WRITING FOR THE EAR:

As a broadcast writer, your challenge is to format that information for your listeners ear

so that they can understand it

the first - and most likely only - time theyll hear it.

THE SIX CS:

1. Clear

2. Concise
3. Conversational 4. Complete 5. Current 6. Correct

The Six Cs
1. CLEAR

Write in a simple, understandable style.

Write to express an idea, not to impress your audience.

Basically limit sentences to one main thought.

THE SIX CS:

2. CONCISE Broadcast copy is short.
Thomas Jefferson once said, The most valuable of all talent is that of never using two words when one will do.

Get to the main point. Use only essential words. Eliminate wordiness. Make your point and move on.

THE SIX CS:

3. CONVERSATIONAL: We basically converse using simple, common language. Write a story much the same way youd tell it to a friend.

THE SIX CS:

4. COMPLETE:

Your copy must answer the five Ws (who, what, when, where, and why), except, perhaps, why. That may be unknown at airtime.

But dont raise new questions or leave old questions unanswered.

THE SIX CS:

5. CURRENT:

Current copy is timely copy both in content and the way it sounds.
One way you can make your copy sound much more timely is by using (but not forcing) one of the present verb tenses whenever its possible (and correct)

THE SIX CS:

6. CORRECT The most important C. One mistake could potentially ruin a career. Your copy must be free of factual errors. Double check for correct names, dates, times, etc. Correct copy also means correct use of spelling and grammar. Use a dictionary.

BROADCAST NEWS STRUCTURE:

Broadcast news writing uses a different structure than print journalism.

Instead of the summary lead, including the who, what, when, where, and why of the story, youll focus on the central fact or news peg for your lead.

BROADCAST NEWS STRUCTURE:

Then, instead of using the print style of the facts in order of importance, youll round out your story by completing the five Ws.

BROADCAST NEWS STRUCTURE:

Thats one reason why radio is considered the alerting or headline medium, newspapers the informing medium, and television (the dual-channel medium) the involving or emotional medium.

BROADCAST NEWS STRUCTURE:

While the newspaper reporter might take 700 words to tell the story, youll often have no more than 75 to 80.

CONSTRUCTING THE BROADCAST SENTENCE:

You must learn to write in a more direct, conversational style.

That means generally NOT starting a sentence with a long phrase or subordinate clause especially your lead.

VERBS:
The single most important word in a sentence is the verb. A verb is a word that expresses action,

state, or
condition. It provides the muscle in your sentence.

VERBS:
Verbs come in various forms.
There are transitive and intransitive verbs. Auxiliary verbs and main verbs combine to make a verb phrase. *Students shall give examples.

VERBS:
Linking verbs must have complements they show a state or condition and do not convey action. Verbs can become participles (verbal adjectives) or gerunds (verbal nouns). Your main concern is using the verb correctly as dictated by considering tense, person, number, voice and mood.

TENSE:
There are six main verb tenses: Present: The commander arrives today. Past: The commander arrived last night. Future: The commander will arrive tomorrow.

Present Perfect: The commander has arrived.

Past Perfect: The commander had arrived before....

Future Perfect: The commander will have arrived....

Present Tense
The present tense provides a

general statement of fact

(The race starts at 9:00 Saturday morning) or indicates an action is happening now (The lead runners are heading into

the final turn.).

Present Tense
It is the preferred tense for use in broadcast writing but dont force it by using the false present

(Last nights fire injures five reporters.) or youll confuse your audience.

Past Tense
Use the past tense when you tie an event to a point in the past,
but dont confuse past tense with passive voice, which is caused by sentence structure.

THE COMMANDER ARRIVED LAST NIGHT.

Future Tense
The future tense indicates the event has not yet taken place.

THE COMMANDER WILL ARRIVE TOMORROW.

Tense
You can often use the present tense in place of the future. Since it ties an action to the present, the present perfect is the second most preferred tense.

Use it to make a past action sound more current.

Present Perfect: THE COMMANDER HAS ARRIVED.

Tense
You will rarely use the past perfect tense, and the future perfect tense has become all but obsolete.

VOICE:
Voice refers to the relationship between the action, agent/actor, and recipient.

Is the agent/actor performing the verbs action or is it being acted upon? What is the direction of the verbs action?

VOICE:
Consider the following examples:

Active:
THE THIEF STOLE THE HANDBAG. Passive: THE HANDBAG WAS STOLEN BY THE THIEF.

RESTRUCTURING PASSIVE VOICE SENTENCES:

Active: THE THIEF STOLE THE HANDBAG.

Passive: THE HANDBAG WAS STOLEN BY THE THIEF.

First, in the active voice example, the action flows from the thief (agent) to the handbag (object). In the passive voice, the verb is past tense but has no auxiliary verb.

Voice
In the passive example,

the object becomes the subject, and the actor follows the verb. The action flows in the opposite direction.

A form of the to be verb is used as an auxiliary verb.

Formed correctly, passive voice always has a verb phrase consisting of a form of the to be verb and a past participle

Active Voice
ACTIVE VOICE ADVANTAGES:

It is more concise and more conversational.

Stronger and clearer in meaning.

Conversely, passive voice generally results in wordy, dull sentences.

IDENTIFYING PASSIVE VOICE:

You must learn to recognize passive voice before you can correct it. Consider the following three step process: 1. Identify the verb. 2. Identify who or what is performing the verbs action.

3. Identify the direction of the action

From Passive to Active Voice

THE THIEF WAS ARRESTED BY THE POLICEMAN. the verb phrase (was arrested) and the actor (policeman Passive sentence structure doesnt always include an actor. The above examples might have read: THE THIEF WAS ARRESTED.

RESTRUCTURING PASSIVE VOICE SENTENCES:

To restructure a passive voice sentence, you must: 1. Identify it! 2. Relocate the actor or identify the missing actor and insert it into the sentence. 3. Change the verb.
For example:

THE COLONEL WAS BITTEN BY THE DOG

THE DOG BIT THE COLONEL.

Note:

Be careful when you change the verb you might end up changing the meaning of the sentence, e.g.,

The boy was bitten by the dog; cannot become, The boy bit the dog.

WHEN IS IT OK TO USE PASSIVE VOICE?

There are some instances when passive voice is preferred over active voice. For instance,

1. When its a traditional phrase normally spoken in the passive voice:

HE WAS BORN IN 1952.

WHEN ITS OK TO USE PASSIVE VOICE:

2. When the actor is unknown or you want to hide the actors identity:
THE BOY WAS RESCUED FROM THE BURNING CAR. THE DOOR WAS LEFT UNLOCKED. (By me!)

WHEN ITS OK TO USE PASSIVE VOICE:

3. When the receiver of the action is clearly more important that the actor:

THE PRESIDENT HAS BEEN SHOT. (OR)

THE WRITING INSTRUCTOR HAS BEEN FIRED.

Practice recognizing passive voice by evaluating these sentences:

The marathon was won by the master sergeant. The car struck the sailor in the leg. The trial was interrupted by the judge. The family members were notified. The instructor has left school for the day. A crowd of 20-thousand spectators is expected.

CHOOSING SIMPLE WORDS: WRITING FOR THE EAR:

Writing for the ear means using words that are conversational and easily understood.

For example,
Would you ask to utilize or use the computer?

CHOOSING SIMPLE WORDS: WRITING FOR THE EAR:

Do YOU ask someone to consummate a form or complete it?
Would you report on a conflagration or a fire?
Writing for the ear means using those simple words when you write for your audience.

CLICHS:
How many times have we heard a newscaster use the phrase autopsy to determine the cause of death? How many wasted words are in the phrase in the month of February? Is it really necessary to say in the city of?

OTHER MEANINGLESS WORDS:

Some other meaningless words include conjunctive adverbs like meanwhile, meantime, and incidentally.

Dont rely on these crutches as transitions.

OTHER MEANINGLESS WORDS:

And dont forget to avoid latter, former and respectively.
Your listener cant refer back to your original reference. Work on a more natural flow of ideas.

JARGON AND SLANG:

To you R and R might mean rest and relaxation, but to someone else it might be the name of their hometown.

JARGON AND SLANG:

And which term sounds more professional, re-up or re-enlistment?
Would the civilians in your audience more easily understand 2100 hours or this evening at 9:00? Avoid using jargon, slang, and military time.

FOREIGN PHRASES:
Beware of foreign phrases. They could also totally confuse your listener. Use better known words or phrases common to the country.

CONTRACTIONS:
We use contractions naturally in day-today conversations. Its replaces it is and there is becomes theres. Contractions also add to the conversational delivery of broadcast copy. There are exceptions.

Exceptions to Using Contractions

One is the use of itll, which sounds awkward in a broadcast sentence.
Also, remember that contractions tend to de-emphasize words. If you must emphasize a word, do not contract it.

HERE AND THERE:

Where are here and there to your audience?

Is here inside the radio studio?

HERE AND THERE:

To your listener, isnt here where they are at that moment? The wider your broadcast area, the greater the possibility of confusion.

Whether here is Nueva Ecija or there is Nueva Ecija, just say Nueva Ecija.

ACRONYMS:
Your audience no doubt knows what NASA, NATO, and even OPEC are, but have they ever heard of DINFOS? Be sure you spell out an unfamiliar acronym when you use it for the first time. THE DEFENSE INFORMATION SCHOOL, OR DINFOS.... This example illustrates one of the few times its beneficial to split a sentences subject with a clarifying phrase.

INITIALS AND MIDDLE NAMES:

Omit a persons middle initial unless the letter is part of a well-known name, like Michael J. Fox, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy or George C. Scott.

SENTENCE STRUCTURE:
Keep sentence structure simple basically one idea to one sentence.

Edit your compound-complex sentence down to two or three simple sentences.

SENTENCE LENGTH:
Adhere to the 20/25 rule, which limits hard-news story leads to 20 words and all other hard-news story sentences to 25 words.

Sentence Structure
But also remember to vary your sentence length.

If you constantly write short sentences, your copy will sound choppy.
If you always write long, wordy sentences, your copy will drag. Try to develop a rhythm by combining short and long sentences.

PARTICIPIAL PHRASES:
Avoid starting a sentence with a participial phrase, and virtually never start a story with one. Its normally best to establish the subject at the beginning of your sentence.

PARTICIPIAL PHRASES:
For instance:

BEGINNING THIS WEEK, THE CHAPEL WILL START HOLDING SUNDAY EVENING SERVICES.

THE CHAPEL WILL START HOLDING SUNDAY EVENING SERVICES THIS WEEK.

CLAUSES:
You must also remember to remain clear and conversational in your use of clauses. For instance, normal print sentence structure often finds a dependent clause preceding an independent clause.

Clauses
Because he joined the marines at an early age, the staff sergeant had the opportunity to excel. But, to the ear, its clearer and more natural to write: The staff sergeant had the opportunity to excel because he joined the marines at an early age.

Clauses
And beware of separating a sentences subject and verb with a non-essential clause. The air base group commander, weary from long hours of negotiating in the nations capital, says shes happy to be home. Why not restructure your sentence or divide the sentence into two separate sentences?

Clauses
Weary from long hours of negotiating in the Nations capital, the air base group commander says shes happy to be home. Or The air base group commander says shes weary but happy to be home after long hours of negotiating in the nations capital. Or The air base group commander is weary from long hours of negotiating in the nations capital. She says shes happy to be home.

Clauses
Remember that its better to use simple, declarative sentences with simple subject-verb-object (S-V-O) order.

Also remember, to avoid confusion, generally place dependent clauses after independent clauses.

PUNCTUATION MARKS
Use punctuation in your broadcast script to aid readability and clarify meaning.

Use oral punctuation (breath marks), not written punctuation, for the best results with copy interpretation.

PUNCTUATION MARKS
The comma is just one of seven different forms of broadcast punctuation. The others include the period, comma, hyphen, dash, quotation mark, parenthesis, and ellipsis. You may also use the exclamation point, but not in a hard news story.

PUNCTUATION MARKS
A period indicates the end of a sentence or thought. Stop; breathe; move on. Be sure to place two spaces after each period in your broadcast script. A comma indicates a pause shorter than a period. Continue to use commas to set off names of geographical areas and most items in dates and addresses.

PUNCTUATION MARKS
The hyphen helps you phrase difficult words and separate elements.

RE-APPLY, RE-EVALUATE

Spell out entire word.

Do not hyphenate or divide words at the end of a line.

Spell out the entire word, or move it to the next line.

Dash
Use the dash to set off parenthetical expressions. UNESCO THE UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION MET.... Microsoft words will automatically combine the two hyphens into a slightly longer dash.

Quotation Marks
Use quotation marks to indicate quotes, or set off nicknames, book or movie titles, or any cute phrase that might create a stumble for the announcer.
For Instance: The u-h-one huey is a vietnam-era, utility helicopter used for transporting

Ellipsis ()
The ellipsis is a series of three dots indicating a pause longer than a comma.

The pause is for dramatic effect. This Paul Harvey type pause is part of the colorful writing used in spots and features.
SHE NEVER FORGOT HER FAVORITE WRITING INSTRUCTOR ... MASTER SERGEANT TERRY MINTON. Youll very rarely use the exclamation point in broadcast writing. You might use it with the imperative mood in a selling sports.

QUOTATIONS AND ATTRIBUTION

I am not a crook, the president said.

When your audience first hears that statement, they have no way of knowing its not the announcer claiming not to be a crook. Theres a good chance theyll become confused and miss part of your story.

QUOTATIONS AND ATTRIBUTION

Your listener cannot see the quotation marks in your copy. If you feel you must use a direct quote, alert your listener its coming:

THE PRESIDENTSAID IN HIS WORDS, IM NOT A CROOK.

QUOTATIONS AND ATTRIBUTION

Unless the quote is very dynamic, youll probably want to paraphrase it. THE PRESIDENT SAYS HE IS NOT A CROOK. Remember to identify the source of your quote or paraphrase up front. Alert your audience that a quote is next, and begin the quote with the source.

Quotation and Attribution

Youll also want to avoid using long quotes.

Again, the best move you can make is to paraphrase.

And if its necessary to link a second statement with the speaker, use a conversational, clarifying phrase. THE ADMIRAL ALSO SAID....

Quotation and Attribution

Some newscasters use quote and unquote to lead into and go out of quotes, a habit that is un-conversational and unnecessary. When you begin your quote with the source, your listeners will understand who said what.

Quotation and Attribution

Instead of:

The fire chief said, quote, the blaze started in the kitchen.

Why not say:

The fire chief says the blaze started in the kitchen.

Quotation and Attribution

Dont worry about attributing the source if the facts are obvious or easily verified.

Remember to place attribution before assertion and title before name.

TITLES AND NAMES

Avoid starting a broadcast story with a persons name. Definitely avoid using the name of an unfamiliar individual unless youre striving for a special effect a very rare instance in news writing. When you use names and titles together, remember to put the title ahead of the name.

TITLES AND NAMES

For example

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DONALD SAYS.... Instead of: DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, SAYS.... Notice that when you place the title before the name, you dont use commas. Your sentence flows much more naturally and quickly.

CONSTRUCTING THE BROADCAST NEWS STORY:

A broadcast news story differs from a print story. The print story is written in the inverted pyramid style. The who, what, when, where, why, and how are usually included in the summary lead. The print journalist then unfolds the rest of the facts in descending order of importance.

CONSTRUCTING THE BROADCAST NEWS STORY:

Conversely, youll write the broadcast story in the upright pyramid style.
At the peak is the news peg the single most important fact (what happened). You add the remaining four Ws and How to complete the news story.

The Commitment/ Focus Statement

Before you start to write your news story, pick the main actor, action, and recipient, and then use them to shape a focus statement. For example, in a public affairs broadcast release about a plane crash that killed seven airmen at Dover AFB, Delaware, you decide the main actor is crash, the main action verb is kills, and the recipient is airmen. Your focus statement becomes CRASH KILLS AIRMEN

The Commitment/ Focus Statement

Everything you write about this story should relate to your focus/commitment statement. If you have written that statement well, you can maintain the same structure actor, action, and recipient in your slug/tease and lead

The Slugline/Tease
Depending on the policy at your station, the slugline can vary in length from one to ten words. This allows the slug to double as a tease. This also ensures you can not only include what happened in ten words or less, you should also be able to include where it happened if it is a local story.

The Slugline/Tease
(Yes) DOVER AIR CRASH KILLS SEVEN AIRMEN

(No) AN AIR FORCE PLANE HAS CRASHED

The Slugline/Tease
Both slugs consist of six words. But, notice that in the first example the slug is localized (Dover AFB), the what is clearly spelled out (air crash and seven dead airmen), and the non-essential words (articles and helping verbs) are omitted.

Like a newspaper headline, its common to write the hard news slugline in the simple present tense.
Use shorter topical sluglines for feature stories and spot announcements.

The Lead
Your lead, or first sentence in a broadcast news release, is designed to gain the listeners attention, inform them of what happened, and

prepare them for whats to come.

The Lead
For example:

A dover air force base plane crash has killed seven airmen and injured ten others. This lead is localized (dover afb), the what is included (plane crash), and the result is revealed (killed seven airmen and injured ten others) ... all in well under 20 words! Youve captured your listeners attention with the impact (military deaths), told them what happened, and prepared them for the rest of the facts.

The Lead
Notice how we did NOT write the lead:

SEVEN AIRMEN WERE KILLED AND TEN OTHERS INJURED IN A DOVER AIRFORCE BASE AIRCRAFT CRASH THIS MORNING.
This structure not only puts the key statistic (seven) in a place where it might be missed by your listener (who may not be actively listening for the first word of the story), it is written in the passive voice (were killed).

The Lead
Localize your lead. Stating the local tie brings a greater impact to your audience. You generally dont use questions or quotations in hard news story leads. A question lead might make your copy read like a public service announcement, and a quotation lead is hard for your listener to tune in to.

The Lead
Save question leads for soft news and feature stories (except for the occasional rhetorical question as an attention-getting device), and paraphrase quotes important enough for the lead (unless its an extremely important quote like President Nixons I am not a crook comment).

The Lead
Question and quotation leads may alert the listener to whats ahead, but they generally lack the depth of a general what happened lead. Finally, recognize the difference between hard and soft leads and when to use one over the other.

The Lead
Strongly consider using soft leads for lighter news stories and sports, e.g., instead of directly providing the games outcome....

The bremerstein bearcats continue to dominate the all-europe basketball league.

The Body
After youve written the lead, work on logically developing the specifics of the story in the body. Logical development simply means orderly continuing of the facts to flow smoothly to the storys conclusion.

Remember, youre a storyteller.

Try asking yourself what your listener wants to know next. Then deliver. Your development may or may not be in descending order of importance.

The Body
Learn the art of transitioning between ideas without relying on crutches like conjunctive adverbs.

The body of the story must deliver the goods youve introduced in the lead.

And, most of all, do not forget that youre writing for your listeners ear, i.e., conversationally.

The Snapper
All stories have a beginning (lead), middle (body), and an end.

We call the end of the news story the snapper. The snapper is the last sentence in your story.
It brings the story to a solid, logical conclusion. It may contain a new fact, but a properly written snapper never raises any new questions. Dont underestimate its importance. Next to the lead, the snapper is the most important element in a news story.

The Feature
The feature story provides a change of pace in newscasts. Features are generally longer than hard news stories and most often focus on soft generally longer than hard news stories and most often focus on soft-news items. From the local sports hero or model airplane buff, to the opera singer, scholar, or scoutmaster, features concentrate on the human interest story angle.

The Feature
While you use very few, if any, modifiers in your hard news writing, features are a great opportunity to let your creative writing juices flow. These stories dont have a hard news peg. They depend on your ability to use a kaleidoscope of

description.
Concentrate on using dynamic, intense, descriptive words with precise meanings. Continue to use action verbs in the active voice as you paint mental pictures.

Radio Hard News Release

Norton helicopter crash kills 20 airmen.
(30 SECONDS)
ANNOUNCER

1 NOV 2006

A helicopter crash at Norton air force base has killed 20 airmen and injured nine others. The military aircraft was carrying men and women for training in Arizona when it went down in a wooded area north of the runway early this morning.

Radio Hard News Release

The victims are air force reservists assigned to Californias air national guard. Air guard officials will release the names of the dead and injured airmen after notifying their families. The air force is now investigating the crash. ###

RADIO NEWS STORY

Sound
Generally, radio news stories split their time evenly between narration and sound bites. Used to break up narration (if you read for much more than a minute uninterrupted, your listeners will start to get lost in the drone).

Conflict
When youre conceptualizing your story, try to figure out what the central conflict is it will make it much easier for you to decide who you need to interview and how you need to write it.

The Lead
1. Do a quick summary of the who, what, when, where, and why of your story. 2. Throw out a provocative piece of information that youll then go on to explain. 3. Pose a question the story will try to answer. Tip: After youve finished writing your story, go back and rewrite your lead. Youll often find the story took somewhere you didnt expect to be when you started it.

The End
This is the best place to give your listeners information about what comes next.

TIPS FOR BROADCAST WRITING

Write short sentences Minimize the use of dependent clauses and relative clauses. Keep it simple. Simple sentences with active verbs form the basis of effective writing for radio.

Summarize and prioritize

Cut irrelevant details.
There are less words in radio stories than print stories. Think carefully about what information is essential and which details can be summarized. Rewriting newspaper stories becomes an art of condensing. Unless you have spoken to individuals involved in the story yourself, you must attribute your rewritten story to its newspaper source.

Be conversational
Its okay to be less formal when youre writing for broadcast. Do what it takes to make your copy easy to listen to.

Use Statistics Sparingly

It is easy to lose your listeners when you put too many numbers in your story
Every number must be reduced to two significant digits.

Ages in broadcast scripts are given as adjectival phrase.

Eg. Alexander Reyes, 33, a resident of

Put attribution first

Before Lets pray for those affected in the Russia tragedy, said President Arroyo. After President Arroyo said, Lets pray for those affected in the Russia tragedy.

Minimize direct quotations

Before
President Arroyo said, Lets pray for those affected in the Russia tragedy.

After
President Arroyo consoles with those affected in the Russia tragedy, urging us to pray for them.

REMEMBER!!!
Broadcasting relies on the way you feel about yourself!
There is often a strong psychological component to communication difficulties.

ARTICULATION/PRONUNCIATION
The tongue is positioned toward the front of your mouth and use your tongue to clearly enunciate your words.

DSPC 2012 RADIO BROADCASTING FLOW

The 7 participants can be any of the ff: Director Asst. Director Technical Director Anchor News Reporter Sports News Reporter Info-mercial

Researched and prepared by:

MS. SONIA M. CAPIO Broadcaster and Educator
0917-3589053;[email protected]

Womantouch Media & Gender Advocates

8F Corporate Suites, Robinsons Galleria, EDSA

Modified by: MS. DIANE C. DAPITANON Educator/ Campus Journalism Moderator Immaculate Heart of Mary Academy Quezon St., City of Mati, Davao Oriental [email protected]