College is a time when we’re paving the way for our future. It’s a time of important decisions and difficult challenges, such as deciding what your career might be. And, if you’re interested in being a sports writer, there’s no need to wait for college to end.
You can start working on your sports writer career during college and gain valuable experience early on. To help you thrive, we've put together this ultimate guide.
Here are the 6 best tips for becoming a sportswriter as a college student.
Gather Information
To be a great sportswriter, you first need to know how to do proper research. You can’t write about the things you’re not familiar with.
But, not every source of information is credible.
So, first decide where you plan on gathering reliable sports information, data, and facts. It could be respectable sports magazines, sports blogs, websites, podcasts, TV shows, sports TV channels, sports experts, or social media.
You need to keep your eyes wide open and learn as much as you can every day. This will give you a great head start.
Build a Portfolio
You need to be actively writing even before you get the first writing gig or even an ongoing writing job. Why? Because your potential employers will want to see samples of your work before they trust you with a job.
So, create a writing schedule and work on your sports writing skills every day. You could practice writing about a particular sports team, a championship, renowned sportsmen, individual games and game highlights, fun facts, or stats.
So, write as if you had a job and tight deadlines you need to meet. Once you get it, this will help you establish a writing routine and perform better on your job.
Start a Blog
The next big step we highly recommend you do is starting a blog. You can easily set up a WordPress blog page and make your first public steps in the world of sports writing.
To make your blog more successful, you shouldn't make it too general. Instead, make it more specific by choosing a specific sports niche, covering topics related to one team, one league, or one type of sport.
Once you decide what you’ll be blogging about, make it your weekly assignment to write at least three blog posts.
Since you’re not yet on the level of professional writers, it’ll take you more time to handle these blog writing assignments at first.
So, think about hiring a writing service that you can buy essays from to help with some of those college tasks while working on your sports writing.
Network
Now that you have a portfolio, some experience, and an up and running blog, it’s time to start networking. If you want to make money as a college sports writer, you need to reach out to the right people and join the sports circles.
Here's what you can do to start networking: create a LinkedIn profile and start making connections; join social media groups with sports professionals and other writers; share your blog posts on social media or via email; and attend sports events, seminars, webinars, and training.
Try to meet new people, introduce yourself, and learn from each new experience.
Look for Freelance Jobs
Once you feel ready to start writing for money, you should look for individual freelance jobs. Minor projects are great to start with so apply to them on freelance platforms such as Upwork. You could also write guest blog posts for other blogs or sports websites.
Look for a Permanent Employment
After enough freelance projects and even more added experience, you can finally start applying for sports writer jobs and look for a permanent position. Your CV and your experience will speak for themselves.
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Starting a new career is never an easy step. This is especially the case if you’re still a student and have no previous experience. But, if you start on time and work on your skills, it’ll pay off sooner than you expect.
Use the six tips we’ve shared above and start working on your career as a sportswriter today!
Jessica Fender is a professional writer and educational blogger at Philippaiswriting. Jessica enjoys sharing her ideas to make writing and learning fun.
