Guidelines For Final Sports Project

As teams, you’ll hand in one final package. Each person should also link to the final project on Blackboard. See notes at end about what other elements you should each hand in.

Photos

Every story should have at least one photo. Any photos included in the project should follow these guidelines:

• The photo should be horizontal, framed with the rule of thirds.
• It should include a person. Action is best.
• Photos should be sized 720 pixels wide.
• It should be named with keywords related to the story and the image itself
• It should come with a complete caption, with all people named and context described.

Text:

Every project should include a text story.

The projects will be graded on the following:

• Web writing style
• Context
• AP Style, Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation
• Credible and varied sources (talk to players, coach, depending on the issue, possibly someone outside of the team)
• Links to relevant information, formatted correctly, placed in the proper point in a sentence. (You’re allowed only one “click here” in the whole project. Use your attribution as a place to cite your source.)
• Story flow. (Is this interesting? Are specific details used to help tell the story? Does the story make sense?)

Multimedia Elements

You should include two multimedia elements in your package in addition to the photo and the text.

Video

• Steady shots (no panning, no moving around. Stand still and let the movement come from the action)
• B-Roll and Interviews edited together (don’t just put raw video up)
• Horizontal videos. Any vertical videos will be given a grade of zero.
• Identify all people who speak in the video using lower thirds. Spell all names correctly
• Upload to YouTube, use keywords in the name, write a clear description for the video and then embed the video into your post.

Audio

You can take different approaches with audio — either creating a podcast, using audio interviews paired with portrait shots, or using audio interviews paired with still photos to create a video slideshow.

All audio should be clear and have consistent volume levels. Any photos incorporated into the audio project should follow guidelines for photos.

Data

You can also use data as one of your multimedia elements. It should include an appropriate visualization of the numbers. If you’re looking at stats, you might want to create a table to visually show the numbers. If you’re looking at wins over time, a line graph makes more sense. The original data should be included when you hand in the assignment.

Social Media

If it’s appropriate to your topic, you may incorporate social media elements into your story as one of your multimedia elements. This would be relevant in instances where many people are talking about the team or player on social networks. If you pick this you should:

• Include context. Don’t just paste social network posts into your article and call it a day. Weave them into a story with details about their relevance.
• Fact check. If someone posts a photo or a claim on social networks, you should fact check it before including that social media post in your story.

Handing it in

You should post your story on Medium with your multimedia and photos embedded in appropriate places. Don’t have lots of white space. Wrap text around your elements. Use subheads where appropriate.

Then on Blackboard you should hand in the following:

• a link to your Medium draft
• a photo upload (JPG, named properly, sized properly) for each photo you want in the story
• The draft of a Tweet teasing the story. Think of the news hook or the most interesting part of the story. Get someone to click on the link.
• Any additional materials needed (source of data)
• Any notes about the efforts put in by each member of the team.

The Editing Process

I’ll likely have follow up questions and suggestions on phrasing and editing. In order to achieve a publishable story, you may be required to complete additional interviews or follow up with additional questions. Once you complete follow up interviews, if there’s still missing information or unclear detail, you may need to get even more information.

This is part of the writing and editing process, so please take the initial feedback on your drafts very seriously. My goal is to get your stories published, but that will only happen if they meet a certain standard.