Your Note-Taking System

I switched to a digital recorder on the road when a coach thought I had misinterpreted his remarks in a story. In short, if the coach ever says "I never said that" I can go back and go "Oh yes you did... care to hear it?"

I have a notepad and pen on standby in case my digital runs out of battery during the interview.

If my laptop is present when I'm making calls, I type thorough notes as I go.

 

I use a notebook and hold the recorder underneath it. If I have time to transcribe or hunt for a particular quote, I'll do it.
After games when I know I'm on deadline, it's strictly notebook. I'll never put all of my eggs into a tape recorder. Battieries die, electronics malfunction, things can go wrong. All it takes is that first time.
Yeah...I know. Pens can run out of ink too, but I keep two extras in my pocket for just emergencies. I don't carry an extra tape recorder.

 

I use a recorder for almost everything, but I almost always have the pad for backup. Lately I've been trying to spend less time looking down at my pad writing and more time actually looking my subject in the eye and listening. I think the interviews are better that way.

That said, for really quick postgame deadline stuff, I'd go notes only very often.

My iphone is my backup recorder when the batteries run out.

 

That is true. I once covered a prep playoff baseball game where the local team lost and the coach wondered if he made the wrong call on who to start. Wife of said coach was furious with the story, left a long angry e-mail telling me, among other things, I had misquoted her husband. I told her that's what I heard, that's what I wrote in my notepad and when I listened again to my recorder, at 4:57 he did indeed say it, but she could come in if she wanted to hear it for herself. Never heard from her again.

 

I rely almost completely nowadays on a recorder for two reasons: 1) Can't tell you how many times I've been unable to read my notes or put together a complete quote from what I've scribbled, and 2) I've come to realize most if not all interview subjects really appreciate the eye contact, especially in one-on-one situations. Not having to write all the time helps you keep your mind in the conversation. And yes, while transcribing is certainly the bane of my existence, it's so good to sit down to write a lengthy piece and have those meaty quotes sitting in front of you instead of several pages of scribble.

 

I use a recorder for every interview, but I also take notes at the same time.

Part of the reason I record everything is the Web. I have an audio clip with just about every story I write.

 

Whether I did sports or crime, I learned to keep it simple and use a pen and a pad of paper. I've went through three digital recorders in five years because, for one reason or another, they just crap out. They lose files. The shut down despite the fact that I put in fresh batteries. The mic won't work. It's always something. Eventually, I got tired of getting the company to comp me $50 for a new one every 18 months.

 

That's pretty much what I do too. Pens in the pocket with my recorder underneath my reporter's notebook, which I'm scribbling on. I can usually read my notes and I have learned what to write down and what not to write. "We played well," does not need to be written down, or in my opinion, even used unless he's given you nothing else.

I write down unique quotes, and no matter the situation, I almost always write because some coaches love the eye contact while others get uncomfortable by it. I've had coaches that I've regularly worked with look down to the ground every time I made eye contact. Staring into their eyes without looking away can be awkward; maintaining eye contact through quick glances to show you're paying attention is very important, however. Nonetheless, teenage kids are known to often shy away from eye contact, so I look up at them while they're talking, then glance down while I'm writing and repeat. That way, I don't need to stare in some 16-year-old girl's eyes and make her feel awkward.

If it's a feature, I'll always transcribe. If I come back from a basketball game at 8:45, transcribing only takes 10-15 minutes, if that. You can still get your story in before 10 as I always feel I write faster when the quotes are in full right in front of my eyes on the screen. Anything that gets over after 9:30, the notebook comes out and the recorder is back up. In that case, the recorder's only used if I know there was a great quote, but I can't read one of the words I wrote.

 

When I started out in the business, I did shorthand when conducting an interview. I later realized that I couldn't read half of it and made a change to a tape recorder. That didn't work well because during a big-time weekly college football presser, my recorder died with an awful screech. Imagine the compass on the chalkboard scene from John Cusack's "Better Off Dead" and you get the idea.

I switched to digital and was never happier. Now I record interviews on my phone where they are saved as mp3 files. Easy to deal with. Easy to fast forward through. And if a coach said that he was "misquoted," I keep them on file so I can say "Well, the digits never lie..." when I play his own statements back to him.

As for football games, I use a scoresheet plus a notepad in a time-tested way to chart the game. I have a scorebook app on my phone to do baseball and softball and for basketball, I use a standard notepad. Easier that way.

 

When you score baseball, how do you do games when you don't know player names ahead of time, like a little league game? That's the only reason why I don't use my iPhone. It would be a great scoring tool, though.

 

We're on the same page.
In pressers, I sit there with my laptop and type as I go. If I fall behind, I mark the time of the quote so I can go back to it.
The one reason I don't like the hand-written system- and in this state, there are a lot of reporters who I've seen use it - is quotes sometimes are inaccurate. I've read too many quotes from games I've covered with competing reporters that are off. Some slightly, some major.
My rule of thumb with gamers is never take more than two minutes to talk to someone unless their spilling gold out of their mouth. If I can't get the quote I need in two minutes, I'm failing at my job.

 

I get the lineups ahead of time and enter them. I think the app is 6-4-3. The nice thing is that it saves automatically every roster you enter.