1. Writing Sports Stories
Unit 6

2. Guidelines for Writing Sports Stories
Sports stories are a type of news story. They follow the same guidelines for leads and the inverted pyramid style of writing.
Sports stories should be as timely as possible.
Sports stories should include statistics, scores, players’ and coaches’ names, etc.

3. Things to Remember
Know the game – its terminology as well as its players and coaches.
Keep good records.
Avoid editorializing, even if the team is having a bad season.
Be sure to cover minor sports.
Use action verbs and descriptive adjectives.
Give girls’ sports the same coverage as boys’ sports.

4. Other parts of the Sports Section
Most of the time, the Sports Section Editor will have a regular column, which is an editorial or opinion article. It should follow the guidelines for that type of journalistic writing.
Often, a Sports Section will include a feature article, such as a profile of a student athlete or a team of the month.

5. Ads in the Sports Section
Most advertisements are placed toward the end of the paper, so they usually end up in the Sports section.
Oftentimes the Sports Editor will have to fight for space so that he or she has room for the articles he or she wants to publish.

6. Sources
Some of this information came from a book titled High School Journalism written by Homer L. Hall.