Informational Report:

Sports Journalism
Chris Weaver
Dr. Cutrufello
10-28-13

Table of Contents
1

Executive Summary3
Research4
Style and Delivery in Sports Writing5
Genres:
Web Pages6
Player Profiles7
Game Wrap-Ups7
Season Previews8
Season Wrap-Ups8
Game Previews9
Conclusion9
References11
Appendix 1 - Interview12
Appendix 2 Player Profile13
Appendix 3 Game Wrap-Up14
Appendix 4 Season Preview15
Appendix 5 Season Wrap-Up16
Appendix 6 Game Preview17

Executive Summary

On September 25, 2013 I received approval to study the genres

utilized within the social setting of an athletic communication
environment. These genres include web pages, player profiles,
straight-lede game stories, feature-lede game stories, season
previews, and season wrap-ups. In order to achieve my goals of study
I must accomplish my proposed tasks that will allow me to fulfill the
goals of this report. These proposed tasks include the following:
1 Research genres present within the sports communication
environment.
2 Study the social setting and expectations within sports
communication
3 Interview professionals who work within sports communication
[writers, directors, editors, web designers]
4 Study and provide analyses of primary documents [game recaps,
news releases, live game feed, etc]
Completing these tasks will allow me the opportunity to establish
an understanding of how genres work within the social standards of a
sports communication environment. It will allow me to establish
knowledge of my future job aspiration of being acquainted with sports
writing. My schedule in completing my proposed tasks will be as
follows:
1 For the first two weeks I will perform research in order to become
knowledgeable about genres within sports communication

2 During the second week of my researching process, I will begin

to orchestrate interviews.
3 Once my research and interviews are complete, I will study and
analyze the information that I gather.
All of these tasks were performed and completed in compromise to my
scheduling.
In conclusion, my research methods led me down the right path
in developing my knowledge about the social setting of a sports
communication department and about the different genres that a
sports writer must be most familiar with in this field.
Research
Based on the research that I have gathered, I have come to the
conclusion that I would be successful in the sports communication
field. According to Anthony Pare and Graham Smart, genre is
recognized as a social action: a complex pattern of repeated social
activity and rhetorical performance arising in response to a recurrent
situation. (Observing Genres in Action, p. 146) For sports writers,
there is a constant social interaction with sports, meaning that writers
must distinguish their credibility through their social connection with
the sports that they cover, as well as a social connection with their
audience.

Throughout sports communication you will find a sense of

consistency with writers who use similar rhetorical moves and perform
those moves in a specific style. The consistent use of these rhetorical
and stylistic moves allows the audience to easily identify individual
components of a generic text, their usual sequence, and their common
function or purpose. (Observing Genres in Action, p. 147) Apart from
the rhetorical and stylistic consistency a sports writer must contain,
there is also a sense of consistency in regards to a sports writers
social roles, which determines the type of work that the writer is either
authorized to compete or not. Graham and Pare identify these
consistent social roles as generic characteristics of role and
relationship, such as responsibilities, levels of relative power and
influence, division of labour, channels of and access to information,
and the obligation and freedom to report. (Observing Genres in
Action, p. 149) These social roles solidify the consistency and
effectiveness of the production of a writers communication with their
audience and their peers.
For a sports writer, or any writer in general, there is a six step
composing process described by Graham and Pare on page 150 of
Observing Genres in Action: Towards a Research Methodology. The
six-step process is as follows:
1 An initiating event
2 Information gathering

3
4
5
6

Analysis of Information
Individual writing and rewriting
Collaborative activities
The technology of production

This six-step composition process has allowed me to easily come up

with ideas of what to ask the professionals who I have sought out to
interview in order to learn more about the genres utilized within the
sports communication field.
Style and Delivery in Sports Writing
From my research, I have learned that the most common style of
professional writing utilized by a sports writer is factual reporting. The
responsibility that stems from factual reporting is for a sports writer to
be able to cover a sporting event and report to their audience exactly
how a match was won or lost. According to Scott Guise the Director of
Athletic Communications at York College of Pennsylvania, There are
times to interject opinions when covering an event but the most
effective writers use the words of the participants to help shape the
readers opinions. This means that interviews are essential to the
composition of a sports document in order to create or shift the
opinions of the readers.
In order to satisfy and meet the needs of their audience, sports
writers must depend on their style of delivery, which may alter
depending on the type of story being delivered. A sports writer can be

most effective with his or her delivery and communication with their
audience when they listen to others, such as a coach or a player. This
makes both pre-game and post-game interviews vital to the final
delivery to the audience because it gives the writer a sense of
importance of the contest and an opinion of a teams performance
from one who experienced it firsthand. This is where interviews can
establish a sports writers credibility as well as their ability to be
persuasive and shift, form, or establish the opinions of the readers.
Genres:
Web Pages
The most common way of retrieving sports information is by
means of the World Wide Web. Sports writers are becoming more and
more adapted to the technological era, where people anywhere and
can retrieve the information that they are looking for instantly on the
Internet. Because of this technological era, a web page is crucial for
any college, professional organization, recreational organization, or
sports broadcasters who need to report stories, profiles, previews, or
wrap-ups to the interested and demanding public. The type of web
page that a sports writer may work for may vary. For instance, a sports
writer could either work for a website that promotes all of both
womens and mens sports, for a website that promotes a professional
team or organization, or for a website that promotes recreational

sports for a community. Despite the differences, all three of these

different web pages require a sports writer the possibility of creating
news releases, player profiles, season/game previews, and
season/game wrap-ups.
Player Profiles
One of the most common genres of sports writing are player
profiles. Player profiles provide the audience with an opportunity to
learn background information about a specific athlete. This
background information can include biographical information such as
name and date of birth, physical information such as height and
weight, accomplishments, expectations, and seasonal and career
statistics. The language that a sports writer must utilize within player
profiles should be generic, meaning that the writer should not stockpile
sport specific jargon because he or she will lose the audience. A sports
writer will often utilize the player profile genre throughout their career,
especially when they work for a college or a professional organization.
Game Wrap-Ups
The most often genre that is utilized within the sports
communication field are game wrap-ups. Game wrap-ups are written
by a sports writer who is attempting to provide their audience with a
concise summary of the games most crucial moments that had the
deepest effect on the outcome of the game. Usually in a game wrap8

up a reader will be able to find updated team records of both the losing
and winning teams. A reader should also be able to recognize which
players made the biggest impact on the outcome of the game, which
means it is important for the sports writer to involve the names of the
players who had the most impact, as well as how that impact was felt.
Because game wrap-ups require a sports writer to be very detailed, the
writer must use very specific language because that is what the
audience will be looking for.
Season Previews
A sports writer must be very familiar with being able to evaluate
a team, their roster, their upcoming schedule, and their expectations
leading into a season in order to compose a season preview. Season
previews are utilized to give the audience an idea of what to expect for
a team for an upcoming season, as well as what would be considered
to be a successful season or a disappointing season for the team.
Usually, however, a sports writer will only include what could lead to a
successful season for a team. Season previews usually include
interviews with the head coach and important players that will have a
great impact on the success of the team. An interview with a head
coach or impact player will be of high interest to the reader, as it will
provide them with internal expectations of the team compared to the
sports writers external expectations of the team.

Season Wrap-Ups
For sports writers, season wrap-ups are a commonly utilized
genre, however they are only used one time per season for a specific
team or sport. Season wrap-ups allow the audience to read and
educate themselves about any accomplishments and failures that a
specific team had accumulated throughout the course of the season.
These stories most often put an emphasis on the positive highlights
rather than the negative lowlights of the season. The language used
by a sports writer when composing a season wrap-up should be very
broad and generic because it summarizes and highlights the most
important and crucial points of a teams season. These wrap-ups can
include interviews, statistical accomplishments, and team
accomplishments as well.
Game Previews
Game previews are the least important and utilized by a sports
writer, however they are still important enough to be done with
precision. A game preview should inform its readers about the details
of a matchup, including the names and records of the two teams. A
sports writer should also point out who the star players are for each
team and what the audience should be looking out for throughout the
course of the game. Usually game previews are not as often read as a
game wrap-up because they lack decisive information; it only gives the

10

audience a glimpse of what is to come. Although a game preview story

may not provide its audience with decisive details, it could serve as an
intricate way of hyping up a particular sporting event.
Conclusion
This report was born as a proposal to be granted permission to
research and study the different genres that are assigned to sports
writers within the sports communication field of study. The process of
researching, interviewing, studying, and composing my report took
about three weeks. I have learned about the social setting within the
sports communication world and what types of genres they most often
utilize. These genres include web pages, player profiles, game/season
previews, and game/season wrap-ups. In order to learn more about
the requirements, expectations, and goals of a sports writer, I
conducted an interview with a professional within the field of sports
communication Scott Guise, the Director of Athletic Communications
at York College of Pennsylvania. Overall, I was impressed and very
encouraged by my findings that one day when I am a sports writer
myself I will already have a good idea of what I am getting into and
how I will need to conduct my professionalism in order to succeed.

11

References

Aamidor, Abraham. Real Sports Reporting. Indiana

University Press, 2003. 260. eBook.
Andrews, Phil. Sports Journalism: A Practical
Introduction. SAGE, 2005. 192. eBook.
Boyle, Raymond. Sports Journalism: Context and
Issues. Pine Forge Press, 2006. 208. eBook.
Devitt, Amy. Writing Genres. Southern Illinois
University Press, 2004. Print.
Freedman, Aviva, and Peter Medway. Genre and the
New Rhetoric. Taylor & Francis Inc., 1994. Print.
Rogers, Tony. "Everything You Need to Know to
Become a Sportswriter." About.com. N.p.. Web. 23
Oct 2013.
<http://journalism.about.com/od/writing/tp/sportswrit
inghub.htm>.
Rogers, Tony. "The Different Kinds of Sports Stories."
About.com. N.p.. Web. 28 Oct 2013.
<http://journalism.about.com/od/writing/a/sportsstori
es.htm>.
Rosenthal, Brian, James Schaffer, and Kathryn Stofer.
Sports Journalism: An Introduction to Reporting and
Writing. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009. 240.
eBook.

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Appendix 1 - Interview
What type of genres do sports writers most often utilize when
producing professional documents?
A: The style of professional documents is factual reporting. We are
responsible for reporting to our readers what happened in the event we
are covering. There are times to interject opinions when covering an
event but the most effective writers use the words of the participants
to help shape the readers opinions. I find as a writer, the less I
interject my personal feelings towards the subject, the more effective I
become as a writer and storyteller.
How do sports writers adjust their writing style to meet the needs of
their audience?
A: I think my writing style adjusts on the type of story I am writing. If I
am working on a student-athlete profile for our College magazine, I will
use more generic and broader language. The last thing I want to do as
a writer is lose my audience with sport specific jargon. When I am
writing a story on a specific sport, I can use different language and be
more specific because I know that reader will be looking for that type
of description. I think as Athletic Communication professionals, we are
constantly striving to understand our audience and the best method of
effective communication.
What steps does a sports writer need to take in order to effectively
deliver an attractive document?
A: Knowing your audience and understanding their expectations are
the best way to effectively deliver the product they desire. Sometimes
as writers, the best thing we can do is listen. Whether it is talking to a
coach about the performance of their teams, a student-athlete who is
talking about a contest, or our colleagues about a collaboration project,
we need to listen to others to determine the most effective method of
communication.
How are deadlines determined when a sports writer is assigned a
project?
A. We are constantly working on deadlines. Sometimes its a selfimposed deadline to get a feature story on the website. Other times,
its the need to get a game story on-line for public consumption. There
are always deadlines to deal with in the Athletic Communications field.
13

Appendix 2 Player Profile

14

Appendix 3 Game Wrap-Up

15

Appendix 4 Season Preview

16

Appendix 5 Season Wrap-Up

17

Appendix 6 Game Preview

18