Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello and welcome to the course. This is sports writing one a one. The basics. And my name is Nicky Parsons. I'll be your instructor for the skill share course. So my background in sports I'm a pundit on the local TV chat show here in Barcelona, the week in football, where we talk about our local teams, which means Barcelona, Gerona on Espanol. I also participate on the 90 minute football vlogs on YouTube. We have over 70,000 subscribers. I'm basically we do a little of logs from inside the stadium s so you get a fan's point of view off the match, which is really fun. And, of course, any excuse to go to camp no is definitely up my street. But of course I have a very strong background in sports writing. I'm the editor and senior sports writer at Lonegan News UK. I also contribute as a freelance writes it to its round, and it's whites and other sports things. On top of this is I have a mobile app here in Barcelona where we help people find a bar to watch football. So what are we gonna talk about in this course? First, I'll introduce you to the key concept off the inverted pyramid, a concept that's important not just in writing match reports, but Olson writing features in writing, press releases and many other types of writing. We'll discuss what it takes to write an attractive headline that readers will want to click on, as well as how to find exciting but legal pictures to include with your articles. Finally, we'll dive into how to attribute sources and quotes in your articles, as well as highlights some of the key grammatical topics relating with these. So that's end. Let's dive in.
2. Introduction to the inverted pyramid: in this lesson. We're gonna talk about the inverted pyramid. What it is, Why do we use it This kind of stuff. So first off, what is the inverted pyramid essentially is just a metaphor used by journalists, and it helps us to illustrate how information in the text should be structured and prioritized in that text. For example, in a news article, it's very common to use this kind of structure in a news piece, but also in a bloke in an editorial piece in a match report. We use it quite often as well, and the idea is that you would present the most important information in the beginning of your article on the least important information at the end of your article. So what are the benefits to using this technique? Well, the benefits of using this technique for us are really fourfold. The first benefit is that readers can quickly assess whether they want to read your entire article. The second is that readers can stop reading at any point, but they still come away with the main point of your article. Thirdly, by starting with your conclusion, the first few sentences on your Web page will contain most of your relevant keywords, and this boosts your S E O. Search and optimization is very important. And we will talk about that a little bit later in the course and finally by front, loading each paragraph, you allow your readers to skim through the first sentences of every paragraph to get a quick overview of your entire article. In the next lesson, we're gonna break down an example of exactly how to use the inverted pyramid in your own writing.
3. How to use the inverted pyramid?: Now that we know what the inverted pyramid is, let's try to nail down a little bit more concretely, what an ideal structure could be. So take a press release. For example. This could be a type of writing. You'll need to know if you're involved with any club, sport or league that has any type of news or event they want to share so many times they'll release a press release. So how would a structure of a press release be? Well, the introductory paragraph should contain the key information you wish to share. Answering the five W's who, what, where, when and why. Sometimes you can even hear the plus h plus how they could have the five W's plus hates. You might have heard this expression. The following paragraph should contain any additional information to support the introduction. Expanding on the information already provided. Follow this with a quotation from the organization Club League, etcetera, toe Axum credibility to the story and make it more personal. Then I would provide more detail to explain the content of this quotation. You can continue this article by doing additional quotes at this time. If you want, I would add an additional quote. If you want to further expand on the themes or ideas you've already mentioned in the article, and then you would want to conclude the press release with an additional comment detail ing any information that you might have left out or summarizing what has already being presented. This is especially crucial for events, So basically, this is your last impression or the readers the last impression of the release. Depending on the relevance at the very bottom here, you might want to include an optional bio links to other news stories that could be interesting to the reader. This kind of stuff, really. Um, really not important stuff for the article, but you could add it there at the bottom.
4. Critical analysis - How will does this article apply the theory?: in this lesson, we're gonna read through an article and see how well it applies the inverted pyramid. So we've just gone to the guardian dot com and picked on regular match report from from this week. So something from Serie A, Not my personal level of expertise. Serie A football. So if I pronounce some names wrong, well, we're reading. Please forgive me. So let's take a look at how well this article applies. Inverted Pyramid. First off from the title, we've got Gonzalo Higuain again, the defining figure in your Aventis Napoli rivalry. So just from the headline, we get an idea of what this article should be about. It should be a match report between you, Aventis and Napoli and looks like the most important person on the pitch was Gonzalo Higuain. So let's take a read event is his first home game of the new season had already kicked off . By the time Giorgio Chiellini arrived behind the dugout at the Allianz Stadium, he raised an arm to acknowledge supporters singing his name, but needed both hands on his crutches as he lowered himself into his seat, trying not to place too much weight on a heavily strapped right knee. Okay, so just from this first paragraph, what main fax have we been able to ascertain? What's the who the what the where the when. Okay, so we know this is you. Vent is his first home game of the season has just kicked back off again. And although the headline says that Gonzalo Higuain is really gonna be the key person in this in this article in this match actually haven't mentioned him yet. We've actually just mentioned the captain. We've mentioned Killeen e so clearly this person is gonna have an impact in the article in the much, but it hasn't really been expressed exactly how much yet. But clearly it's his absence, which is somehow felt in terms of the where we know it was a home much because it was at the Allianz Stadium. So let's continue reading and see if the second paragraph can shed some more light on the missing double use and hate. Cellini had ruptured his cruciate ligament in training one day before a painful personal setback on a potential catastrophe for his team. The Aventis captain is expected to be out of action for at least the next five months. For a 35 year old footballer, such injuries can curtail a career. Okay, so there were starting to understand a little bit more. Why it's start off this article with Killeen E. So he's obviously an older footballer. The fact that he's injured might mean potentially. He never recovers enough to play for a top team like Aventis might end up being transferred to China and six months. You never know how it's going to go. And also, if you didn't know very well, Syria, you now know that he's the captain of the team. So really, it's someone who's who's who's experience is gonna be missed in this game. His absence from the starting 11 to face Napoli on Saturday, it was already a major setback. These are the champions closest rivals, the team that finished as runners up in three of the past four seasons. You, Aventis, were still adjusting toe life under a new manager, Maurizio Sat. Sorry, who was unable to take up his own place on the touchline after contracting pneumonia in preseason. So there you go, already understanding that not only is the captain not there, but the coach isn't there, So it kind of seems like they're very impaired for this game. And, yeah, you noticed that the captain's experiences, even Mawr gonna be felt. So now probably we're going to start getting into the more meat of this article. I assume now it's gonna transition a bit more into some of the match details. The much report on the second phase of really more detail. Now it's kind of hooked us in to the relevance, the can of the background of this match. And now it's time to get to the meat, right? It ought to have been a vulnerable moment for Italian football's old lady, but sometimes the Vecchia signora looks an awful lot like the Roman goddess Fortuna. The original Lady Luck event US opened the scoring in the 16th minute through summer recruit Danilo, who had only stepped on the pitch moments earlier as a replacement for the injured Matea Dis Aegaleo. Of course, the goal was not all down to chance. Napoli were negligent, conceding from their own corner. Lorenzo eggs, Cygnus shot was blocked by Leonardo Boone. Leonardo Bonucci and his teammates were too slow to react as Danila released Douglas Costa on the counter before arriving in the penalty box to convert the return pass. He had been on the pitch for 29 seconds in this, his event to stay. BJU events was supposed to be a strength for Napoli this season after they signed Costas Manolas to play alongside Kala Do Cooley Bali at centre back. Yet the latter player was left fought footed as Gonzalo Higuain made it 20 with a sharp turn a Finnish moments later, the game looked to be up when Cristiano Ronaldo added 1/3 shortly before the hour mark. Instead, Napoli would drag themselves back level during a remarkable 15 minute burst, then throw all their hard work away. An injury time. Manolas headed in from a free kick before curving. Lozano, making his own debut as a second half substitute, slotted home from a Jose Chi Han cross. Carlo Ancelotti raised both eyebrows as Giovanni di Lorenzo arrived at the back post on another set piece. Suddenly the score was 33 The comeback narrative was laced with juicy subplots. Killeen ease replacement. The 75 million euros summer signing Matisse derelict had endured a calamitous debut, losing his man on all three of Napoli's goals. We can be lenient in our judgments of a 20 year old offender playing in a new team and an unfamiliar league. While still acknowledging that the captain is going to be missed. You vase best player was he Duane, a defining figure in the recent rivalry between these two clubs. Saris first title challenge with Napoli, was built on the striker's record breaking 2015 16 campaign before the Argentinian joined the Beyond Canary. The goals he scored over the next two seasons were crucial to keeping the Scudetto out of his former managers hands. Now their fates are once again intertwined. Few people expected hig Wayne to have a rolling Aventis following disappointing loans, Bells and the Land and Chelsea. Yet he started at center forward on Saturday, just as he had in the opening weekend. Even before scoring, he had created problems for Cooley Valley with intelligent movement outside the penalty books, he teed up Sammy Kedra for a golden chance that went begging at 20 as well. At one point, he Dwayne was applauded even for a mist pass because fans recognized his intent. A loud ovation was offered when he came off in the 76th minute. The Lorenzo's equaliser arrived soon after, but there was further twist yet to come an injury time. Aventis won a free kick 40 yards from goal. Their own players barely reacted as Miralem Pjanic heaved a last hopeful bull into the Napoli box. Cooley Valley, however, attacked it decisively at the near post, the bull court fission and flew into the top corner of the net. And now we see a little bit of a tweet here. It was a freakish mistake that capped a night to forget for a player who is known the very different emotion of scoring a 180th minute winner for his own team at the Allianz Stadium . Coolly Valley was serious best center back last season, but this was an occasion when, with Collini watching from the stands, both teams forgot how to defend. The event is Captain came down on his crutches to console his opponent after the final whistle, a show of empathy from one great player to another, and here we can see that we're about to switch, were about to switch again, another section of the inverted pyramid cause we're about to receive our first quote. So we've had the main fax. They hooked us into this article. They gave us some background. So why it's important. And then they gave us all this juicy detail of the match. Was actually was quite a long article, right? Probably sounded a long time of me talking, but it was quite an interesting much right. It was a lot of back and forth. There was a comeback. There was a late goal. There's a lot of stuff to talk about, and now we're going to go kind of off into lesser interesting detail. So let's see what quote we have here. I used to hate him. Confess sorrys number two, Giovanni Mart, Marta Scale. Oh, because playing against us, he was a real ball buster. But I have got to know an extraordinary lad after the injury, he was the one who gave us courage event. Us will need more than just that to win 1/9 consecutive scudetto. They can draw plenty of encouragement from an early win over direct rival. But for a team that only conceded 13 goals at home last season to ship three in their first game without Collini ought to set alarm bells ringing as well. There is little that feels settled about a team whose new manager has thus far being forced to work at arm's length. With Antonio contest enter sitting alongside them at the top and Napoli boasting plenty of room for growth, There isn't much that feels unfamiliar yet. Okay, so in this article, we didn't really have that much quotes, right? So you could say, Oh, maybe there wasn't that much to say or the fact that the coach was injured. Maybe the second in command didn't really say anything particularly juicy after the match. There was no crazy decision where people were questioning things and not that much, really to add to the article, after all, had so much, much detail. This really didn't need any quotes to kind of bring that much more to the article. You already had the emotion in the background, so it has a quote, but just very, very little, really, just the one. And then it goes back into this more detail because it starts kind of building up the rest of the season because it's such an early match was not really possible to make too much analysis. So it's kind of just setting up. We're going to see what's coming next, right? And then something the guardian really likes to do is in this kind of end when it starts giving additional comments, optional bios really for for this purple section additional comments. They always love to kind of give some key talking points for other matches or other things happening, and that's kind of how they they add this extra content in there. And it really directs you to read other articles to stay on their side and kind of give additional value. So you've already read the article in this, But maybe you won't have a bit more background on the league as a whole, so you can see all these talking points down here. Then they even add you some table with what's the status on serious So far? Seacon. See, at this current stage that were analyzing, it's very early in the season and then, of course, you have comments and things like that. But really they just have this additional comments off other things in league Andi, try and add in any other value in there that might keep you on this side or something like that. They don't give you any optional bios, but they got plenty of of cool content down here at the bottom to keep you interested. So if we're looking at how well they've applied the inverted pyramid, I say they pretty much applied all the principles that they needed to do. They give you quite a instance of hook there. In the beginning, they potentially could have got to the article even faster. But it's so early in the season that there's not that much to talk about, other than the fact that this gentleman is injured, right? So they just kind of want to give you that one tidbit and then get to the much the magic. It was so much going on that they didn't really have to add a lot of length to this article with additional quotes or more relevance in the league, because there was just so much to talk about. And it was very interesting to read that article and and you kind of felt like you were there and the match. You could imagine them going three nil up and then having a comeback and then throwing it away at the end. So so It was really interesting quotes. It had some, but it didn't need a lot of detail on then, of course, additional comments. So I hope you found this lesson interesting. I think it's really important to see that there's theory of a high end sports writing this theory of the inverted pyramid, but that it has real life applications and how you apply it to an article, even though you might stop thinking about the inverted pyramid as you get further in your career, because it kind of just comes automatically. Okay. But as we're really beginning, it's really good to understand this theory of why do we lay out articles the way we do so that readers stay engaged the whole time, or at least get the full picture as soon as possible in case they click away to other articles in our sight
5. How to write attractive headlines?: Did you know that for every eight out of 10 people that read a headline, only two out of 10 people actually click on that headline? Writing headlines can be difficult, especially depending on the type of sports article you write. For example, if you're writing a top 10 Premier League goals last season article, you're probably gonna get a lot of clicks, and that's because lists tend to do really well. So what happens if you are writing a MASH report for a nil Nil? Goaless draw practice Preseason match? How can you get people excited about your content while still accurately reflecting the content you're going to provide them? It could be really challenging, but we know writing headlines is so important, so you can't just slap on thoughtlessly headline at the end of the article. You need to really think about it. You really want people to read and enjoy your content, so make sure you write a headline that will attract them there. Your articles, traffic convey vary upto 500% depending on your headline. So how can we generate attractive headlines? We're gonna talk about some of the best practices and these air specific to sports writing . Some overlap with recommendations for other types of written content, but in my mind, these are the best ones for sports. So number one, a line headline and content they should be common sense, right? It's all about trying to sum up. What is this key message of your article? Avoid click bait and tell people what your article is really about. Otherwise, they're gonna bounce right off your blog's Scient, etcetera, and this will harm us CEO Next one. Readers tend to absorb the 1st 3 words on the last three words of a headline. Keeping a headline No longer than six words will help readers easily process it and reduce the interaction cost involved in grasping the meaning. Sometimes a six word headline is just not gonna cut it. So in that case, just follow this third rule, which is Don't make your headline too long. If you want your headline to perform well, consider the following for English language articles. It should be between 60 to 100 characters on a max of 16 to 18 words. Long number four optimized for search engines. This is critical. Make sure your title displays nicely in search engines. Google typically displays the 1st 50 to 60 characters of a title. Paige. If you keep your titles under 60 characters, you can expect about 90% of your titles to display properly. There's no exact character limit because characters convey Aryan wits on ghouls display titles max out currently at 600 pixels. So, for example, in the 1st 2 results, we have a title that's too long. That's why you have these three dots at the end of the title. They have too long of a title for Google, while in the third the title actually was a pretty good size. But the fact that the publication the week UK came into, it means that you can read the entire size of the title. So if you're not sure if you're publications gonna do this to you or not, you could just do a quick Google search of any of the articles currently on their site and see what pops up used. Full names, used the entire player or club name instead of Ronaldo. You should write Cristiano Ronaldo, depending on the type of publication you write for. This typically holds true for club names as well, so the Gunners should be Arsenal. Of course, if you're riding on a fan site purely for Arsenal fans, you can understand your audience and right in their terms. That's okay. But don't forget, people will find you on the search engines as well on. It's much more likely they'll find you through the search engines if you're using the rial club name. The only exception to this rule is if you have a player who goes by another name more commonly than his real name, for example, Ronaldhino. But it has to be the rial way people call that player, and not just a nickname. So even though we often refer to Cristiano, Ronaldo is just Ronaldo. He has a full name that we use, you know, for example, in this case, ingrown adios case. We don't go around calling him Ronaldo Assis Moreira, but that doesn't really roll off the tongue anyway. But that's not how we refer to him in articles or in real life, negative superlatives get more clicks, they work best. So what is the superlative? It's an adverb or objective relating to a comparison denoting some kind of extreme level, so you could say always or angriest, like the top level that you could possibly be of something if it's still not clear. Don't worry. I've provided some links in the resource is of this lesson, so you can go ahead and quick bows and learn a bit more about superlatives, what they are and how to use them. So a study from out brain dot com found that headlines with positive superlatives, for example, always or best performed 29% worse than headlines with negative superlatives such as never or worst thes performed 30% better. I'm not trying to tell you to be negative in your articles, but I am telling you to see if you can slip in a negative superlative there somewhere because your article's gonna get more clicks bringing emotion into it. A lot of sports fans want to live the passion, for example, writing a match report isn't so much about listing the facts. It's about transporting the audience to the stadium, letting them know how. After the first goal, the crowd went silent and the tension was palpable in the air. They want to know the fax, but they also want to be entertained. So If you could bring this elements your headlines, people will love to click on your articles. So in summary, these tips align your headline and content. Focus on these first and last three words. Manage your headline length and optimized for search engines. Use names wisely. Try and incorporate some kind of negative superlative and bring emotion into it. There might be more tips than just the seven, but in my view, for sports writing. If you can memorize or incorporate as often as possible these seven tips into your articles or into your headlines, then you're for sure going to be able to write engaging attractive headlines that readers will want to click on.
6. How to find great images? - Part 1: All right. Hello, everyone. Today we're here with Daniel Mormon. I'm gonna throw it right to you, Daniel, if you could just tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do for a living . Ah, Heinicke s so Yeah, my main job. I consider myself a communicator because I used all kinds of tools toe to communicate. Basically, my main job, my daily, um, task is basically working for ah company in the marketing department. I do all kinds of video campaign designing. Ah, lot of photography as well. Andi production basically off publicity campaigns. Okay. And of course, I saw a side of it because I'm I'm Freeland. I do workers. Ah, as a photographer. Quite a lot. I'm not lucky enough to say that. It's It's my main job yet, but we're underway. Toe. So what types of sporting events have you worked as a photographer? Asked Well, from really small ones to quite big ones, my main sport is probably because this is the background which I had for practicing was athletics. So I started covering small races that could be held a town and probably just as an amateur . But you do have to still do those things. Teoh. Get Teoh big events on then I've done all kinds of sports because, ah, I worked, for example, of the Tarragona Mediterranean Games, where your work as a photographer, but you don't really know what sport they're gonna push you into. So it might be Olympic shooting. It might be swimming. You don't know it's, but it's fun to try a new sports in an event of this kind. So the biggest a vendor I have been is in my main sport, which is athletics and being too one world championship and one European championships. And that must be in particularly interesting in the Athletics because it sounds like it's one thing. But yet so many different things do you have, like, already in mind, the specific shot you try and capture for each different sport within our fled things like , How do you approach that? Yeah, I mean, you do get to practice and and it's it's very nice of this board that it's a lot of sports in one, Um, and the thing is different to other sports when maybe you could say that football is a bit unexpected because you don't know the movement. If you're photographing a race, you know that they're gonna go around the track if you're photographing a jump so you can more or less predicted. But then, of course, you work with your style. You improvise on. Do you try to get a different shot, especially between different levels? Because it's not the same thing. Photography thing. A 16 year old kid who nationally could be very good to photography thing. Ah, world champion in which ever been Yeah. And how did you get into sports photography? Well, basically, I got my camera and got out. It is, uh I I wouldn't know exactly how I decided to start. Ah, camera fell into my hands because of my studies. And so I decided that well, it was, ah, maybe a good idea to take it to some racers or to an amateur football match and take a few shots on day after some time, you start seeing that I'm maybe you no doubt about it. Did you start sharing them in social media and so on? Do you get a bit of attention? But it's still very difficult. Teoh make money out of it. So basically what I started doing was contacting all kinds of media, big and small, who could be interested in the photos I had taken. I tried Teoh to go to a particular event where something could happen. Like I remember. Especially first time I I've got into into selling the photos was a new attempt for ah world record in 5000 meters in Barcelona on actually, the world record didn't happen. But meanwhile, there was other. Are the events going on? And there was some interesting news on, of course, because it hadn't captured such Midi attic attention. I was able to sell those photos. Teoh um, media specialized in an athletic and so is maybe just to get a bit more insight into how ah , freelance sports term for works is that then the majority of what you do is just take photos, be wherever you want to be, and then try and contact these media outlets to do it. Or do you actually go through an agency or how is it working? I guess now, yeah, it's it's changed. I mean, that's how I started, and it's probably the only way to do it or or the logical way to do it. If is getting the camera taking some shots, and most of the time you're not going to sell any photos. And you've waited No wasted. But you've used up your money with your petrol to drive there in your time. But it is an investment if you look at the some way right now, I don't usually go to events if I'm not getting called previously, but because that that tried to has changed. So I'm still Freeland. Ah, but you get to work regularly for the same company. So one particular company, you know, they will call you for a cycling event on DA. Another company will call you, maybe for football macho or an athletics. And so you know that more or less every media counter and you, for one thing. Ah, but, um, and most of the cases right now Ah, it's ah, company A media, which gets me the accreditation for that particular activity. Okay, interesting. So maybe transitioning a bit more into, uh, for the course for the students and sports writing topics. Do you have any recommended site for the students to visit when they're trying to find pictures for their articles. I know obviously their sites like Picks of May and all these kind of things for generic stock photos. But more specifically, which sports photos? Well, it it's it's hard to say. I mean, if you want to get out of picture of, ah, off on important to bend, let's say a first division match or more or less, of professional sports event. There's not really a legal way. Thio Thio get their photo for free. You're not in any right to use the the image someone else has taken without paying him. Obviously, there's there's, there's other ways, and sadly as well we know that a lot of people do it up me, myself. I've had to chase media that have, uh, without permission, used my photographer photographs. So right now, maybe what I would recommend is if, ah, they could. Sometimes the big organizations like International Federation or the league offers a certain amount of images free to use if you register as ah as a media. So my recommendation would be if I want to talk about ah, a swimming event. Ah, Spanish championship swimming event. Look, if the Spanish Federation off swimming offers some images four media use because they're probably the case, there would be that they have paid a photographer to take those images with the right to offer them open to editorial use. Ah, that will be the biggest chance to it. If not maybe, Ah, and that's just ah, recommendation That could be with curious would be maybe look for a photographer. The hat that has bean there. A professional photographer on INSTAGRAM, for example of the contact site on DNA. Maybe just say, Hey, I'm writing for this blawg. Um, we know, uh, generating any revenue at the moment. Would you be so kind to lenders? One image for this article. Ah, obviously, Ah, you will say your name. Well, thank you for the shot, but right now we haven't got any income. So I hope you can understand that way we not able to pay you anything. I think it if you get in a friendly way with someone who has done their job and probably got paid by someone else Ah, they won't mind. In offering an image, what really hurts is more is a photography. It's finding that your photo has started being used by someone that hasn't paid for it. So we were We know the media market on. We know that things are are not easy at the moment. So probably if someone arrived to me that way. Um, ask asking for a photo I've got and the arguments that correctly, I wouldn't mind giving it, and I'm sure a lot of photographers around wouldn't mind.
7. How to find great images? - Part 2: maybe actually staying on this topic because I think it is interesting. What? Do you have any idea what a typical photo we should pay for one off kind of match report photo or something like that? Was it really completely, very depending on the team because of a certain teams and much gonna be much more viral than others? Let's say, Uh huh. Well, uh, there was ah project. Bye bye on association in Barcelona, which they released, I think it was in 2010. They're released, like a sort of, um, tariffs that you should pay to a photographer. And that would be right. There was actually on appeal by, um, some jury in Spain which this allowed and made it to the association pay a fine because it attended against the ah commercial competition law. Something like that. So So, really, this is no technical price. I think it It's small question of ah, dignity. Um, if, as I said before, you can understand that a small maybe a corn paid the same as, ah as a big media because they're not reaching the same people. So usually photographers will know what to ask for defending on the reach of the Let's say newspaper, for example, it obviously it's not the same Ah regional newspaper than, Ah, a national newspaper if you'd have to ask me, but I might be getting in a mess. I don't know why I may be put for one photo of ah, off a small event that you need to cover particular with that Ah, sports person in it. I wouldn't pay. I wouldn't sell for less than 30 or 40 years, that single photo. But of course, there's other ways. And because you could always agree like, Okay, um, we're gonna pay you for covering the whole event. And we can have I don't know, maybe 2030 40 images. Depends on, of course, the way you want to inform about that event. Usually, photographers value more the fact of being paid before going to an event that and rather buying it afterwards. So buying a single photo can look quite expensive. But you have Teoh. You'd have to think as well. Which is the value as as the press writer. What which value would you put to the work you've done on Betsy? How many hours they difficulty for in best Teoh Get down to make that photo. Yeah, So, um, I think this is interesting, but I would also like to talk. Talk about maybe the photo rights because we often hear these terms of royalty free and great of Coleman's. You just explain this a little bit. What is difference between these? And if there's any other terms we should be aware off, Um, the royalty free image would be an image which has ah, copyright. By copyright, I mean an intellectual property of someone, but is ah open to to use without charge without paying because the author, or or or the media which has paid for it, is offering in May, we could find royalty for you. Photography's maybe in a national library. Some something like that. Um then is as I was saying, there's the intellectual property. 11 thing is, the the intellectual property is always gonna be off the photographer. Ah, And then there's the right of use. When I worked for an agency or immediate that pays me. Ah, what they're actually buying is the right off use off that image. Ah, that right of use could be as we were also saying before, for a single image for Ah Gallery of 10 20 images that comes in agreement in the specific contract course that contract print can have Ah ah limits in the exploitation off the these image so it could be exclusive to them. It means if someone else comes and wants to buy the same image, they I can tell it to them because Dave Port the right of used to right of exploitation off that particular minutes. But of course, that is more expensive than buying the non exclusive use on DA. Lastly, I think it's important to know the the image right of ah person. Ah itself is like okay, lets him, I don't know, I take a shot off Messi. Um, obviously I can use that photo of Messi for editorial used for news and, um for social media and that kind of thing. But I wouldn't be able to make him a publicity panel with Messi's image because, um, I he's got that image right and it belongs to him and he decides who he sold it to, and as we know, he's told, Thio added. Us know whoever pays and they pay quite a lot of money to have the messes exclusive image. So one thing is the editorial use and on the other thing would be the image right off of a person, as there are, um, and so if we have the correct licence for the photo that we still need to credit photographer and this is probably best expressed, need do we need to because it's always nice to. But do we need to? Um, well, it depends on the particular license, because in fact, there is in Creative Commons. There's loads of different, um, kinds of, ah variations to it, but basically we're moving between commercial use and non commercial use. Most creative Commons are non commercial, so you could use it for an artistic use. So as long as you don't win money out of it, you could use it. And then sometimes it's more specific that it says ah non attribution needed. But it's very unusual. I mean, it's quite easy to to quote the author of a photo. So, um, unless you've got some technical limitation to it, I don't know, have you putting it in a video end up video has no text to it. no credit, so it's always as you said, I think it's a nice thing to do. It doesn't bring any more effort on unless the license says that it's not necessary. It should always be done. And if we're not sure, just do it. So is there any final kind of comment? Anything else that we didn't talk about? That you think a sports writer should know when it comes to photography? Well, ah, I'd say that Be aware of the importance off often Image, as just we were saying before, is like maybe could be more important than the headline itself could be the photography. So if you value as a journalist, as a journalist, I mean someone who's writing your work, you should always respect. Others work. So if you know, going to use an image, your message is probably not gonna be so powerful. Although text can be really powerful, of course. But it's it is always, ah, more attractive way to reach the public at least quicker. So my my advice would be to to value the image as, ah, as a tool, ondas the person who's being able to produce that tool so value his work, especially economically. Of course. Well, thank you so much for your time down. You really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Bye bye.
8. How to find & use quotes?: in this lesson, we're gonna talk about the importance of correctly attributing your sources and have to get quotes. Fear story, even if you don't have contacts in the world of sports right now. So first off, if you don't know the source of the information you want to include in your article, don't include it. You need to be credible as a writer if you've learned this information from another article or publication. But you don't know that writers source of information or you don't trust that writer source of information don't include it, saying things like media reports or sources say this isn't really specific enough. And your writing is a direct reflection of your credibility and trustworthiness as a writer . The other good reason to correctly attribute your source is, of course, so you don't get accused plagiarism. This is a big problem in the world journalism on writing in general. So how can we correctly attribute the source in your article? Here are two easy rules to follow, So first, whenever a publication is named in an article, it must have its full name in italics. In our example weaken see according to the sun and not any of these other variations off that phrase. The exception is the official club. Websites do not need to be italicized, rather just referred to as the club's official website. So in this example, we have Manchester United have agreed to sell Christiano Ronaldo to Rome Madrid for £80 million according to a statement on the club's official website. You can see there you don't need to a Callous Eyes Club's official website. The second rule is a program or feature by that publication should be in single quotes and also if a word is apostrophe ized than the apostrophe and letters there after should also be italicized along with the source itself. So in our example, here we have on BBC's match of the day Match of the day is the TV programmes abouts in single quotes and BBC is the publication the broadcaster. That's why that is in italics now that we have some of the basics covered when it comes to attributing sources, let's of more in detail at how to attribute the quote. Quotes are a key part to any article. They help bring some credibility to your story and also make it more personal. The key to quote is to attribute and when in doubt, to attribute air on the side of caution here, we're going to start by reviewing quite simply, what are the different types of attribution and this information is relevant in all types of journalism, not just sports journalism. So well, actually look at some examples from some other styles of writing. So what are the different types of attribution? There are four different types of attribution on the record on background, on deep background and off the record. Probably you've heard off the record from all kinds of movies. So the 1st 1 on the record This means that all statements are directly quotable and attributes herbal by name and title to the person making a statement. This is the most valuable type of attribution. So in our example here, the US has no plans to invade a run, said White House Press secretary Jim Smith. Another person's name is title on his specific quote. In our second example on background. This means that all statements are directly quotable but can be attributed buying name or specific title to the person commentating. So in this example, that same quote from before would say the U. S. Has no plans to invade Iran. A White House spokesperson said. What? We don't know exactly who it is, but we're pretty sure it's a credible source. So obviously you can tell on the record vs on background. Why on the record is much more valuable? The third type of attribution is on deep background. This means anything that is said in the interview is usable, but not in a direct quotation and not for attribution so the reporter will write it in his own words. For example, invading Iran is not in the cards for the U. S. And the final kind. Off the record. This information is for the reporters use only and is not to be published. The information also is not to be taken to another source in hopes of getting confirmation . So obviously I have no example here. Great. Now we have the basics of attribution down the most valuable to us is usually on the record statements because we can easily include them in our articles. Most sports writers won't get so lucky as to interview a world class player themselves. So how can you get a good quote for your article. Well, there is an exception to this attribution Rule. And that is if you're reporting on a wire story about a public event. So, for example, ah, speech in a public area or a press conference. And obviously most big sports matches will have a pre and post match press conference, so there's plenty of opportunities for you to find a quote for your story. In these cases, we can reasonably expect that the wire service will reliably convey the quote. But of course, if you could never checked the video or the audio, that would be ideal. I also suggest following clubs you want to write about on Twitter because typically, the live tweet comments from the players or manager before and after the game. So that's also a great source of information for you, because in your article you can actually link to that specific tweet is really nice for attribution. So in this lesson, we've covered the importance of attributing your sorts how to do that and how to find quotes for your article without any contacts in sports needed. In the next lesson, we're gonna focus more on the mechanics of quoting, and that means you better get your Grammer hats ready
9. Understanding the mechanics of quoting: now that we have some good quotes to include in article from a grammatical standpoint, how do we include them? It's time to review the grammatical structure of quotations from where to place the quotations within the article. Where to place commas. Other punctuation on when you can include additional information within the quotes, let's get started. The first line of speech and any quote must be directly attributed to the speaker on that same line and all subsequent lines do not need any attribution. So, for example, I believe I am the best in the world, said Lehmann. I've done so much over my career, and not many people who are supposed to be better than me can say the same and not how we see in the example below with the Coghlan's Next, when someone's quotes are separated by your own words, you must then ensure the first line of the next set of quotes is again attributed to the speaker. So, for example, yes began beneath us. I believe Jamie Carragher to be a lot like Franco Baresi. They both have much elegance on the bowl, and, of course, both have won many titles. The comparisons do not end there as the Nida's went on to compare the Reds vice captain to the most unexpected of political figures, he continued, I also believe character to be much like Nelson Mandela, so we can see her any the example that the 1st 2 lines have Benitez direct quote. But then in the middle, the writer has kind of summarized some other things that many testes said. So he's put kind of words and Benitez's mouth here. So that's why it this is clearly not a quote. But then, on the fourth line, he says, he continued, called it. So there he's going ahead and saying again, This is a quote that is attributed to Benitez. We can also see here kind of another rule. So I would say Rule 2.1. And here, which is when attributing a quote to the speaker before the quote itself. You should punctuate with a colon as opposed to a comma. So here again you see online four, he continued. Colon, it's not comma. This is Ah, very tricky. One. People get wrong a lot of the time. The third rule, when one person's quotes spread over several lines. You must not close the quotation marks at the end of any other line other than the first and the last. So in our example here we have a comment from Pillay. So, Pele said, I believe in one will win the World Cup. They have the best players in the world. Frank Lampard is the most skilful midfielder off his generation, and you can see in these three lines that at the end of the 1st 2 they don't close the quotations because this quote continues over all three lines. So in the example below, where you see the quotes on the end, that is incorrect. Rule number four always used double quotes for speech but otherwise use single quotes. This includes noting sarcasm, nicknames and also speech within speech. So, looking at those examples with sarcasm on, of course, that goal would have won them the game or nicknames. Now many are wondering if the Big Four have become a Big Five, and then speech within speech is pretty obvious. So and then I thought to myself, What am I doing here? And that's when the boss said to me, We've got to let you go and now here I AM Rule five when quoting full sentences. All speech punctuation must appear within quotes. So I believe we deserved to win this match, said Guardiola. You can see here how the comma is inside the quotations Rule six. When single words or short phrases are quoted from somebody, there needn't be any punctuation within them, but they must still be double quotes and not single. So, for example, Sir Alex described the tackle us horrific and completely uncalled for before suggesting that he would like to see Poet says, Leave the Premier League. So this horrific and completely called for is not a complete sentence. It's just a small phrase. Rule seven. Also, when single quotes are used, punctuation should be outside the quotes unless it is speech within speech. So when referring to Pizza Gate, Ashley Cole denied any involvement whatsoever. But then, of course, we have the exception for speech within a speech. As you see in the below example, Rule number eight, when quoting someone speech who was used very poor grammar or missed outwards from a sentence, you must add to or alter their words using square brackets and also remove this filler content to make coherent written sense of their statement. I believe we'll win the league and that this result has no bearing on that. It was a tough game, and the lack of players up front made the game difficult for us to create chances and not the original, which kind of has a bit of Fila content and maybe you wouldn't understand it reading out of context. So not. I believe we win the league, you know, because this has no bearing on that. It was a tough game and the lack of players in the front made difficult for us to create chances in the end of the pitch. So in the first you can see that he's removed a little bit of this content because it wasn't necessary in order to convey the real point that this person was trying to make and also he's included result on the game just to make it clearer. But because he's kind of putting words in this person's mouth, he does have to include it in square brackets. It's very clear that maybe this isn't exactly what this person said, but this is what they meant as important to note that when you are translating a quote from a foreign language into English. You do this quite a lot, and I'm sure, and the other way around us will rule number nine. When quoting speech in which someone or something's name is mentioned that is not previously being referenced in the article, you must put the unmentioned part in square brackets accordingly. So, for example, if this is the first sentence where we're talking about Wesley Schneider, we're gonna go ahead and put his first name in square brackets that it's very clear to everyone who we are talking about and similarly with club names and then another section of this rule. Rule 9.1, if you will, Is that any previously unspecified but significant information you should also put in square brackets. So, for example, instead off I have spoken with John Laporta and everything is under control because maybe the reader doesn't really understand who this person is. In the context of this quote, you want to say I have spoken with President John Laporta. It provides significant value to the reader to include this information in square brackets . Okay, we covered a lot of grammar in this lesson. I hope your head doesn't hurt too much. The key to using these rules correctly is practice, and I'll provide you a grammatical cheat sheet. In the resource is of this lesson that you can use as a reference when you're riding. Don't be afraid to come back to it often. I still do, because when I'm proof reading my own articles, this stuff can be confusing. But I hope you have your doubts cleared up and that now, when you include quotes in your articles, you feel confident.
10. Conclusion & Key takeaways: great job. With everything you learned in this course, Not only do you know how to attribute sources and quotes correctly in your articles, you also know how to write an attractive headline. How to find and incorporate photos and your articles, as well as one of the key concepts in sports writing the inverted pyramid. I also just want to thank you for taking this course. I really appreciate it, and I hope to see you on another skill share course very soon.
Nikki Parsons, Marketing Director
