SPORTS WRITING

SPORTS WRITING

-is one of the most interesting aspects of the noble

profession- journalism.

-It covers news like a basketball or volleyball story,

sports editorial, and sports features.

-Sports section may also have an editorial

cartoon and letters to the editor.
 SPORTS STORIES

 Have great interest to readers, according to

study, 95% of male readers read the sports
page.
 Most often, the readers are interested to read-
human interest stories and write-ups about
their favorite sports personalities or sports
heroes.
 Sports writing is FUN, but it also hard work. The
writer must convey to the reader the drama and
excitement he sees in the fields.

 The manner of reporting athletic events varies with

the sport. One thing is certain: sports writing is
livelier because the writer deals with physical
motion and action.
 VARIOUS TYPES OF SPORTS
 Horse Racing  Chess
 Basketball  Boxing
 Table tennis  Bowling
 Volleyball  Track and Field Events
 Archery  Cycling
 Lawn Tennis  Fencing
 Baseball  Football
 Badminton  Golf
 Wrestling  Swimming
 Car Racing  Water Polo and other
types of games
 TYPES OF SPORTS REPORTING

1. PLAY-BY-PLAY ACCOUNT-
demands close observation and ability to
work at top speed.
Knowledge of the game is necessary.
Sportswriter should know the rules, and all
the details regarding the players, past
records, officials, and plays.
2. LEAD STORIES- centering on the
highlights and more important plays
only such as scoring, plays, the crucial
games and the star performers of both
teams, especially in newspapers where
there is not much space for play- by-
play reports.
3. BRIEF SPORTS STORIES- center on
straight news reporting, but with a sports
flavor. Stressed the score, winner,
outstanding incidents, and how the
outcome of the game affects the season’s
standing of the teams or individual
players.
4. SPORTS FEATURES- help brighten
up the sports page. Have
broader
range of subject matter. Greater
freedom of presentation, and
the writers can use the creative
approach.
 5. ADVANCE SPORTS STORIES
give backgrounders, some unusual and exciting games the
teams have played before games.
May report the records of the teams or individual players
in the current season, their physical and mental condition.
May touch also on lineups, playing styles, crowd
situations, statements by coaches, odds, other interests, and
angles.
Must talk with the coaches and players of the team before
the start of the game.
Should see both sides in action, lot of background
information so could make certain predictions.
6. FOLLOW- STORIES-
UP
Furnish post-mortem analyses. They
may discuss the condition of players
injured or the psychological aspects of
the game; or they may take up
statistics and their significance
7. THE SPORTS COLUMN
Written from the angle of the reporter’s
opinion. However, the writer should
confine himself to fair and constructive
comments. He may call attention to the
performance of certain athletes. If he wants
to make predictions, these must be kept
within the limits of probability.
 WRITING THE SPORTS
COVERAGE
 The sportswriter must always punctual in
be covering sports events so as to miss the
not
sidelights during the opening of the game.
The reporters need to gather the reaction of the crowds

and the cheers of the many competing teams or groups

and the members of the team as well as the supporters.
The reporter must get the following facts for his in

depth sports story:

 The score of outcome ( Who won? Should it end in a

tie? A riot or be called off on account of heavy rain,

the outcome is always important for the readers.)
 Significance of the outcome ( Was the championship
at stake? Do team standings change? Who gets the
cup?)
 Spectacular plays ( Tell about the last minute
fumble, the three-bag that won the game or the basket
from mid-court.)
 Weather conditions (If outdoor, Mud, sunshine, heat,
cold or wind may be important)
 Size of spectators ( Don’t forget the spectators. Was
it a record crowd? How did the spectators behave?)
 Individual stars (Who were the stars and
how did they star)
 Comparison of the team (How did the
weights compare? Were the visitors better
trained In what departments of the game did
the winners excel? Where were the losers
weak?)
 coincidences, if any
 WRITING THE SPORTS NEWS
 The sports writer must be guided by the 5 W’s and the
Inverted Pyramid Style in writing the sports story.
 In writing sports news, the reporter uses short words,

short sentences, and short paragraphs. However, he

has more freedom in his writing style than the straight
news reporter. His writing has more energy or
liveliness, more interest.
 While the news reporter is not permitted to write his

own opinion about persons or events, the sports writer

can do this to a certain extent. He can even use slang
which is discouraged in the news page. He even use
figure of speech more freely than the news writer.
 PARTS OF A NEWS STORY
 Because a sports report is news, it must have the
part of a news story namely, the headline, the
lead, and the body.
1. HEADLINE- Use the appropriate sports language or
jargon. Don’t forget the total score.

Undesirable: Mindanao State University softball player

defeat Holy Trinity College softball
players.

Preferred: MSU sluggers rips HTC batters, 15-5

2. THE LEAD- Like any other news reports, a sports
story has a lead and a body or text. The sports lead is
the attention getter- the news in a nutshell. It uses
sports lingo and contains the total score of the game.

The sports lead may be one of the following:

a. The Classic “5 W’s”
b. The Key Play Lead
c. The Outstanding Player Lead, and
d. The Analytical Approach Lead
a. The Classic 5 Ws Lead-

It answers, 1) who won? 2) against whom? 3) by what

score? 4) where? 5) when? And 6) how?

Examples:
1.SKSU poured 10 baskets in the last three minutes to
edge out the SMIT, 65-63 at the opponents
homeground yesterday afternoon.

2.The Phillippines fought with steel nerves and

refused to be crushed by a giant’s 55 points might to
rip favoured North Korea, 97-96 in its biggest triumph
yesterday in the Asian Basketball Tournament.
b. The Key Play Lead-

It starts with the most exciting parts of the game

where a certain team scores more points.

Examples:
1.The Aquino NHS sluggers bombed the Marcos
NHS batters with six runs in the third inning to
subdue a nerve-fuzzling Marcos rally 14-12 as they
clinched the invitation games here in connection
with the celebration of Sports Week.

2.Foreign Philippine masters champion George

Olayber birdied two of the last three holes for a
four-under par 67 yesterday and a one stroke lead
over Robert Pactolerin in the opening round of the
P500,000 Philip Morris Long Golf Classic.
 c. The outstanding player lead-
It features a favorite outstanding player. It is sometimes called the
hero of the game lead

Examples:
1.Warner Cruz of SKSU, after almost four hours of battle over the
chessboard copped the most coveted YMCA trophy after
outwitting SKEI chesser Christian Manuel in 27 moves of a
Sicilian defense.

2.Ace Striker Rossel Filamer slotted home the priceless marker

that lifted that multi-titled Kiwanis Team over hard-fighting
Cebuana Lhuiller 1-0 to capture the Fourth Cong. Pax
Mangudadatu Football Cup before a big enthusiastic crowd at the
Sultan Kudarat Gymnnasium in Isulan, Susltan Kudarat
d. The Analytical Lead-

The outcome of the game is the result of a particular key

plan in action - Analyze the game. What made a certain
team win? What advantages has it over the loser? What
techniques did they use?
Examples:
1.Riding high on sizzling spikes and tricky placings, the
NDDU netters blasted RMMC killers in the crucial third set
to win 15-10, 11-15, 15-7 in the Inter-Collegiate Meet,
September 21 at the Acharon Sports Complex to celebrate
the Education Month
2.Pumped-up Purefoods played solid defense to frustrate
Diet Sarsi, 115-105 last night and arrange a winner-take all,
Sunday for the PBA All Filipino Conference crown at the
Ultra.
3. The Body- After the lead comes the body
composed of the other elements arranged in
descending order or decreasing importance
If it were a basketball story, report it quarter by
quarter; if a volleyball story, set by set of frame
by frame; if a softball/baseball story, inning by
inning; if boxing, round by round, etc. in
narrative form. Follow these with their
respective scores.
QUALITIES OF THE SPORTS
WRITER
1. A sports writer must be a natural descriptive writer
who can paint a quick verbal picture without resorting
to the dictionary for the right word.
2. It is important that the sports writer must have a
feeling and genuine love for the sports. (You can’t
convey the emotion of an event or happening if you
don’t feel it. If you feel it, the right descriptive words
will come out. You must feel also the emotion of the
crowd and the atmosphere of the area)
3. Training is important in this form of editorial life.
4. The sports writer must always be in the struggle in finding
new words, new ways to describe punches, new ideas for
stories because ideas are currency of sporting journalism.
(This is important in the business sports writing because
the readers must be informed and entertained with
accurate, clear and well-written sports write-ups. To
gain eminence in this field, the sportswriter must
always hold the reader’s attention from the first
paragraph to the last).
5. The sports writer must be endowed with a keen memory.
(This is essential if you are to recall important facts and
figures)
6. The sports writer must have a good digestion of significant
events.
 The Sportswriter’s
Duty
 The main objective or goal of the sportswriter is to
serve the readers by writing stories, either amateur
or professional in nature. The sports stories might
vary depending upon the significance of the athletic
event or the amount of space available for the
sports accounts.
 Sports writing is a ticklish and difficult job to
handle. A sportswriter is duty bound to write a
complete play-by-play report of a major event, like
basketball, football, volleyball or tennis.
 Because of the sustaining interest and appeal of
the sports section of the newspapers, with all kinds
of followers, the goal of the sportswriter as the
purveyor and disseminator of factual, blow-by-blow
accounts of any sports event, is to write a simple
story for the average readers.
 As the most consistent follower of sports events in
the making, the sportswriter in under obligation to
observe faithfully the rules of the “game of sports
writing”. HE IS NOT ALLOWED TO BE BIASED
AND PREJUDICED INN HIS REPORT, OR HE IS
GOIN TO BE PARTIAL AND PARTISAN IN THE
REPORTING OF THE GAME, WITH INACCURACY
AND MISINTERPRETATION OF FACTS, EITHER
INTENTIONALLY OR UNWITTINGLY.
 THE ROLE OF THE SPORTSWRITER IS TO GIVE
THE INFORMATION OBJECTIVELY FOR THE
READERS OF THE SPORTS SECTION.
 TIPS FOR SPORTS WRITERS
1. Be minor sports enthusiasts. (Know about basketball, baseball
and all the games your going to write about)
2. Write for the average reader. (Write simply with no unusual
and technical terms)
3. Use the active voice.
4. Write with energy.
5. Be fair. Don’t take sides.
6. Be constantly on the lookout for unusual incidents and
angles.
7. Describe the players.
8. Get additional facts from the players, coaches, and spectators.
Support your story with quotes.
9. Be careful with the statistics. (scores, league standing)
10. Never use ten words when seven will do.
11. Read the best sports writing in the dailies. ( Study and analyze
the techniques of outstanding sports writers)
Thank You