORTSWRITING RULES

• NEVER be a cheerleader for your teams on the
  sports pages. Don't write about "our" team, write
  about "the" team.

• NEVER congratulate a team or an athlete in your
  sports stories.

• NEVER end a story like this "The Fighting Gnus
  will undoubtedly be the class of conference and
  will achieve anything they set out to do.

24
Sports Writing
HEADLINE
25
What is a striking headline?

• -The headline of a sports coverage story should
  tell right away who or which team won over whom
  or whose team( and whenever appropriate or
  applicable, by what score).
• -Appropriate action words should be used to
  indicate who won depending on how the event
  unfolded
• Examples
• Beermen dump Gins, 106-93
• Fil-Am sprints for gold in 100m,
• sets new record in SEA Games

26
VERBS USED IN SPORTS WRITING
27
(No Transcript)
28
(No Transcript)
29
Prevail over Snatch Pocket Capture Romp
away Bring home Chalk up
Nakopo Humakot Bumandera Umani Nakuha Naibulsa naa
ngkin
30
Beat Rip Batter Nip Overpower Crush Pulverize
Dinurog Pinulbos Ginapi Pinatulog Pinatumba Pinata
ob Pinadapa