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"I" in game reports

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by ripthejacker, Mar 12, 2007.

  1. I've seen writers try to jam "this reporter" or "I" into gamers, but they were all stringers or interns who had almost no writing experience.
     
  2. EStreetJoe

    EStreetJoe Well-Known Member

    The referee made what I thought was a lousy call.


    That's how you incorrectly work I into a story.
     
  3. Mighty_Wingman

    Mighty_Wingman Active Member

    Podunk High scored 10 unanswered points to close out Podunk County Tuesday night in a battle of unbeatens.

    Man, I'm hungry.

    Joe Blow led Podunk with 12 points.

    ****

    Now that's how you incorrectly work "I" into a story.
     
  4. Oh, I've got a good one I forgot all about. ;D

    When I was in college we had a sports reporter, "Bob", who repeatedly tried to squeeze in quotes like this .. "I've said it before, Bob, we're not going to win games playing defense like that ... " or "That's a good question, Bob, I do think we need to stop the run ..."
     
  5. shotglass

    shotglass Guest

    I might have had to make a physical point with Bob. ;)
     
  6. ripthejacker

    ripthejacker New Member

    No-shit link to a recent game report (not column) by our "competitor."

    http://www.times-standard.com/sports/ci_5406962

    And there were many, many others like it. Think it's calmed down since there were a few nasty remarks about that style, but those stories exist and we get to read them and laugh every day.

    So I think I'm pretty much done playing devil's advocate for putting "I" in game reports. Didn't expect to have to defend myself as much as exchange ideas about writing game reports.

    "Fucking moron?"

    I think you're projecting a bit

    Never said it's the only way to describe a game, just said there are other ways we could do it other than the inverted pyramid <--, especially for small, local papers where stories are not cut and the primary readers are often those who attended the games and are looking to get a fix of the excitement they experienced the night before.
     
  7. Mystery_Meat

    Mystery_Meat Guest

    BW: I'm okay with it. A lot of us were calling BS on someone doing first-person gamers, and he gave up proof. Remember, he *wants* to write like them, or at least write in first person like them.

    I'm not one for indiscriminate bashing of small-town writers without the means with which to defend themselves, but the linked story doesn't do anything to weaken the case that first-person is utterly inappropriate in a gamer.
     
  8. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    Re: \"I\" in game reports

    BUMBLEFUCK -- There is no I in team. Not in gamer either.








    How did I do?
     
  9. reformedhack

    reformedhack Well-Known Member

    There are so many things wrong with the writing in that piece that using "I" might be the least worrisome.

    Thanks, rip, for posting it so we can see for ourselves. I don't know about the rest of you, but I ... just ... can't ... turn ... my ... eyes ... away ...
     
  10. Montezuma's Revenge

    Montezuma's Revenge Active Member

    Barry Bonds hit career homer No. 756 while I was taking a dump, but I'm told it was a monumental blast to right field. To make matters worse, as I was taking the dump I noticed I had huge skid marks. Bummer.
     
  11. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Rip,

    You seem a teensy bit defensive. And, for the record, there is a lot of ground between "inverted pyramid" and inserting yourself into a gamer.

    For example, if the game was thrilling, you could -- oh, I don't know -- put the word "thrilling" in the game story rather than the sentence "I thought the game was thrilling."

    This reporter is all for writers sprinkling opinion and analysis in game stories and long as they keep their Cheez-It covered selves out of there.
     
  12. Honest to God, I've covered hundreds of games over the years, and I've never heard a team or its fans collectively exhale. I'd like to be there when it finally does happen, though. That would be like a hurricane!

    I think the original poster's idea has been slapped down pretty hard by other people, and I'm in the majority. But I'm wondering if we don't like it because we've never seen it done well. (I don't count Hunter S. Thompson. He wasn't writing for the next day. And I think the example posted here was not a very good one.)

    Just because it hasn't been done well means it can't be done well. I don't think I want it to become a trend, but I don't want to rule it out, either. (I don't know if they still do this, but I thought it was interesting when the Globe and Mail would have a little box that would rate games, like movies.) We seem to do a lot of things in the newspaper biz just because they've always been done that way.

    A mentor once told me to cover a game, or an event, as if I was seated in the last row, or the rafters, and I could describe the scene to my readers. I've never done that in first person. But I don't want to say I'd never do it, know what I mean? A game story has a fairly significant amount of subjective review in it already. When will someone cross the line, successfully?
     
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