I have a few friends who care about writing as much as I do. Thank goodness, too. One of them emailed me this quote from Michael Kruse the other day. My friend  and I had been in a conversation a couple of days earlier about the craft, and he thought I would be interested in what Kruse, a staff writer for The St. Petersburg Times, had to say about daily journalism and writing well.

Here is Kruse’s comment:

“Reporting is not walking with a tape recorder or a notebook and a ballpoint pen. It is not transcribing. It’s not talking to as many people as possible. It is not collecting quotes. Reporting is all that, or can be, but it’s also observing and thinking and recognizing themes and ultimately earning the ability to say what there is to say. Reporting is work.”

Kruse, who has earned a closetful of awards for writing, is right, and I’m glad he offered his thoughts on journalism.

Now, I’m not certain where my friend found Kruse’s comments. In the Internet world, they could have been anywhere — or anybody’s if they aren’t really Kruse’s words. Not that it matters, because whether the comments are Kruse’s or not, they do speak loudly to what journalism is.

The profession, of course, has never been about tape recorders or ballpoint pen and spiral notebooks, though they do play parts in what the profession is about. Journalism is what all writing is about, whether novel writing or essay writing or journalism: Writing is thinking.

Sportswriters who understand that fact find themes to write about. They unearth stories everywhere they dig. Walk outside the press box during a rain delay, and what do they see: Vendors taking a break and bemoaning lost revenue, ushers working to make things comfortable for fans or the general manager in the media dining room killing time.

Is that what’s happening (or has happened) on the field? No, but sports isn’t all about what happens on the field. It’s about what goes on in the owner’s box, in the general manager’s office, in the pen or batting cage. It’s about the players on rehab assignment; it’s about players who are in the community, pitching in to help others.

Sports is about humans doing what humans do: live and work and play, and cry and hurt and laugh, and scream and fight and feud. People enjoy the thrill of competing, and people enjoy sitting in and watching competition unfold.

The era of instant communication has brought with it two overriding verities: We have the ability to let loose our thoughts practically the instant we have them. And we have the corresponding responsibility to keep our inner editor on standby alert during every waking minute.

Unfortunately, and to our peril, the second occasionally fails to keep up with the first. That is true of anyone who has access to an email account or a cellphone, and it is especially true for those of us who make our living as communicators. Once it’s out there, it’s OUT there — and no amount of attempted deletions, apologies, excuses or modern technology can take it back.

That sad fact led to a painful decision Plain Dealer editors had to make last week.

Tony Grossi, who had covered the Cleveland Browns at this newspaper for roughly two decades, was removed from the beat on Tuesday by Editor Debra Adams Simmons, Managing Editor Thom Fladung and Sports Editor Roy Hewitt after an ill-considered Tweet went unintentionally viral.

Grossi had typed a message, which he termed “a smart-(aleck) remark to a colleague,” that called Browns owner Randy Lerner “a pathetic figure, the most irrelevant billionaire in the world.”

But instead of sending a text message only to its intended recipient, he hit the wrong button and sent it out to his 15,000-plus Twitter followers.

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Peter King didn’t particularly want to write a weekly online column and he certainly wasn’t interested in Twitter. He had a full-time job covering the NFL for Sports Illustrated, thank you, and that was quite enough.

In February we looked at how people can use targeted Facebook ads to try to land job interviews. Now, let’s look more specifically at what social media skills you need to qualify for some journalism jobs.

According to Indeed.com, which posts jobs and aggregates postings from many other sites, trends show more ads for people with skills in social media, Facebook and Twitter.

That trend is reflected in journalism. Here are some recent postings: 

• ABC 7 Los Angeles, online entertainment producers: “must possess strong writing and copy-editing skills; excellent computer skills, including knowledge of keyboard shortcuts; experience working with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter as well as Movable Type blogs …”

• The Orlando Sentinel, reporter: “…This reporter also acts as our social media coordinator, helping develop strategies for our online interaction with readers via Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools.”

• Hillsdale (Mich.) Daily News, seeking newshound: “Must be comfortable with the Internet, Facebook and/or Twitter.”

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In the world of sports, a popular topic these days is how teams and players can connect with their fans using social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Social media is the buzzword.

These technologies provide ways for athletes, coaches, teams and leagues to effectively reach their fan base—as long as they have the right approach. Just like anything else, the key with social media starts with having a goal. That sounds basic, but too many organizations view social media with a checklist mentality.

Teams think, “we have Twitter and Facebook, so now we’re good.” That makes no sense. Having a Twitter account does not mean anything. A team needs to use it in a way that connects the organization and the audience by promoting conversation.

Having it is not enough.

Teams need to use all the tools available to them to put together the best product for the fans, and social media provides key ways to do that.

Here are some of the fundamental goals of social media for any team or organization:

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By age 26 Chico Harlan had made the major leagues of sportswriting: a beat reporter covering the Nationals for the Washington Post. He was an inventive, sometimes original writer who obviously worked hard to rescue the daily game story from its irrelevance in a wired world.

Then he opened his mouth and chomped his foot. Last March, just before opening day for his second season on the beat, Harlan told Harry Jaffe of Washingtonian magazine, “I don’t like sports — I am embarrassed that I cover them. I can’t wait to stop. It is a means to an end and a paycheck.” He said he would rather be writing about food.

Food fight! One online commenter wrote, “Douchebag is too kind a term for this twerp.” Another said, “Shame on you, Chico. You are a disgrace to sports journalism.” Harlan had pulled back the curtain and allowed the customers to see that the great and powerful Oz thought wizarding was for dummies.

The young writer prostrated himself, apologizing to readers on his Post blog and individually to most of the Nationals’ players. “I was down in Florida for spring training when that interview was published, and my next 5-6 days were tough. Real tough,” Harlan says now. His boss, sports editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, “called me at least two different times to talk me off the ledge.”

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Times readers are sophisticated and don’t expect “Run, Spot, run” syntax. But news is read in a hurry, and we should strive for clear, sharp prose that aids rapid comprehension. Long, complex sentences slow readers down and can lead our syntax astray.

A few recent examples:

•••

The moves, announced on the same day, might seem at odds with each other, but they represent an increasingly common pattern among American corporations, which are sitting on record amounts of cash but insist that growth opportunities are hard to find.

The result is that at a time when the nation is looking for ways to battle unemployment, big companies are creating fewer jobs, and critics say they are neglecting to lay the foundation for future growth by expanding into new businesses or building new plants.

These two successive sentences contain 86 words total — including, by my count, 15 verbs or verbal forms. On a subject like stock buybacks, not second nature to many nonspecialist readers of the front page, we should make an extra effort at lucidity. We could easily have broken the first sentence into two or even three parts.

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At Writer’s Relief, our proofreading staff keeps a sharp eye out for commonly misused words and phrases, and we’ve compiled a list of the trickiest top 20 misused words for easy reference. Learn the differences between these words to improve your writing!

Accept or Except
accept: to receive; to answer positively
except: not including; everything but

Anxious or Eager
anxious: worried/nervous
eager: excited/looking forward to

Affect or Effect
affect: to pretend; to influence
effect: a result

Assure or Ensure or Insure
assure: to make certain (such as with a person)
ensure: to make sure (such as with a thing)
insure: to provide or obtain insurance

Beside or Besides
beside: at the side of
besides: in addition to

Between or Among
between: two items that are related
among: three or more things related
**Note: According to Gregg Reference Manual, “Ordinarily, use between when referring to two persons or things and among when referring to more than two persons or things.

And: Use between with more than two persons or things when they are being considered in pairs as well as in a group.”

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A journalism teacher recently raised a question on a listserv. He said he had some colleagues who thought it was acceptable to use composite characters and dress up the setting in a story.

How depressing.

After all the scandals in recent years involving reporters, memoirists and historians who have been caught lying, it is disheartening to hear that some teachers think it is all right to deceive readers. Take note, please. These rules will save your honor, your self-respect and maybe your career:

• Make up nothing.
• Embellish nothing.

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Yeah, yeah, I know most sports fans and sportswriters don’t rush to Esquire for their sports fix. In my opinion, they ought to look at this high-end literary magazine differently, though. Besides its stable of stylish writers for the print version, Esquire can boast one of the cleverest bloggers in America.

His name is Scott Raab, whose “LeBron Watch” is a must-read for anybody who cares about thoughtful commentary on one of the most intriguing, vexing, self-absorbed, petty, pitiful, thankless, talented, temperamental, greedy, media-challenged — should I stop now? — athletes in America. Oh, he’s also one of the most  hated athletes in America.

Raab starts with the premise that LeBron is worth writing about. Like the man or not, LeBron James is a figure that touches an emotion, particularly if you fancy yourself a Cavaliers fan. Raab is, which is why his blogs are so penetrating and biting but so profound. He has a master’s touch with his prose and his insights.

Write a sports blog like Raab’s and people will read you. As with any good blog, Raag has a goal; he offers unique insights not found elsewhere in the blogosphere; he likes blogging; and he’s stuck with it — much to LeBron’s chagrin.

Hey, but judge for yourself. Here is an older blog about LeBron, but you you can catch more recent work from Raab at the link below:

Since LeBron James — or, as I have come to think of him, the Whore of Akron — recently went public with some of the vilest of the racist crap spewed at him on Twitter while telling the press, “I just want you guys to see what type of words are being said toward me and towards us as professional athletes,” I’ve had to take a long, hard look at my own position on this subject.

My position regarding LeBron James and hatred could not be more simple or clear: I hate LeBron James. I could waste time parsing that hatred — I do not wish to see harm of any sort befall his loved ones, for example, but I would be happy if he blew out both knees and an elbow before ever taking the court again in an NBA game. It’s just better to admit the truth plain: I am a hater.

I’m old enough to understand that my hatred of LeBron says more about me than him. After all, what sort of sad sack hates someone who is more or less — I hung around the Cavaliers a lot last season, working on a book, but had only a few brief exchanges with King James — a stranger? (Were we speaking of a figure like Hitler or Stalin, the case for stranger-hate is easy to make, but ‘Bron is closer to the Pope or Glenn Beck, a polarizing creature of great fame and considerable influence, but no mass murderer.) What sort of person hates at all?

First of all, a hater is angry, hurt, and helpless to do anything about his anger, hurt and helplessness. But hurt and helplessness are not produced by hatred; they come from what often, as in this case, precedes hate: love.

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