NBA NOTEBOOK: Oden Struggling to Stay Healthy
10/30/2008
I'm a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. I'm starting my first year at the Massachusetts Daily Collegian where I currently cover women's soccer. I'll sometimes do the occasional news article. Last year I wrote women's tennis and the track and field team.
However my young "journalism" career started in a high school near Chicago. I was on my high school newspaper for all four years and worked as the Sports Editor for two years. I originally wrote news articles before covering basketball, football and baseball for three years
I am also currently writing for hoops4life.com.
My favorite teams are the Chicago Bulls, Bears, and Cubs, but I'm not against the White Sox.
If you're looking to contact me, my email is ajmil0@student.umass.edu or you can add me on facebook.
http://www.melrosemaccontest.com/vote.php
PLEASE VOTE FOR No. 10 FOOTPLAY
240 days ago
You know what? You're 100 percent right. I guess I appreciate the edit this time. Haha.
444 days ago
Adam -
Great write on the all time NBA - I didn't catch that it was alternates and bench alone...I tweaked the article with some formatting and edited, then re-edited the headline----don't forget to add more tags in the future. If you don't, no one will and I would hope that an article like this one does not get tucked away in some corner...I'd prefer to see it on the front page, my friend.
what happened on your board down there? Use whatever spelling or diction that YOU are comfortable with - this is a fan site, not the NY Times and there are no set rules for relating to YOUR fan base. Every writer has his own, unique style of writing and reaching out to the reader...keep yours, yours - not someone elses
As a Graduate of Syracuse University I can tell you that on this site - you are responsible for what and how you want to convey "your thoughts" - there is not set diction - contrary to what others opine - When you begin to write for the USA Today then you can follow their rules, until then your writing should follow your own...I can tell you that we are the envy of most sports writers because of the simple fact that we can retain our own personality in writing and don't HAVE to write what we're told - unlike corporate "news reporters" who are told what to report
:)
"Write On Playa"
R
PR
452 days ago
Hi Adam,
One of the slight differences between B/R Style and AP Style is that we do in fact spell out "three-pointer." A note regarding this style detail can be found here:
http://blog.bleacherreport.com/2008/02/10/br-writers%e2%80%99-tips-commonly-misspelled-sports-words-i/
Feel free to check it out and let me know what you think.
Thanks so much!
All best,
Gracie
460 days ago
Yeah, ESPN (along with every paper I've ever written for) uses "3-pointer." When I was staff at The Patriot Ledger, I wrote it that way in roundups all the time during the winters. Different publication, different style.
The New York Times has its own style on many things; for example, it writes headlines like B/R does when most papers use sentence case. Once upon a time, Col. Robert McCormick of the Chicago Tribune decided to crusade against established dictionaries and simplify spellings such as "thru" instead of "through," but you'll learn that if you take history of journalism (you would if you went to Northeastern, at least).
Point is, this site can go with whatever it wants to, and it's no big deal, really. In fact, if I (or any other editors) change something on one of your stories, you are free to change it back. We're just responsible for making it conform to our guidelines as much as possible to give it the best chance at looking professional and staying consistent with our other stories.
To answer your question, I pasted what Ryan wrote about it in the previous message, but here it is if it wasn't clear those were his words (he did not go into detail here and went on to answer other style questions I had for him...it is on that link if you scroll down or hit ctrl+f and search "point," or something related):
Ryan Alberti said on May 21, 2008 3:41 pm
To answer these one at a time:
- “three-pointer”…not “3-pointer”
461 days ago
Hey Adam, I'm thinking of starting a sports show at WMUA. I'm looking for people that want to be involved. Are you interested in hearing more?
461 days ago
*from posting half of an article (re-worded and forgot to delete everything)
I neglected to address football down references like "3rd-and-7." That's the way I was taught and wrote when covering high school football (not all too far from UMass, actually), but you're right in that B/R keeps it that way; I assumed it did not because it goes with "Game One" rather than "Game 1," and so forth.
I agree it's confusing, and I went through similar growing pains when I kept finding differences in B/R style and dealt with the difficulty in finding out about them all (or most of them), but it's a lot easier to just pay attention, remember, and go with it when something conflicts with your instincts.
461 days ago
Actually, managing editor Ryan Alberti said on the Bleacher Report blog that "3-pointer" is written out "three-pointer" here, and told me to write out all numbers like that here because we're not held down by the constraints of fitting in newspaper columns.
http://blog.bleacherreport.com/2008/02/10/br-writers%E2%80%99-tips-commonly-misspelled-sports-words-i/
Ryan Alberti said on May 21, 2008 3:41 pm
To answer these one at a time:
- “three-pointer”…not “3-pointer”
Also, I have been told I should indeed discourage writers from doing posting half of an article. Again, you're free to do it; I just think you should know it's not embraced.
B/R doesn't use AP style as a base, anyway; it uses CMS (Chicago Manual). I was an editor at my college paper and had a sports column there, and I am also used to the AP style. If you click on the above link, you'll see my preference is "3-pointer," but that's not the style here so I roll with that and just put it in my profile knowing people like you will think I'm wrong when I change it.
To explain, your examples from the style appendix don't apply to "three-pointer." A stat line is a series of stats in a row unhindered by connecting words and the "3-point" format isn't for rhetorical effect.
Hope that clears things up.
461 days ago
Hi Adam,
Actually, B/R style is slightly different than AP style, and we spell out numbers one through nine.
Great article!
All best,
Gracie
462 days ago
Hey Adam,
Could you please re-post the question on Ryan Alberti's Bulletin Board?
Ryan is our Managing Editor and has the answers to everything you ever wanted to know about the world of grammar and style.
Thanks as always,
Z
464 days ago
Adam,
I obviously won't force you to use the second comma...but I don't think it makes much sense to exclude it in an online forum. That said, the final call is up to you, so feel free to make the decision as you see fit.
Thanks again for sharing your work, and I'll look forward to being in touch.
RA
465 days ago
Thanks for getting in touch about comma lists, Adam. The AP style (no comma between the second and third items) was born of necessity: Newspapers needed to save column space, so the third comma was omitted. We don't have that problem in cyberspace...and the third comma definitely does make a difference in terms of meaning.
I'm not sure whether you're a Robert Frost fan, but consider the following example from "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening":
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
vs.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.
The omission of the third comma in the original has a significant impact on meaning: "dark and deep" describes the loveliness of the woods, as opposed to "lovely, dark, and deep" all modifying the woods. The implication is that the presence or absence of the third comma is important...and because we can afford to include it when necessary (in terms of space), we do so.
Please let me know if there's any further confusion, and thanks again for getting in touch.
Best,
Ryan
465 days ago
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Robert Domaine said...
DeleteHello Adam, I would like you to take a look at this article and leave your support in the comment area. I would love to see this story make a difference. Pass it around! Thanks
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/224275-ny-giants-george-martin-the-forgotten-hero
94 days ago