Need help please planning my class

[SportsDude]

Real Sports Reporting is good. Same time I bought that I bought Wilstein's AP Sports Writing Handbook.

http://www.amazon.com/Associated-Press-Sports-Writing-Handbook/dp/0071372180/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211506331&sr=8-1

 

[21]

Moddy, use Pond Scum and Vultures. I've loaned out my copy several times to friends who told me how cool my job had to be.

Should be required reading for anybody who wants to be a sports writer, as well as the people who have to deal with them.

I wonder if you can still get that book in any quantity...I know people who have searched and failed. Great resource for the kids, though, because it's about the writers they know--lots of Reilly, Albom, Plaschke. But to me, the Holtzman book is the bible, if you want some history.

What about selecting an edition of BASW, and let them analyze why certain pieces worked (or argue why they shouldn't be included)?

(okay, i see someone just said something like that above, sorry....must be a very good idea).

 

[Mediator]

Bill Nack did an excellent piece on the death of Secretariat. I know it isn't historical yet, but it does give the reader an idea of how important the sport once was. For a time it was horse racing, boxing and Ivy League football.

I'd also check into Michael Oriard. He's a former NFL player who has written books on the history of college football writing. Good stuff.

 

[budcrew08]

Real Sports Reporting, edited by Abraham Aamidor. Publisher's ad here: http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=21851

It's cheaper here - http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/602-3895995-9976655?asin=0253216168&afid=yahoosspplp_bmvd&lnm=0253216168|Real_Sports_Reporting_:_Books&ref=tgt_adv_XSNG1060

I bought this book on a whim my senior year of college. Each section is written by a different journalist who specializes in the area the chapter is about. The front sections are about covering different beats (beats mentioned are football, hockey, soccer, basketball, auto racing, golf, Olympic sports, tennis, baseball and column writing) while the second half of the book is devoted to more encompassing issues.

I got a lot out of it, but it's fairly accessible to people who aren't in the business as well. I wish I'd had a class with it as a text in college.

Seconded 100 percent. This book is really good, even though I think it's a few years old.

 

[Rockbottom]

Christopher Walsh's "No Time Outs: What It's Really Like to Be a Sportswriter Today" is pretty good.

I second this opinion ...

rb

 

[pseudo]

Bill Nack did an excellent piece on the death of Secretariat. I know it isn't historical yet, but it does give the reader an idea of how important the sport once was. For a time it was horse racing, boxing and Ivy League football.

I'd also check into Michael Oriard. He's a former NFL player who has written books on the history of college football writing. Good stuff.

"Pure Heart" is the title of Nack's timeless story. It's in both the anthologies I mentioned (originally in the 1991 BASW), as well as online in the SI Vault.

(Speaking of Nack, I believe he's editing this year's BASW. Can't wait for the finished product. Now, back to your regularly scheduled topic ...)

 

[Bob Cook]

Moddy, you should track down this guy and pick his brain:

http://journalism.indiana.edu/about-us/faculty-staff/bio/?person=214

That's a link to Peter Jacobi. For a long time, he had (and may still have) a side business prepping executives and others for interviews. He just about personally ended the cliche of Mike Wallace whipping out a document and catching a businessperson flat-footed on 60 Minutes, because after sessions with Peter Jacobi, their feet were no longer flat.

 

[RedSmithClone]

For a col, Red Smith's on Bobby Thomson's pennant-winning homer. Superb. It's in one of his collections, "Red Smith on baseball."

Indeed

 

[Birdscribe]

I'd also check into Michael Oriard. He's a former NFL player who has written books on the history of college football writing. Good stuff.

Oriard's stuff is quite good. I used to work with his younger brother at one of my stops. Good editor, so the wordsmithiness (is that a word?) runs in the family.

 

[GuessWho]

Moddy,

This class sounds interesting. Curious if you've heard of other schools that offer something like this because I never have, although I've never really explored it. Is it strictly for future coaches/athletic administrators? Is it something your place has been offering for awhile? I'm interested in the history of it.

Speaking of history, there's an old book by veteran Texas writer Gary Cartwright called Confessions of a Washed-Up Sportswriter that includes several chapters on the heyday of Front Page journalism in Texas when Cartwright worked at the wild-and-wacky Fort Worth Press on a legendary sports staff that included Blackie Sherrod, Bud Shrake, Tex Maule, Dan Jenkins and others.

It's got some wild stuff, which, come to think of it, your students probably shouldn't see. Probably would just confirm the suspicions they likely already have about our profession.

 

[zebracoy]

I want to take this class. I wish someone had taught me this stuff when I was going through school.

 

[jgmacg]

Liebling.

 

[Moderator1]

I want to take this class. I wish someone had taught me this stuff when I was going through school.

There is a distance learning tract available and I will be teaching it online in the spring.

Thanks for all the great help. I've printed a bunch of articles and ordered some books. Even lined up a couple of speakers already. But don't stop the help. Keep it coming. You guys are great and this is why I love SJ. A terrific resource.

 

[Rosie]

Something totally off the wall here...

How about a True or False sheet? Common misconceptions about sports writers that coaches and admin have, (for example, the evil writer is out to get them, the writer must be a fan, the writer is only doing her job,) stuff like that.

Have the students mark their answers, then talk about each point and why it is or isn't true.

 

[Moderator1]

That is a great idea!

And to answer GuessWho, I'm not sure who is doing this kind of thing. This will be the ninth year of the SportsCenter and first time it has been offered there. I know lots of journalism schoosl offer things on sports writing but those are geared toward the writers instead of the coaches/administrators.
I read that Cartwright book and absolutely loved it. I subscribe to Texas Monthly because of that book. Terrific, terrific stuff.

 

[Rosie]

And that was only with one cup of coffee.

 

[93Devil]

Show them how difficult it is to write a story when they are stiff-armed by a coach.

Those inches need filled by hook or by crook.

I would suggest trying have them write a game story on their own with ****ty quotes and with good quotes, but that lesson could blow up because you would assume that they know how to write a gamer.

I dunno. Just show them how much easier a writers job can be with a good coach.

Just be sure to show how much accessibility is too much.

 

[pseudo]

As for your guest speakers, I presume you'll take the opportunity to have them show your students that a beat writer is not a columnist is not a radio talk-show host. Too many people on my side of the pressbox door -- fans and players alike -- seem to have trouble understanding the difference.

And I'm making my own list of the books mentioned here. Thanks for asking the question.

 

[Matt1735]

Include the basics of newspapering 101. The person who writes the story isn't who picks the picture or who writes the caption or who writes the headline.

Let them know that a professional relationship with their media contacts can lead to things going a lot smoother than an adversarial one.

 

[Bob Cook]

Include the basics of newspapering 101. The person who writes the story isn't who picks the picture or who writes the caption or who writes the headline.

Let them know that a professional relationship with their media contacts can lead to things going a lot smoother than an adversarial one.

You should show them the Mike Gundy rant and say, "Um, don't do that. Class dismissed."

EDIT: Seriously, you could do a breakdown of some of the more famous rants in sports, and particularly highlight how thanks to YouTube, everyone is going to know when you've gone off your rocker, and it's going to follow you to your grave, if it doesn't cause your career to go there first. For that matter, you could show them the Hillary Clinton clip from Sioux Falls as a reminder that even if you're only in a room with the Podunk Times, you have to treat every encounter as if you have the potential to become the next Lee Elia.