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Structure of a Sports Story

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Sports' reporting is news writing. The sports story has the structure of an action story but with greater freedom in style of writing. Aside from having the "nose for the news" a sportswriter should:

Have interest in all sports events

Know the rules and regulations of the event or game he is writing about

Have a working knowledge of the language, crutches or the so-called "sports lingo". In this connection he could avoid clichés that have seen better days.

The Lead
Like any other news story, a sports story has a lead and a body. The sports lead is the attention-getter, the news in a nutshell. It contains the 5 W's. The lead can also dramatize other elements like the key play, the outstanding player and the analysis of the outcome of the game.

The Body
After the lead, the other elements follow in descending order. This will include:

Team or individual standing
Decisive play
Best scores for the day
Play-by-play account
Quotation
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