Dr. Bishop's Happy Home Sportswriting Basics Review (and Remedy for Warts)

Let's talk a little further about what we discussed in class.

First: probably the most important pieces of advice to come out of "game story" discussion are to make sure that you familiarize yourself with the teams and athletes you're about to cover. The team and league websites are vital sources of information, but remember that these are public relations vehicles, and contain little in the way of journalism. The sites are up to help publicize the team, and likely won't discuss controversy, beyond hirings and firings, and players being traded and released.

While we're on the subject of background, you should add three sites to your bookmark list for this class: www.baseball-reference.com, www.pro-football-reference.com, and basketball-reference.com. These are incredibly valuable, extremely rich sources of information about every team and every player that has ever played these sports.

So, back to the story: once you've obtained press credentials and found your seat in the press box, then what?

Well, first, honing your powers of observation is a start. What's the weather like? Game time temperature? If you're indoors, what's the atmosphere like - literally? Stuffy?

How many people are in attendance - is the crowd larger or smaller than expected? Larger or smaller than the average attendance at a game? What's the mood of the crowd (this you should pay attention to throughout the game)?

Remember that you don't have to be a sports expert to write a compelling story. Your task is to transport the reader to the game - be the reader's eyes and ears. Thus, as the examples I passed out from the Wilmington News Journal show, you don't have to include a ton of jargon, or be completely conversant in the terms of a sport in order to convey a strong sense of what a game or match was like.

A few other hints:

Always doublecheck the spelling of each player's name. This is where the team roster comes in handy.

It's not a bad idea as you write to offer general descriptions first (as in, "the Steelers had little trouble moving the ball on the suddenly inept Broncos defense"), followed by supporting examples ("Ben Roethlisberger completed three passes in a row to Hines Ward, the last for 25 yards").

As we discussed, chart the turning points in the game - no matter when they come. You'll start to develop your own shorthand, as in "Steelers - 7 to 86 for 25 yards" or "21 - five shots on goal in this shift."

And watch the flow of the play - is it uptempo? Slow? Fast? Do the players seem nervous? Complacent? All of this goes into your notes. You'll start to write chunks of the story as you watch, describing stretches of action. You may keep them in the story, or they may go - but you do, most of the time, write in reverse.

By reviewing your notes, and paying attention to key plays, you'll also start to develop your postgame interview questions. Remember the "how do you feel?" rule. Be as specific and as fresh as possible in thinking about your questions.

To Steelers coach Bill Cowher, after a hypothetical win in Super Bowl XL: "This must feel pretty good after so many missed opportunities..."

And never assume that the game is over - this is the so-called (by me) "Bill Buckner Rule." Until the last out, the last play, the last shot - pay attention, even through you know in your heart of hearts that the other team is completely out of it.

Imagine that you're on your way to the locker room or the press room when you hear a totally unexpected roar from the crowd - not the best feeling in the world.

OK, now let's review story structure:

First, the lead: this is the most important part of the story. It lures the casual reader in, and sustains the avid fan's interest. You only have a short time to accomplish this, so the lead has to be tight and compelling.

It also should be short - 25 words or so - 35 at the outside.

If you've decided to go with a straight inverted pyramid approach, you'll most likely write what's called a summary lead. It does just what the name implies - summarizes for the reader the key elements of the story.


Consider:

"Peter Forsberg scored two goals, assisted on two others, and repaired the Zamboni to help the Philadelphia Flyers defeat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-2, last night at the Wachovia Center."

OK, so the Zamboni thing isn't real - although I hear Forsberg's a whiz with a lug wrench.

There it all is - the who, the what, the when, the where. Later, you would describe for the reader HOW he scored and set up the other players. You answer the WHY question to give the reader a sense of the importance of the game in the general scheme of things.

But what if you want to play around a little, and try a "scene-setting" lead, or a "turning point" lead, or even a "key play" lead? Or a "novelty" lead?

Let's play a bit:

"Until Peter Forsberg scored midway through the second period of last night's Flyers game against the Vancouver Canucks, the team had generated few scoring chances, and had only sporadic success keeping the Canucks out of the Flyers' zone."


Or...

"The crowd at last night's Flyers-Canucks game had had enough: midway through the second period, they showered the home team with boos, frustrated at the Flyers' inablity to generate any real scoring chances, or to keep the Canucks from pelting goalie Robert Esche with unchallenged shots."


Or...

"To motivate his Flyers teammates, who had just sleptwalked through the first period of last night's game against the Vancouver Canucks, Peter Forsberg came up with a strategy probably not endorsed by coach Ken Hitchcock.

Forsberg hopped aboard the Zamboni as driver Chris Bertone completed his first between periods replenishment of the ice, and took Bertone, his teammates, and the sluggish, perturbed crowd for a few extra laps around the Wachovia Center ice."



Now, you're probably saying, "what about that goofy contract with the reader stuff, Bishop - they only stick around a few minutes - what about that, professor-boy?

You'd simply put the score in the following graph. Keep in mind that a little panache is not a bad thing. But this doesn't mean that you offer unsupported impressions about the game or the athletes - everything you write MUST be based on something you've actually seen or heard. So if you write that a team is "resilient" or "unfocused," you must back it up.

So as you rewrite your game stories, and tackle the "How to" stories, keep these ideas in mind - it's not about you, it's not about promoting the sport, it's not about letting the athlete control the interview - it's about TELLING a STORY!

Some final tiny thoughts from my first go-round through your game stories:

1. "Super Bowl" is NOT one word - it's two.

2. Spell out numbers less than 10 - thus, you'll say "fourth quarter" as opposed to "4th quarter."

3. Describe, describe, describe: for example, when you say quarterback Matt Hasselbeck (known in my house as the brother-in-law of The View host Elizabeth Hasselbeck) is "accurate and determined" - tell me what led you to say that.

4. Remember "basic attribution 101." When you quote someone directly, it looks like this:

"I'm dedicating this win to the fine folks at Victor's House of Waffles," Steelers coach Bill Cowher said.

Review that again: comma, close quote, attribution. Kind of a catchy rhythm, no?

You can use present tense if the story has a lighter feel, or is more of a human interest piece.

Enough for now - we'll talk about the land of endless cliches on Tuesday.

Take care and enjoy the weekend.

Ron