Official Course Description

Introduction to Sports Writing and Reporting offers a semester-long course focusing on craft, practice, voice, interviewing, and story-telling skills, all grounded in real-world experience. We’ll be viewing our subject matter as a laboratory and lens through which to focus on the human experience. The course will include: Reading and discussion, on-the-ground reporting at local events, drawing out reticent interview subjects, narrative strategies, and drafting and revision as the foundation of serious sports writing and reporting.

Students will complete a series of smaller assignments- a reported column analysis and a personal essay among them- and produce one meaty feature that is developed over the course of the semester and is suitable for publication. This course will conclude with a group video broadcast project or podcast- essentially a “Semester (or Season) in Review” focusing on local/UNE sports.

“Student” Course Description

In this course, students learn the skills necessary to be a ruthless reporter. We learn how to exit our comfort zone in order to interview subjects, understand sports we have little knowledge about, and paint a picture of a certain group in our reports. Deadlines and due dates are of highest importance in this course, and they simulate the chaos and demand of a real newsroom. Copies must be clean and on time, which is an excellent skill to practice. There is a lot of adjusting you have to do as a new reporter, but each adjustment is for the better.