INTRODUCTION

The mechanics of crafting a broadcast news story are unlike the parameters of most other writing formats. Here, brevity is cherished, holding the audience’s attention is vital, and accuracy is absolutely paramount. Many stories last no more than 30 seconds, while some bumps and teases flash by in a mere two seconds. Even more daunting for broadcasters is that they have but one opportunity to unveil the story; unlike with print media, the consumer cannot go back and reread the story.

Moreover, viewers and listeners of broadcast news are often distracted and only give partial attention. Radios offer news while drivers motor along at high speeds in one-ton vehicles. Television newscasts are watched by viewers who may be eating, cleaning, or simply walking through the room. There is no captive audience, so delivery of the news must be crisp, clear, and easily understood.

The broadcast industry’s style of newswriting deals with how to attribute quotes, round off numbers, avoid clichés, and a number of other techniques— these are explained in the next chapter. Here, we address the small but essential details of preparing a script correctly, starting with the mechanics of how to properly format the script’s page.

SLUGS

Every page of the news script must be identified. These identifications are called slugs and are placed prominently on the script. More importantly, the slug is consistent throughout the newsroom, whether the story is referred to on the script, in the staff meetings, or on the assignment board. If a story covers the mayor receiving a grant for the airport’s runway expansion, the slug may be “Mayor Grant,” “Airport Expansion,” or something similar. Once the slug identifies the story, it should not be changed later in the day. It is frustrating for a reporter to submit a story called “Runway Grant” while the producer searches in vain for a story titled “Mayor Airport.”

FIGURE 6.1 shironosov/iStockphoto.com

In the example below, the slug is “Airport Grant”. Following the slug, the reporter will add in the date, the time of the newscast, and the writer’s initials.

DEFINING TERM: A slug is a word or two that is written in the upper left-hand corner of the page to identify the story.

THE SPLIT PAGE

Preparing a TV script is slightly more complicated than preparing a radio script. A TV script is divided into two vertical sections and is known as a split page.

All technical instructions for video and graphics appear in the left portion of the split page, while the anchor’s script appears in the right column.

DEFINING TERM: A split page divides a news script into two vertical columns. The left column is used for video direction while the right column is for the script and audio cues.

From looking at the left column, we see that Alison Furnier, our anchor for News Alive, will read the script. Her camera is V3, which stands for video 3. The specific shot type will be a medium shot (MS), which can be set using the zoom 2 (Z2) button on the switcher. Also, her identifying graphic will appear two seconds after she begins reading the script.

The right-hand column shows the script itself.

Although this is a standard script, each news station has its own specifications that may vary slightly. For example, some newsrooms use all capital letters in their script. Others will not use identifying graphics for anchors on short stories that run under 15 seconds. Experienced broadcast journalists adjust easily to the slight variations as they move from station to station.

PUNCTUATION

One of the most frustrating aspects of writing for broadcast journalism is that the traditional punctuation taught in English composition may be discarded. For example, you will use commas to indicate a pause, not simply for grammatical reasons. Some writers use a dash instead of a comma to indicate a pause, but dashes should be used sparingly, usually to indicate longer pauses. Unless you are writing for yourself (when you can do whatever is comfortable for you), you should not use an ellipsis (three dots) to indicate a pause or as a signal that you have eliminated part of a quotation because those dots could confuse anchors. Never use a semicolon; they work fine in sentences like this one, but they are hard to discern on a teleprompter.

Capitalize certain words, such as NOT and other words you think the anchors should emphasize. This is especially helpful when the anchors might not have an opportunity to go over the copy before they read it on the air. Keep such emphasis to a minimum, as the anchor is usually the best judge of which words to stress.

Additionally, some newsrooms prefer the copy to be written in ALL CAPS, although others want upper- and lowercase letters. This can be done with a click of the mouse in word processing programs, plus teleprompter systems can be preset to offer one style over the other.

REWRITING WIRE COPY

The essence of rewriting news stories from wire services is in relaying the relevant information as concisely as possible. A prime source for information in the newsroom is the wire service. The stories offered may be far too long for your program, thus prompting a quick rewrite. Unlike the inverted pyramid style of writing favored by newspapers, you simply do not chop off the final paragraph of the story for broadcast. Instead, an entire rewrite of the story is in order.

One strategy is to read the story from the wire copy, digest it, and then discard the copy. Then rewrite the story based on what you remember. This allows you to focus more on the essentials of the story. Once you are finished writing, review the wire copy again to check your facts.

You may find it difficult to surrender the wire copy and rely only on memory, but that is the only way to be certain that you rewrite newspaper-style wire copy into conversational broadcast copy. There are wire services that offer a broadcast wire written in a conversational style, but those are not always available in all newsrooms.

Getting accustomed to reading and absorbing material and then expressing it in your own words takes practice. Once you have conquered the temptation to refer to the original wire or newspaper copy as you write, you will discover that your broadcast copy will be easy and natural for you, or anyone else, to read on the air.

CONVERSATIONAL STYLE

Writing in conversational style means writing for the ear. Newspapers, obvi ously, are written for the eye, which means that if readers do not understand something, they can return to the paragraph or sentence and read it a second time. In broadcast news, the audience has no such luxury; they hear the copy just once. As a result, broadcast copy must be written clearly and simply. Thoughts must be expressed quickly with brief, crisp, declarative sentences. They must be aimed at ordinary people, which means the words must be understood immediately, without second thought. If the audience does not understand the copy, nothing else matters.

However, there is a strong distinction between conversational style and using slang. Dropping in the latest, hip buzzword cheapens the integrity of the newscast. Be conversational and just talk to viewer. If you are trying too hard to be cool, odds are good that you are being anything but.

REMOVING UNNEEDED WORDS

The downside of conversational style is that it often comes across as almost too conversational. As a quick exercise, listen to two university students speak in an informal setting. Phrases including “like,” “you know,” and “okay” are interwoven in most common speech, but as with slang terminology discussed above, they have no place in news scripts. Conversational should mean informal and relaxed, not lazy and babbling.

Writer Ernest Hemingway famously used the fewest amount of words possible, shunning adverbs and adjectives with a vengeance. He was once quoted as being thrilled with communication on the telegraph, since the labor of tapping out indi vidual letters forced writers to eliminate excess words and get to the point quickly.

FAST FACT: “OK” is an abbreviation of “Oll Korrect,” a popular phrase from the late 1830s.

Modern deadlines and time limits also require writers to remove superfluous words. Mike Liechty, a freelance editor who owns To All A Good Write, says: “Removing the clutter makes your writing and speech clearer and smoother. Many words that can be removed are not incorrect, they just aren’t needed.”

Liechty offers the following list of words and phrases that almost always can be taken out of a sen tence in whole or in part. This can be done without any harm because they are wordy or redundant:

FIGURE 6.2 Mike Liechty operates a website blogspot with tips on writing accurately and concisely (screen image at www.toallagoodwrite.blogspot.com/).

■ And also—“and” is enough.

■ Is currently—“is” is enough.

■ Is now, are now—“is/are” are enough.

■ Is still, are still—“is/are” are enough.

■ Will now—“will” is enough.

■ Will eventually—“will” is enough.

■ Both he and she—“and” is enough.

■ Meanwhile—often used as a transition word. It’s weak.

■ In the future, in the past—context of sentence usually makes these unnecessary.

■ According to—use “said.”

■ Got under way—use “began.”

■ As early as, as late as—context of sentence makes these unnecessary.

■ Along with—“along” not needed.

■ Right now—“now” is enough.

■ Will be held at—use “will be at.”

■ Not as yet—use “not yet.”

■ For his part, he said—“for his part” is unnecessary.

■ His own, its own—“own” not needed.

■ No chance whatsoever—“whatsoever” not needed.

■ Has a record of 10:2—use “is 10:2.”

■ At the corner of—“at” is enough.

■ Sought after—“sought” is enough.

■ Closed up, closed down—“closed” is enough.

■ Auctioned off—“auctioned” is enough.

■ Sold off—“sold” is enough.

■ First ever—“first” is always first. “Ever” not needed.

■ Including the following—“including” is enough.

■ Are as follows—“are” is enough.

■ Either or—“or” is enough.

■ Has already been—“has been” is enough.

■ Past experience, past history—“past” is redundant.

READING YOUR COPY OUT LOUD

Reading copy out loud helps you determine when words should be contracted, which words should be emphasized, how clear the sentences are, and how well the copy flows from sentence to sentence. Writers should not be embarrassed about reading copy aloud in the newsroom. The ear, not the eye, is the best judge of well-written broadcast copy. It is almost impossible to catch some poorly written phrases or sentences without testing them on the ear. In particular, you may not realize how complicated a sentence is until you read it aloud. There may also be a case of poor sentence structure or phrasing or you may encounter a situation like this:

The school superintendent says the new teachers’ contracts are the best that can be offered in this tight budget year. When the veteran teachers finally received the paperwork in the mail this week, almost half of them promptly resigned.

Do you see the problem with the final word in the sentence? Did they resign the contracts, binding them to their jobs for another year, or did they resign from their jobs, meaning the school needs to find a new crop of teachers? By reading the copy out loud and hearing how the change in inflection can alter the story, you prevent the anchor from fumbling the story away.

AVOIDING INFORMATION OVERLOAD

Often, copy that is difficult to understand contains too much information in any one sentence, a situation known as information overload. Some of the nation’s finest newspapers are guilty of overloading sentences, but, as mentioned earlier, readers can always reread complicated passages. Here’s an example of some copy from a major city newspaper and how it could be simplified for broadcast:

Two weeks into the Congressional debate on taxes, and with at least two more weeks to go, it is clear that Congress will eventually approve a big tax cut, smaller than the $726 billion, 10-year reduction the President proposed but still the third largest in history, on top of the largest, enacted just two years ago this month.

Quite a mouthful. It is not well written even for a newspaper, but in its present form, it would be outrageous to read on the air. For broadcast, we must chop that unmanageable paragraph into separate new short sentences that can be easily understood by the listener.

Our first sentence could start out this way: “Two weeks into the Congressional debate on taxes, it is clear that Congress will eventually approve a big tax cut.” Next, we could point out that the debate will go on for at least two more weeks. Our third sentence could deal with the amount of the proposed tax cuts: “The amount approved by Congress is expected to be smaller than the $726 billion, 10-year reduction proposed by the President.” The next and final sentence would give these additional details: “The final tax cut is expected to be the third largest in history, on top of the largest which was enacted just two years ago this month.”

This copy, rewritten for broadcast, can now be understood easily. It would have been virtually impossible to understand the original newspaper copy if it had been read on the air as it appeared in print. Here’s another newspaper lead that needs revising for broadcast:

The Energy Department proposes to spend $2.4 billion next year and up to $3.7 billion in each of the following four years to bring the nation’s paralyzed nuclear weapon production plants into compliance with environmental and safety laws, according to Energy Secretary Walter Gregg.

If you read that sentence to some friends and then ask them to tell you what it says, you would probably find that unless they have unusual abilities of concentration and recall, they would be unable to repeat all the details. That lengthy, involved sentence could be turned into good broadcast copy: The Energy Department wants to spend almost two and one-half billion dollars next year to improve the nation’s nuclear weapon production plants. The funds would bring the paralyzed plants into compliance with environmental and safety laws. Energy Secretary Walter Gregg says the government will spend almost 15 billion dollars over the next four years to continue the cleanup and safety checks.

If you read the new sentences to your friends, they would probably remember more about the story than they did when you read the newspaper version. Let’s examine how the newspaper copy was rewritten. First, it was broken into three parts to reduce the number of details in one sentence. It is easier for listeners to understand the information if they hear it in small doses. The newspaper version mentions two large figures, $2.4 and $3.7 billion. In the broadcast version, the first figure was explained in the first sentence, and the second figure was mentioned in the third sentence.

The first figure, $2.4 billion, was rounded off to “almost two and one-half billion dollars.” It is best to round off figures and to eliminate use of the decimal in broadcast copy because the result is easier for most people to understand. The second figure, “up to $3.7 billion in each of the following four years,” was totaled and rounded off. The result, “the government will spend almost 15 billion dollars over the next four years,” is easier for listeners to grasp because they don’t need to do the math in their heads. Notice, too, that dollars are spelled out in broadcast copy.

No attempt was made in the first sentence to discuss exactly how the Energy Department plans to spend the money. It was enough to tell the audience that the department wants to spend this money to improve the plants. Now that the audience has digested that information, it is told how the money is going to be used, “to bring the paralyzed plants into compliance with environmental and safety laws.” Then, in the third sentence, the audience learns that the Energy Secretary wants even more money in the coming years to complete the job. Just in case the audience was not paying complete attention, how the money is to be used was mentioned again in the closing words “to continue the cleanup and safety checks” at the plants.

LOOKING AHEAD

Some newscasts alert the audience to events that are expected to happen in the future. The information should be as specific as possible. Two examples are:

The President is expected to leave the White House in the next 15 minutes or so for Andrews Air Force Base, where he’ll board Air Force One for his trip to London.

At any moment now, members of the United Nations Security Council will consider new proposals on the crisis in the Middle East. We were told a few minutes ago that members are already arriving at the Security Council chamber.

This sort of specific time reference adds immediacy and drama. It’s much better than offering little more than the bland today reference: “The Security Council meets today to consider new proposals on the Middle East.”

Remember, whenever you use a specific time reference, such as tonight or a few minutes ago, place the reference as close as possible to the verb whose action it describes. It is this immediate updating that keeps news fresh for the viewer. After all, if a double murder occurred three days ago, isn’t it more important to give an update on the investigation than merely rehashing the crime scene details again?

TIMING STORIES

The amount of time dedicated to a story is critical. If a producer allocates 30 seconds to a story, that’s 30 seconds that won’t be available to other stories. But should the reporter write 40 seconds for that story, the producer must then squeeze ten seconds from somewhere else. In a tight newscast where every moment counts, going “over time” is simply not allowed.

There are two ways to time copy. The first technique, which evolved from the early days of radio reporting, is to read the script aloud while timing your reading on a stopwatch. With practice, a seasoned reporter can look at a script and guess the ERT, or estimated run time, rather accurately. The difficulty is when another reporter reads the same script, as everyone reads at slightly different speeds.

The second technique is far simpler with a dedicated teleprompter program. In newsroom production systems, each on-air talent is initially timed for their reading speed. Then, when a story is written, the system automatically calculates the total ERT based on that reporter’s standard reading pace.

As you become familiar with the software, you’ll learn how best to time the material. Newsroom producers deeply appreciate reporters who can nail a given ERT within a second or two. But reporters who consistently provide stories that are far too short or far too long will soon find themselves looking for another job.

SUMMARY

Newswriting depends on broadcast journalists using a style of writing that conveys meaning, relays facts, and engages the viewer. However, there are fundamental mechanics that must first be mastered before elements of style can be addressed. These mechanics include basic information like how to assign a slug to a story, how to set up a split page format, and how to time stories to fit within a busy newscast.

Other facets also come into play. News copy should be delivered in a conversational tone, as the viewers are more comfortable with a news source that does not convey stories in an overly authoritarian manner. Further, the copy should avoid information overload and remove unnecessary words, thus giving a crisper story to the news consumer.

Simply put, the basic mechanics of the news copy must be considered before broadcast journalists address other newswriting matters, such as how to construct a lead and how to create the best phrases. While mechanics may vary slightly between newsrooms, the fundamentals of split page formats, using recognizable slugs, and writing in a conversational style are universal; they should be considered mandatory before one leaps into the nuances of creating stories and newscasts.