Sports Writing Is News Writing
Sports Writing Is News Writing
Sports Writing Is News Writing
Sports writing allows you to go to town in describing plays, the atmosphere, fans and other colorful aspects of a sporting
event.
TYPES OF SPORTS NEWS
I. Coverage Story – an actual game or event. It contains important reports like the following.
a. Outcome – the winner, score of both teams or opponents, draw, suspension of the game due to chaos and
others.
b. Significance of the outcome – the prize or the chance to move on to the higher level of competition like the
championship games.
II. Advance News - it gives advance information in the coming event.
III. Follow-up sports story – it summarizes the activities of the team. It also analyzes the recently concluded game like a
player, who was injured and the aspects of the players, chaos on the technicality, statistics and its significance.
IV. News based on the records - it is based on the data gathered from authorities or officials of the game. It could also
be a summary of different events almost simultaneously played in an athletic meet.
Examples:
Beermen dump Gins, 106-93
Fil-Am sprints for gold in 100m,
sets new record in SEA Games
Busch sweeps all 3 Bristol races
NU escapes UP on 'controversial' free throw
Davydenko beats del Potro to win ATP Tour Final
Don King: 'Mayweather will KO Pacquiao'
Like a news story, a sports story has a lead, a body and a conclusion.
LEAD – summarizes or analyzes the event by giving the significance, the winner, the hero, the score, the place and time.
BODY – contains the play-by-play account of the game like the most crucial part, star player, weaknesses and strengths.
CONCLUSION – usually contains quotes from players, coaches and statistics.
After writing the lead, add 1 more paragraph to explain further what has been written in the lead.
(Lead)
James Yap basket agility proved to be the perfect ingredient for his team as he fired three-pointer
shots in the fourth quarter that stole the momentum from the Turbo Chargers, 98-94 in the All-Filipino Cup held at
the Araneta Coliseum, Sunday evening.
End the story with a quotation
“We were very happy with our performance”, said Yap.
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.