Day 2 of JourKNOW! with the Bedan Roar!: The Fundamentals of Sports Writing

Charles Kirby Manuyag

THURSDAY, December 2, 2021 - Still in the continuation of the journalism workshop series brought by The Bedan Roar - Alabang, they commenced their second day of “JourKNOW!”, exploring the depths of Sports Writing, held in Zoom conference and Facebook live from 5 PM to 6:20 PM, attended by participants from different schools and student publications including the Letran SHS Fourth Estate.

The webinar emcees, Mr. Yuri Morrison and Ms. Sofia Granada, facilitated a simple activity that served as their ice-breaker similar to the workshop’s first day, which was 4 Pics 1 Word, lifting the mood and atmosphere of the said program.

Afterward, they called Mr. Matthew Cabural, the assistant manager of the Bedan Roar, to deliver his opening remarks. The workshop then moved forward to its main event as the emcees gladly welcomed and introduced Mr. Luis Antonio Lucas, a Grade 12 HUMSS student studying in San Beda Alabang who achieved a 3-year championship for known national competitions for sports, news, and headline writing, for the subject, Sports Writing.

Mr. Lucas started as he briefly introduced himself and shared that he had liked sports and writing ever since he was young. Continuing to his lecture, he then defined Sports Writing. “It is a specialized field of news writing; with elements of feature writing,” Mr. Lucas stated. “You need to be a good storyteller to have a comprehensive article,” he added whilst elaborating the definition of sports writing.

Moving forward, he talked about the nature of sports writing, which is the writer themselves, as stated by him. “You first need to love what you’re writing about; you need to at least have basic knowledge on whatever sport you’re covering,” Mr. Lucas highlighted this as he gave a detailed explanation in his presentation of “The Sportswriter”.

Mr. Lucas then moved on to compare sports writing to news and features. He reiterated that sports writing is a combination of news writing and feature writing as he noted that sports writing would never be a pure news article nor a pure feature article.

Driving forward to the highlight, he discussed the process of writing a sports article. Mr. Lucas started with the reminders of writing a sports article and added tips to be a good writer — one of which is to remain unbiased when writing. Moreover, he also brought up the “Angle” that will determine the whole article from start to finish as he provided examples on what angles should turn out to be.

As his lecture went further, Mr. Lucas explained the proper writing of a headline. He highlighted the proper use of words such as demolish, dismantle, outplays, survive, outlasts on writing a good and captivating headline.

Giving importance with regards to headlines, he also discussed the lead. He noted that the lead must always contain the 5 Ws and 1 H, specifically, how did the winning team beat the losing team, what was the score, what did the winning team gain/losing team lose, what tournament was it in, when was it, and where was it played.

He spotlighted the significance of the key play, the outstanding player, the analytical approach for an effective lead. Additionally, Mr. Lucas discussed the body of the article, starting with the body paragraph, which will vary from article to article. “Most commonly, the opening paragraph will answer the question: what did the winning team do well to win, and what did the winning team perform best in? Most importantly, they will be accompanied with citations as to which players showed off these performances,” he added as he also expounded on the winning performances, quotations, play-by-play, losing performances, and conclusion.

Completing his discourse on the parts of a sports article, he gave examples on articles with proper and complete headlines, leads, winning performances, play-by-play, quotations, losing performances, and conclusion, for the further comprehension of the attendees.

Along with this, Mr. Lucas provided the participants with a Google Drive link, with factsheets as its contents, and encouraged them to submit their sports article. According to him, the top five (5) will be recognized.

He then concluded his lecture by expressing his thanks to everyone. The emcees complemented his lecture as “highly informative”. The hosts, too, opened the floor for the Q&A session of the workshop and let the participants address their confusion and questions regarding the said topic of the webinar.

Fulfilling their curiosities, the master of ceremonies called Mr. Matthew Cabural, granted Mr. Luis Lucas the certificate of recognition. It was followed by the closing remarks delivered by Mr. Nikko Endiafe, and the second day of JourKNOW! The workshop formally ended as the emcees shared their evaluation form and asked the attendees to open their cameras for a photo opportunity.

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