Earlier sports journalism used to be looked down upon as not being serious enough. But in recent times as sport grew in wealth, power and influence this particular field of journalism has also grown in importance. This has made the job of a sports writer one of the most lucrative jobs.

A sports writer is a journalist or writer dedicated solely to covering sporting events.  It goes without saying that a sports writer must be a sports enthusiast and should have a thorough knowledge about the rules and regulations of as many sports as possible. But this is not enough to make you prosper as a sports writer.  Some of the pre-requirements of the job are:

Qualifications

To be a sports writer you need to have a degree in journalism or English and you should be proficient in the language you intend to write in. Also knowledge of short-hand writing and transcription is always helpful.

Flair for writing

Earlier sports writing used to be a written commentary of the game. But with television invading our drawing rooms that style has become redundant. Today it is all about presenting the events in as interesting a manner as possible. This includes analysis of the game instead of plain stating of facts. Your match report can also be interspersed with funny anecdotes, personal opinions of former as well as present players. But you cannot leave out relevant details such as who won, which player stood out (in case of a team game), the final score etc. For all these you need to be a good writer more than anything else.

Thirst for knowledge

To be a journalist you need to be an avid reader. This is no different for sports writers. You need to be aware of all sporting events, past and present. You need to brush up your knowledge regarding historical facts as well as famous players. Also works of famous sports writers need to be followed. This calls for reading not just newspapers or journals but literary works by sporting legends.  You need not restrict yourself to sports related subjects only. Knowledge in any form and on any subject comes in handy in any field of journalism. So be prepared to devour anything and everything you can lay your hands on.

If you possess the above mentioned qualities sports journalism is definitely your calling. Start off with writing for a local newspaper covering local sporting events. This would provide you experience and exposure which would help you to move on to bigger things.

I write, talk, eat, drink and dream only about diseases, you all must be wondering why? Writing theme based articles on celebrity phobias, drug abuse, bipolar disorder, attention deficit disorder and diets is not only informative but extremely interesting. These articles bring into focus the fact that celebrities are also human and they are as much victims of stress as any other.

This is a time engaging project wherein I do a lot of in depth research to get to every nook and corner of the celebrities and their personal lives. It actually caught my interest when I got to know that almost all the famous faces are suffering from some kind of disease and disorder which made me put my heart and soul to this project. I flagged of my writing with various celebrities suffering from drug abuse and I was supposed to write about their struggle with this problem and their stay at rehabilitation centers. A sense of compassion and a need to know more drove the process to improve my writings day by day.

Research

As part of this piece of writing, research is a pre requisite and this is what I start my article with. Research plays a crucial role in writing about these celebrities because there is a need to come out with every minute detail so as to add excitement and readability in the article. If you are thinking that it’s all about copy and paste, then it’s time to revise your thoughts because the job of a copywriter is not only about this. Getting the desired information from one website is not possible and because of this several websites need to be consulted as a reference to write on celebrities.

Writing

Writing was a challenge for me. Making use of research and to frame information in your own words while keeping the interest intact is what a job of copywriter is. Initially it took me a lot of time to come out with something great but I am growing with the project. Learning is still on and I try my best not to get too influenced with the information available on the internet and write everything in my words so as to give it my touch which is important for any article. Framing sentences in your style is not easy at all and I saved all my rejected articles and improvised on them and I am still learning

Adding Quote’s and Sources

While writing on these celebrities with some high profile diseases, I am supposed to add quotes so as to give more credibility to the article and this is also informative for the readers. This also requires exhaustive research to look out for relevant quotes and add it in the article. For every copywriter, it is extremely important to mention the source so as to validate the quote.

After repeated mistakes, I am finding it more challenging and I learnt that it is important to be patient while doing research, you simply can’t give up. Effective and interesting writing, time management, right use of words and not to forget “no plagiarism” is what a good copywriter should adhere to.

Theme based article writing is a domain in its own right in content writing, they demand research, a need to read into the nuances of a subject and finally frame informative content.