Sport is an integral part of academic life. College soccer or basketball teams compete to improve GPA and become popular. It is hard to find a person who has never participated in sports or watched competitions on TV. A person can be a passive watcher or an active participant. What about sports writers? Lauren Bradshaw, a professional essay writer at Custom Writings, said, “A person needs to have seven skills to become a prominent sports writer.” She shares secrets about skills a person requires describing sports events.
Skill 1. Be Aware of Sport Industry
Sport is business. It deals not only with game players and fans. It involves public relations, sponsors, sales, journalists, influencers, TV, advertising, and those who bet. An article can discuss not only a game and players but finances, community, and other constituents of sports business. For instance, many football games were postponed because of Covid-19. Lockdown has influenced not only the salary of players but sponsors and people who work at stadiums. So, a writer must be ready to speak about all aspects of the game.
Skill 2. Know Peculiarities of the Chosen Game
A writer should not mislead a reader. He or she must possess enough knowledge about the game. If speaking about football, a writer must know everything about the tasks of a central midfielder, a striker, a winger, a defensive midfielder, a sweeper, and other participants. Besides, a person has to use sports terminology and the history of the game and/ or some players. Experts should sound solid and convincing.
Skill 3. Getting Informed All the Time
Fans read articles to learn news about some game or a player. The yellow press can create stories out of nowhere. Their job is to spread gossip to entertain people. A good sports writer never tells nonsense. If you want to gain a good reputation, you will need to conduct research and be in the epicenter of sports news. To prove some data, a sports writer should talk to judges or investigate court documents. You should not forget to mention sources in footnotes or reference lists to avoid plagiarism and back up your information.
Skill 4. Define Your Target Audience
It is not a secret that many bloggers earn a lot due to their followers. How did they manage to succeed? They supply their target audience with the information they need. Readers of sports news can be game lovers, knowledgeable fans, and experts. Depending on the category, a writer should adjust topics, language style, vocabulary, visual aids, etc. Experts would like to know details while common readers are interested more in entertaining stories, results of the game, and catchy facts.
Skill 5. Creativity is the Must
If a person is interested in some topics, he or she will try to find posts about them in various sources. The task of a sports writer is to keep the audience’s attention. Consequently, a writer is to be creative and add catchy pictures, infographics, statistics, headings, tables, scales, and videos. Besides, there must be no plagiarism. You can scan a paper with plagiarism checkers to see the level of uniqueness.
It is a good idea to present various angles of an event. Sport always deals with competitions and debates. So, sports bloggers should use flashy controversial headings and highlight the most valuable information with the help of visual aids.
Skill 6. Advanced Writing
It is impossible to create a striking post without proper writing skills. How to improve sports writing? Lauren Bradshaw recommends doing 5 basic things:
- Read a lot to broaden your scope and improve your vocabulary. It is especially important for those who provide expert writing.
- Write every day. Even if you lack time, you will have to jot down at least something to develop habitual writing. Moreover, you can scan the text with the help of software that checks readability level. One of them is Hemingway Editor. It colors sentences that are hard to read or need simplification.
- Examine various texts of fiction and nonfiction. Think what style fits your blog, community, or newspaper.
- Experiment with styles to find the one you are best at. You can also use software and apps to check your grammar. The most popular are Grammarly, ProWritingAids, Google Docs, etc.
- Research every day to be in the epicenter of sports events and never write about things you cannot back up. Try to avoid unreliable sources that publish unverified information.
Those who follow these simple recommendations have an excellent chance to become a prominent sports writer. If you present papers full of grammar mistakes and typos, a reader will notice that and consider you as a negligent person. It will be hard to get appreciation and many followers.
NB! Mind your language and facts you introduce to fit the awareness and preferences of the target reader.
Skill 7. Formatting Awareness
It is not a secret that each post or article needs formatting. Each detail matters. A sports writer must know not only grammar but also proper fonts, spacing, text orientation, censorship, and other publication rules. It does not matter whether you are a writer of Britannica, Spiegel, or run a personal blog. Your article should manifest deep knowledge of a subject and writing rules.
If you like sports and want to share your ideas and views with others, you should work hard to become an outstanding sports influencer. Develop the 7 above-mentioned skills to become competitive in the sports field.
