The thing about writing on timely subjects for public consumption is that you are never working in a vacuum.  Every interesting, and again, timely subject that floats to the front of your mind is also out there for others to contemplate and write about also.

I have seen that happen many times over the past five years.  I have pulled something quite out of thin air and written an article (or an essay as was the last Pitt/PSU rivalry article) only to find that 1) someone had written on the same subject in recent history and I hadn’t seen it or 2) Someone wrote about the same subject immediately after I posted mine.

As a writer and part of the media covering Pitt football I can tell you that if your public wants an article a day to read and discuss you have to really work hard to try to get them unique information and viewpoints to be able to do that.

How do I do that on a regular basis?  Well, to put it in bald terms sometimes I borrow subjects from other media outlets and use those as a nucleus of my articles – I expound on them as it were and take what others say or write, and then I inject my own views, opinions and some supporting or contesting facts, then bundle them up in an article and throw it out to Etherland for you all to read.

But I always take great pains to both reference the author and the media the articles are found on and then I link to the original source so that you all can read the source material as it was originally written.

Continue reading “Why We Write About Pitt Football” →