Game story guidelines

Students enrolled in SMC220 must complete three game stories. At least two of them must be high school sports stories.

Before attending games, students must:
* Contact the school's athletics director and coach (or URI's SID) at least 48 hours before the competition begins to receive permission, credentials and any pertinent information. 
* Email Professor Yanity with the dates/times of the game you choose to cover at least 48 hours before the competition begins. (This email commits you to this assignment and sets your deadline.)
* Prepare for the event by researching the teams and people involved, collecting up-to-date and accurate rosters and gathering any other pertinent information such as rosters, records, statistics, etc.
* Ensure that you can interview coaches and athletes after the game. 
* BE EARLY TO THE GAME -- typically at least 30 minutes. 

While attending games, students must:
* Dress and act as a professional journalist would. Remember, you are representing the profession, the University of Rhode Island, your professor and your self.
* Take statistics, or find a person assigned to do this and ensure you can compare/share that information.
* Take notes.
* Listen and observe. 
* Take photos and provide multimedia to enhance your coverage. 

After attending games, students must: 
* Compile and check key statistics.
* Interview coaches and athletes (no fewer than two sources must be quoted). Doublecheck spelling of their names. Thank them for their time.
* Complete a 600- to 800-word game story that uses AP Style, is well-edited and avoids cliches.
* Email a completed game story and any multimedia to Professor Yanity and to Brightspace by the assigned deadline.
* Professor Yanity will post your edited game story and multimedia (photos, videos, etc) to this page after your article has been submitted. You are then expected to share the link on social media with multimedia, keywords, handles and hashtags. 

NOTES ON ETHICS: 
* Under no circumstance should you ask for the phone number, or other contact information (including social media handles/addresses) of a high school athlete.
* Remember the Gisondi reading on covering high school athletes.
* No cheering -- you will feel emotions of the game, but you must maintain your professionalism.

General notes: 1.) All games stories must be completed by Monday, Nov. 3.  2.) You must have more than two days between contests. In other words, you can not cover two contests in three days. Give Professor Yanity time to grade your first game story and learn from it.