How to write copy for radio

A lecture from Annette Rizzo. I found it to be really helpful, so I thought that it couldn't hurt to stick it on here.

Writing copy

You have to work twice as hard to grab the attention of a listener when writing a news bulletin, as there are no visual aids.

Good copy will:

• Have a 'headline' style to it
• Have the main point of the story in the first sentence
• Cut out waffle. It's not a lecture or an essay - just include the salient facts
• Avoid repetition e.g. avoid using 'The Government wants... the public wants'
• Avoid polysyllabic words where a mono one would have done the job... like I could have just said 'long words' there. The copy will have to be read out on air, and words that are tricky to say just make the whole process more difficult
• Avoid clichés, melodrama and emotive language - where applicable; it is acceptable to say house prices 'crashed' if they dropped overnight by 30%, but not acceptable to say an MP 'attacked' the Prime Minister when all they did is disagree with them. Unless The Sun has a radio station, leave it out
• Avoid complex sentences with many a comma. It's not an 18th century book on philosophy, and while the reader is struggling to make sense of the long sentence a listener will lose track of what they are trying to say
• Remember your target audience at all times. While younger listeners will prefer a more conversational style, older listeners tend to see this as a lack of authority. It's acceptable to use longer words for an older audience.
• As you write your copy, read it aloud to see if it flows and is easy to say.

Mechanics

1 line spacing

One side of the page only, to avoid the sound of rustling paper on air

Never handwritten, always typed up so that everybody can read it

Audio cuts written as: "Mr Brown has defended his decision"

Audio name - Brown expenses

IN WORDS: I have already...

OUT WORDS: ...will not be drawn.

Duration: 10'

SOC

(which means standard out cue - I'm John Smith, and that was the news. You stay classy, Hampshire)

Peas in a POD - Perfect Oral Delivery 

PACE

Nice, consistent pace

Slower than ordinary conversation

Variation in intonation

PAUSE

Well placed pauses

Mark script with pauses

Helps to phrase things properly - spoken punctuation

PHRASING

Grouping of words into 'sense units' A sense unit is a mental concept spoken in one breath.

PITCH

Is the position of sound on the tone scale.

Make it low but give it variation

Mark your script so that you know where the most important words are which should have the most stress

PRONUNCIATION

Received pronunciation used to be the standard - not many stations would deviate away from that

Any accent is acceptable now... BUT:

Avoid glottal stops (sounding like you're from Eastenders) and misconstruing the meaning of words

e.g.

Perfect is an adjective. Perfect is a verb. Be clear.

PRACTICE

Recording yourself speaking is the only way to improve.

Also helps to listen to the professionals doing it - listen to the radio.

That's it folks.

Radio bulletin

After taking a look at this recent BBC article, Tom and I felt inspired to get up and interview our friend Gemma and her lecturer for their thoughts on the matter.

In addition to school teachers, we cover why social care workers should be careful about having any personal information stored on an easily accessible Facebook profile. It's just a bad idea in general though really, isn't it?

We didn't understand why the clips of us chatting had so much echo; was it just us being newbies or the nature of the sound room? Constructive criticisms on a postcard please. We thought this was alright for a first go but y'know, we want to improve.

Tell us what you think in the comments. Cheers!

Rousseau and the Romantics

Does the heading sound like some nerdy indie band name? I don't know. I would look it up to see if it exists but I'm too scared of what I might find. Some other time maybe.

Indie tosspot vs gothic cathedral;
the same thought processes at work.

In any case, Jean-Jacques Rousseau would probably have no problem sporting the meticulously crafted amalgamation of old and new that is the choice clothing of lots of young'ns today. He headed the whole Romantic movement which contains, among other things, a desire for the aesthetics of the past. It explains why in the 18th century there is a sudden revival of the Gothic architecture associated with the Middle Ages - it's all down to a bunch of people looking at old stuff and deciding that it looks cool, an ethos which has been very much carried on to the present day and seems to be the basis for all executive decisons made in fashion.

Mary Wollstonecraft was a huge misogynist.

Bless her, pretending to read.

Well, not really. But she did lay it on a bit thick.
Mary Wollenstonecraft is often referred to as the first 'real' feminist. She lived up to the label; she had numerous affairs behind her husband's back (as men were prone to do to their wives) and authored a very influential bit of prose questioning why exactly women don't hold the same status as men, and came to the conclusion that it can be all followed back to the quality of education that women are denied. From reading through "A Vindication on the Rights of Women", I saw that she was relentlessly angry and passionate about her cause. She hated everyone. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I kind of like her.

It's been a while!

You know, it's not in my nature to outright lie, so I'll just come clean. I've done a fantastic amount of nothing over the Christmas holidays, apart from plugging a 100 or so hours into a console game. I didn't rise before 11am on any given day and slept for an average of 13 hours. I think I walked about a mile over the course of seven weeks.

All in all, a qualified success!

So, to ease me back into the routine of actually doing anything at all, I've been asked to look at blogs belonging to journalism students from other unis. From what I can gather, we're pretty hard done by. Most of theirs seem to be more 'personal' blogs, talking about their experiences at uni so far, relationships, opinion pieces, festivals, stuff like that. No tedious law notes or metaphysical discussions. Maybe their courses involve more hand-in assignments than ours?

Now I think about it, personal blogging would probably be far more challenging for me. I think I'd be stuck for material when I lead the life of a particularly lazy pensioner. I'm not complaining or anything because my sedentary lifestyle is pretty sweet. It's just not very gripping.

There's a Cardiff student blog that specialises in newsworthy though - it's all law reporting, like the one by Andy Giddings we have here. Sadly, it seems to be inactive.

I've left comments on the other blogs, but due to moderation or inactivity I'm not sure if they're showing up or not. I'll continue to find some more and add them as they come through.

Links:

Cardiff Court Reporting: http://thecardiffcourts.wordpress.com/

UCLan blogs:

http://studentlifeofmine.wordpress.com

http://lifeoffatima.wordpress.com