Writing for the Eye and Ear

Writing for radio and television is different from writing for print for several reasons. First,
you have less space and time to present news information. Therefore, you must prioritize
and summarize the information carefully. Second, your listeners cannot reread sentences
they did not understand the first time; they have to understand the information in a
broadcast story as they hear it or see it. As a result, you have to keep your writing simple
and clear. And third, you are writing for “the ear.” In print news stories, you are writing for
“the eye”; the story must read well to your eye. The television or radio news story has the
added complexity that it has to sound good; when a listener hears the story it has to read
well to “the ear.” Also for a radio news story, listeners cannot see video of what you are
saying, so you must paint word pictures with the words you use in your radio news story so
people can “see” images just through your verbal descriptions.

As with any type of news writing, you should try to identify characteristics of your audience
so you know what type of information your audience wants. Use the criteria of
newsworthiness presented in News Media Writing in this publication series to help you
determine if your television or radio news story idea has news value. Television and radio
news stories must have these attributes:

 The writing style should be conversational. Write the way you talk.

 Each sentence should be brief and contain only one idea. We do not always talk in
long sentences. Shorter sentences are better in broadcast news writing. Each sentence
should focus on one particular idea.
 Be simple and direct. If you give your audience too much information, your audience
cannot take it in. Choose words that are familiar to everyone.
 Read the story out loud. The most important attribute for writing for “the ear” is to
read the story aloud. This will give you a feeling for timing, transitions, information flow,
and conversation style. Your audience will hear your television or radio news story, not
read it, so the story has to be appealing to the ear.

Television and Radio News Writing Structure

 Be brief. A good newspaper story ranges from hundreds to thousands of words. The
same story on television or radio may have to fit into 30 seconds—perhaps no more
than 100 words. If it is an important story, it may be 90 seconds or two minutes. You
have to condense a lot of information into the most important points for broadcast
writing.
 Use correct grammar. A broadcast news script with grammatical errors will
embarrass the person reading it aloud if the person stumbles over mistakes.
 Put the important information first. Writing a broadcast news story is similar to writing
a news story for print in that you have to include the important information first. The
only difference is that you have to condense the information presented.
 Write good leads. Begin the story with clear, precise information. Because broadcast
stories have to fit into 30, 60, or 90 seconds, broadcast stories are sometimes little
more than the equivalent of newspaper headlines and the lead paragraph.
 Stick to short sentences of 20 words or less. The announcer has to breathe. Long
sentences make it difficult for the person voicing the script to take a breath.
 Write the way people talk. Sentence fragments—as long as they make sense—are
acceptable.
 Use contractions. Use don’t instead of do not. But be careful of contractions ending
in -ve (e.g., would’ve, could’ve), because they sound like “would of” and “could of.”
 Use simple subject−verb−object sentence structures.
 Use the active voice and active verbs. It is better to say “He hit the ball” than “The
ball was hit by him.”
 Use present-tense verbs, except when past-tense verbs are necessary. Present
tense expresses the sense of immediacy. Use past tense when something happened
long ago. For example, do not say, “There were forty people taken to the hospital
following a train derailment that occurred early this morning.” Instead, say, “Forty
people are in the hospital as a result of an early morning train accident.”
 For radio news stories, write with visual imagery. Make your listeners “see” what you
are saying. Help them visualize the situation you are describing.

Television and Radio News Writing Techniques

 Use a person’s complete name (first and last name) in the first reference, then the
person’s last name thereafter.
 Use phonetic spellings for unfamiliar words and words that are difficult to pronounce.
 Omit obscure names and places if they are not meaningful to the story.
 Titles precede names; therefore, avoid appositives. Do not write, “Tom Smith, mayor
of Smallville, said today….” Instead, write, “Smallville mayor Tom Smith said today….”
(Other examples: “City councilman Richard Smith,” not “Richard Smith, city
councilman.” “Anyville High School student Beth Baker,” not “Beth Baker, Anyville High
School student.”)
 In age reference, precede the name with the age. (Example: “The victim, 21-year-old
Rob Roy…”)
 Avoid writing direct quotations into a news script, if at possible. Instead, let people
say things in their own words during soundbites. A soundbite is the exact words
spoken by someone in his or her own recorded voice. If you must use a direct quote,
set it off with such phrases as "In the words of..." or "As he put it...," or try to
 paraphrase as much as possible. Avoid saying "quote" and "unquote” to lead into or
end a direct quote.
 The attribution should come before a quotation, not after it. In contrast to writing for
print media, the attribution of paraphrased quotations in broadcast stories should be at
the beginning of the sentence, before the paraphrase. The listener should know where
the quotation is coming from before hearing the quote. Example: “Bill Brown said he
would run for re-election.”
 Avoid most all abbreviations, even on second reference, unless it is a well-known
abbreviation. This is different from the Associated Press Style rules for print stories.
Write out days, months, states, and military titles each time. About the only acceptable
abbreviations are Mr., Mrs., and Dr. Punctuate, by using a hyphen in between,
commonly used abbreviations. For example, write “U-S,” instead of “US” (United
States), and “U-N” for “UN” (United Nations).
 Avoid symbols when you write. For example, the dollar sign ($) should never be
used in broadcast writing. Always spell out the word “dollar.” This is different from the
Associated Press Style for “dollar” when used in a print news story.
 Use correct punctuation. Do not use semicolons. Use double dash marks for longer
pauses than commas. Use underlines for emphasis.
 Use numbers correctly. Spell out numerals through 11. (This is different from
Associated Press Style for print stories, which spells out one through nine, and starts
using numerals for 10 and above.) Use numerals for 12 through 999. Use hyphenated
combinations for numerals and words above 999. (Examples: 33-thousand; 214-
million.) Round off numbers unless the exact number is significant. (Example: Use “a
little more than 34 million dollars,” not “34-million, 200-thousand, 22 dollars.”) Use st,
nd, th, and rd after dates, addresses, and numbers above “eleventh” to be read as
ordinary numbers. (Examples: "Second Street," "May 14th,” “Eleventh Avenue,” “12th
Division”—this is different from AP Style for print.)

Television and Radio News Story Format

 Broadcast news stories are typed, double-spaced, and in uppercase/lowercase.

Many years ago, television news scripts were written in all uppercase, but that practice
has changed in recent years.
 Make the sentence at the bottom of a page a complete sentence. Do not split a
sentence between pages.
 Never split words or hyphenated phrases from one line to the next.
 Do not use copyediting symbols. Cross out the entire word and write the corrected
word above it. This is one reason why broadcast news scripts are double-spaced: so
you will have room to make corrections between the lines.

Narrating Television and Radio News Stories

Follow these recommendations when you narrate (also referred to as “voicing”) television
and radio news scripts:

 Position the microphone properly. Position the microphone 6 to 10 inches from your
mouth and at a 45-degree angle to the direct line of speech. This will help prevent
“blasting” with explosive letters such as “P” and “B.” Always maintain the same
distance from the microphone as you speak.
 Remove noise-making distractions. Remove all paper clips, pens, and other items
that you would be tempted to play with as you read the story. Any rustling of paper clips
or pen clicking can be picked up by the microphone.
 Narrate the news story. After you hit the “record” button on the video camera or
audio recorder, wait approximately 10 seconds before speaking. This prevents you
from accidentally losing some of the narration if you hit “record” and start narrating the
script immediately. It is a good idea to use a standard reference opening, such as the
day, place, and subject’s name. You may want to use a countdown: “Honeybee story,
coming in three, two, one,” and then start the story. This also helps your voice stabilize
as you start. The standard reference opening and countdown will be edited out of the
final story.
 Articulate words correctly. Speak clearly. Do not run your words together. Practice
proper articulation, the distinct pronunciation of words. The following words are often
improperly articulated: “prob-ly” for “prob-ab-ly,” “git” for “get,” and “jist” for “just.” Also,
do not drop the final “g” in “-ing” words, such as cooking, running, and hunting.
 Think the thought. Think about what you are going to say. If something has a positive
idea, put a smile in your voice by putting a smile on your face. This helps to project the
personality of the story.
 Think the thought through to the end. Keep half an eye on the end of the sentence
while you are reading the first part. Know how the sentence will come out before you
start. This will help you interpret the meaning of the phrases of the entire idea.
 Talk at a natural speed. But change the rate occasionally to avoid sounding
monotonous. The speed that you talk is your speaking rate. Vary the pitch and volume
of your voice to get variety, emphasis, and attention. Pitch is the high and low sounds
of your voice. You will sound more assertive if you lower your pitch and inflect
downward; however, avoid dropping your pitch when it sounds unnatural to do so.
 Breathe properly. Control your breathing to take breaths between units of thought.
Otherwise, you will sound choppy. Sit up straight while narrating. This helps your
breathing.
 Use your body. A relaxed body helps produce a relaxed-sounding voice. Do a few
exercises before going on the air. A little activity reduces tension.
 Listen to the final product. Listen to how it sounds. Listen to what you said as if you
were an audience member.
  Time the story. At the end, be sure you time the story. If the story is going on the air
of a radio or television station, the story’s timing is important, and, in many cases,
needs to be exact. Practice writing and narrating news stories to determine what your
normal reading time is.
 Practice your narration skills. Never give up practicing speech and delivery
techniques. Read something aloud at least twice a week for practice.

Additional Information

The Associated Press. (2012). The Associated Press stylebook and briefing on media
law (46th ed.). New York: The Associated Press.

Burnett, C., & Tucker, T. (2001). Writing for agriculture: A new approach using tested
ideas (2nd ed.). Dubuque, IA.: Kendall/Hunt.

Oliu, W. E., Brusaw, C. T., & Alred, G. J. (2007). Writing that works: Communicating
effectively on the job (9th ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Telg, R. & Irani, T. A. (2012). Agricultural communications in action: A hands-on

approach. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar.

Footnotes

1. 

This document is AEC531, one of a series of the Department of Agricultural Education and
Communication, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date January 2015. Reviewed
February 2018. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2. 

Ricky Telg, professor, Department of Agricultural Education and Communication; UF/IFAS

Extension, Gainesville, FL 32611.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to
provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that
function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual
orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on
obtaining other UF/IFAS Extension publications, contact your county's UF/IFAS Extension office.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, UF/IFAS Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A & M
University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T.
Place, dean for UF/IFAS Extension.

TIPS FOR WRITING RADIO NEWS SCRIPTS

In some ways, radio is easier than television broadcasts as you only need to focus in on the audio aspect
of the production. However, it can also be more difficult, in that everything hinges on the quality of the
audio.

This means your audio needs to be even better than anything a listener might find on television. If your
writing skills are not up to par, the quality of your radio news script is going to suffer tremendously. So,
if you are considering entering the world of radio broadcasting and you are looking at the different
schools and programs available, you need to make sure to practice your radio news script writing.

The stronger your writing is, the better your news scripts are going to be.

Short and Sweet

You’ve probably heard the phrase “keep it short and sweet.” You need to embrace this with radio. Your
scripts should not be longwinded as it becomes difficult for the listener to remember what exactly you
are talking about and what the point of the story is. You want to keep the audience’s interest and
provide the necessary information that paints a desirable picture of the scene, without becoming
overburdened with too many words.

Introduce the Audio

With radio broadcasting news stories, you are going to have recorded audio segments. You should
always bookend the audio recording with your script. This way, you can introduce the audio with your
short bit of information and offer a conclusion with your script as well. The recording is the middle
segment of your story.

Work on the Tease

You need to grab the attention of your listener with your intro. As you don’t have visual elements to aid
you with this, everything needs to come through the language you use. It needs to be active and tense.
It should draw people in and make them want them to hear more. Think of it as the teaser trailer for a
great film. You want to whet the appetite of the listeners so they can’t wait for you to return and
provide more information.

Cut Out Your Opinions

If you are a shock jock radio host, sure, interject your opinion. That is what you are paid to do and you
want to give out your opinion so callers can either support or reject your stance. That makes for great
talk-show radio. However, a radio news script is not for a talk-show. It is for a news show that needs to
deliver just the facts. In order to make sure the listener receives the best quality news program, you
need to remove your opinions completely from the broadcast and keep it entirely focused on the news.

Fact Checking

Before ever bringing it up over the airways, it is vital for you to fact check. The last thing you want to do
is provide inaccurate information. Now, from time to time you might find out that you provided
information that turned out to be not entirely true, even though your sources indicated it to be true at
the time. Should you find this out, it is important to cite the correct source and provide the correct
information when you can. This helps ensure your level of integrity. News, whether it is radio or
television broadcast, is all about integrity. Once someone questions it, you have lost them forever.