While sports content has seen a drastic shift towards highly opinionated content, there is still a demand and place for informational writing.
Informational writing aims to provide its audience with improved knowledge or understanding of a topic. Instead of making conclusions for them, informational writing educates its readers from a purely objective point of view.
For writers looking to perfect their informational voice, here are a few essential rules to follow.
4 Essential Elements of a Compelling Sports Informational Voice
1) Introduce the Reader to Your Topics
The first step seems simple – and it is – but it should trickle down into everything you write within this lens. Informational pieces often have a wider reach, so you should try to input knowledge with a common denominator in mind. Make sure your introduction is strong, and sets a solid foundation for the remainder of the piece.
If you write a player’s name, for instance, assume that at least one of your readers hasn’t heard of them, or is less familiar with them. If there’s an award that a certain player is in the running for, assume at least one reader isn’t familiar with it, and describe its purpose.
Every topic or entity that’s mentioned in your piece should be introduced fully, so there are no knowledge gaps from the ground up.
2) Use Media and Sources to Substantiate Facts
More often than not, your informational articles will be based on at least one fact to discuss. Maybe a wide receiver suffered an injury, and you have to write about their outlook. Maybe an NBA team has made a lineup change, and you have to discuss the implications. Maybe an NFL Draft prospect had a breakout performance, and you’re tasked with writing their scouting report.
When you’re introducing your reader to your topic, setting a strong foundation matters. By using media, sources, and statistics to corroborate facts, you can make your foundation that much sturdier.
For an injury, input an official insider report. For a lineup change, use a relevant quote from a coach. For a scouting report, insert a clip of an impressive play that visualizes your observations.
By substantiating your informational basis with media and other resources, you not only strengthen the foundation of your work, but you also give the reader another avenue with which to interact with and verify that fact. In turn, you strengthen your conveyance of the message.
3) Stay Rooted in a Process-Oriented Mindset
As an informational writer, humility plays a certain role in reliable communication. Maybe the talking heads on television can project hot takes, but if you’ve chosen the path of an informational writer, you need to adopt a process-oriented mindset, and not a results-oriented mindset.
In the context of writing to an audience, what does this mean? Let’s use the NFL Draft as an example. Every cycle, quarterback rankings and landing spots are heavily discussed. The NFL Draft is unique because everything is subjective to a degree, but there is a right way to engage.
Let’s say you’re putting together a QB rankings list. It’s okay to have “your guys”, players that you prefer more than others – but some analysts get in the habit of predisposing toward certain players and selectively finding information to support that stance, as opposed to letting objective observations guide their path.
The lesson is this: Eliminate biases from your work, and formulate a reliable process-oriented mindset through which you can deliver quality informational analysis time and time again. Worship the process itself, not pre-conceived results and opinions.
4) Make Your Piece a Landing Spot for Learners
This section deals with the totality of informational writing. When you write an informational piece, you should be aiming to answer any potential question a reader might have about your topic. Always ask yourself: “Is there something I haven’t covered? Is there a thought that I started to discuss, but never fully developed? Is there something I can still provide more insight or context on?”
Keep asking that question until the work on your particular topic is complete. That’s what’ll allow you to form a conclusive argument. But not only that, it’ll also effectively make your writing a landing spot for learners, and it’ll keep readers coming back, now that they know they can rely on you for comprehensive information.
