Welcome to an Overtime Essentials’ guide on what to have on your piece before it is published, below will be a guide on how to add the essential parts of a piece before you are good to go and ready to publish.
A handy document for learning the basics of the website is the Overtime Sport Journalism and Journalism Style Guide. If you do not have it, (and you definitely need it) please email one of us to ask for it and we can send it to you.
r.taylor17@uni.brighton.ac.uk
t.robertson3@uni.brighton.ac.uk
c.parker-turner1@uni.brighton.ac.uk
(If you want to know more about the editors go to the bottom of the page)
You need everything in this document to be complete in order for your piece to be published. If we do not see these on your pieces they will not be published.
Once all of these things below have been completed please publish your piece so that it says “pending” on it, that way we know it is done.
Subbing
This is the main thing that has to be done for every piece that goes up on the site.
You must have your piece subbed by a fellow student.
It does not matter who subs it, whether it be someone in your groups in someone else on the course or even someone in the years above you or below, there is no hierarchy in terms of subbing.
The way subbing should work is that once someone has finished their piece they should send it to the person who is subbing on a Word doc, that way the person can make the changes and send it back to the other person without any confusion.
They can then upload it to the site before letting us know that their piece is ready to be published.
YOU MUST LABEL ON YOUR PIECE IF IT HAS BEEN SUBBED e.g. sub-edited by Charlie Parker-Turner
How to Categorize and Add Tags
As shown above, these are the boxes to add categories and tags. For categories simply click on the boxes that apply to your piece, for instance, football click football etc. These will then appear under the specific genres on the website. If your piece is not represented on the categories then simply add it to JUST SPORT and do not create a new category as this will not work at the moment.
As for adding tags, these should be used as much as possible. If you a reporting a game between Manchester United and Brighton, the in the tags add every player, manager, team, stadium and competition mentioned as this drastically increases SEO.
How to Add Excerpts
Excerpts are a key tool for increasing SEO. All you need to do is add a simple description of what the piece is. For example “Riley Taylor analyses who came out on top between England and Australia in the Second Ashes Test in Sydney.”
Try to fit in as many keywords as you can to increase SEO.
Hyperlinks: The One Thing You Need
This is the big one. Hyperlinks are utterly key to the website in order to increase people’s time on the website and to keep them reading stories.
As you can see from the image above, the icon that is highlighted blue is where you insert the link. Simply highlight the next you wish to create a link and click on the link icon.
Next, you will be taken to this, simply copy and paste the link from the webpage you want to link and then hit enter and you have successfully linked something.
However, due to certain issues with the website you will need to make the text you have linked bold in order for the hyperlink to show.
How these links need to be used is up to you in your piece BUT every piece should have links at the bottom of the page as follows.
One link directing them to the sport in question e.g. football
One link directing them to the sport page.
And one link directing them to another piece that is related to it, e.g. if it is a Manchester United live-blog link a Manchester United match report.
Attributing Quotes and “vs”
Much like images and copyright, quotes fall under there own regulation. All quotes that you use in previews, reaction pieces or live-blogs should be attributed to their original source.
Now if you find them via a press conference then simply put “In his post-match press conference Jose Mourinho said: (insert quote)” – this is attributed.
Another style issue that has arisen in terms of reports etc is the use of “VS” when talking about two teams facing off against each other. Instead of “vs” it should be “v” as that is the English journalism style whereas “vs” is the American style.
Meet the Editors
Riley Taylor (@rileyttaylor21)
Riley has a wealth of experience on the site, writing since first year on Overtime and leading the cricket content with his semi-regular column “Cricket Weekly”. Cricket being his main sport of choice as well as occasionally divulging into football.
Tony Robertson (@TonyRob84)
Tony leads the motorsport section of the website mainly writing about Formula One through his regular column “Life in the Fast Lane.” Tony has also written on the website since his first year.
Charlie Parker-Turner (@CParkerTurner)
Charlie is an avid Brighton fan and contributes to the website with his in-depth knowledge of the Seagulls as well as being a massive horse racing fanatic.
For any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
