The Essentials of Sports Reporting and Writing

This text covers the full experience of sports writing. Authors Wayne Wanta and Scott Reinardy approach the topic using their own professional experience as sports writers and editors to give students a realistic view of the sports writing profession. After the overview and introduction to sports journalism, the authors move into the stages of article writing, organized around article beginnings, middles, and endings. The text also covers other types of sports stories, such as columns, profiles, and news, and addresses style and ethics issues. It provides students with a full understanding of how to produce quality content for sports stories, as well as offer insights as to what to expect in the sports reporter position.

Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Introduction: The field of sports writing; expectations; pros and cons of careers. (Wayne)Chapter 2: Types of stories: Game reports, advances, follows, sidebars; features, personality profiles. (Wayne)Chapter 3: Preparation: Getting ready, information sources. (Scott)Chapter 4: Beginnings: What to lead with; history, quotes, key play, etc. (Scott)Chapter 5: Beginnings: Types of leads; anecdotal, descriptive, delayed, etc. (Scott)Chapter 6: Beginnings: Worst leads; One-word leads; etc. (Wayne)Chapter 7: Middles; Story structures: Inverted pyramid, diamond structure, 1-3-4-2, etc. (Wayne)Chapter 8: Middles: Effective interviewing (Scott)Chapter 9: Middles: Getting good quotes; Transitions (Wayne)Chapter 10: Middles: Play-by-play; too much, too little (Scott)Chapter 11: Endings: What to end with (Wayne)Chapter 12: Endings: What you need to include (Wayne)Chapter 13: Other types of stories: Sidebars (Scott)Chapter 14: Other types of stories: Advances and follows (Scott)Chapter 15: Other types of stories: Columns (Wayne)Chapter 16: Other types of stories: Features and profiles (Wayne)Chapter 17: Other types of stories: Sports news (Scott)Chapter 18: Some final points: Stylistic errors to avoid (Wayne)Chapter 19: Some final points: Ethics of sports writing (Scott)Chapter 20: Sports online