Summertime Request 4

Hilliard, R. L. (2014). Writing for television, radio, and new media (11th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

The Writer for Media's Dilemma

In chapter 3, Hilliard asserts:

· Point 1: In broadcast writing it is essential to be brief, retain an informal tone, and be specific.

· Point 2: The radio-television communication process is essentially one-to-one, personalized, and natural.

· Point 3: Use of proper and effective grammar if your ideas are to be communicated and accepted.

In your opinion, does a tension exist between the first two points and the last one? Why or why not? 

In other words, do informality and naturalness go together with proper grammar?  Why or why not? 

Does the type of script change this tension?  Why or why not? 

Does the demographic of your audience make a difference? Why or why not? 

And, has the advent of social media affected this? Why or why not?  

READING

Script formats vary among stations, independent studios, and production houses. Some standard conventions and basic script formats are widely used, however, and are acceptable to almost everyone in the field. These for- mats are presented in this chapter and constitute most of the professional script examples throughout this book. As much as possible, scripts are presented as they were written or produced. The principal difference is that although some televi- sion and all radio scripts are double-spaced, to save space most of the scripts in this book are single-spaced. Several basic script formats are used in television and radio: (1) the single-column format endemic to radio; (2) the single-column format used for screenplays and for single-camera television shows; (3) the two-column television format, with video on the left and audio on the right, used for multi-camera productions; and (4) the film or screenplay format with each sequence consecutively numbered. Final production scripts in radio are sometimes two columns, with the technical sources on the left and the con- tinuity on the right. Television scripts sometimes have the audio on the left and the video on the right. (If you are reading this as part of a course in video, film, or audio writing, your instructor will probably recommend a for- mat, whether one of these or a different one. Be consistent within whatever format you are using.) The single-column format differs for television and radio. The single-column television script resembles that of the screenplay or stage play, with only essen- tial character movements added to the dialogue, and virtually no video or audio techniques inserted. Because radio is not a visual medium, music, sound effects, and microphone positions are essential parts of the script.

In broadcast writing, be brief. Although your writing for print—whether news, an essay, a novel, a short story, or other form—can be as long or as short as it needs to be for optimum effectiveness, your broadcast writing is constrained by time. A good news story in a newspaper ranges from hundreds to thousands of words. The same story on radio or television may have to fit into 30 sec- onds—perhaps no more than 100 words—or, if an important story, 90 seconds or 2 minutes. And unless you have reached the stature of writing a miniseries of four, six, or more hours, you have to condense what might in print be the contents of a novel or a play into the equivalent of 42 minutes for the hour show or 21 minutes for the half-hour show. Retain an informal tone. The listener or viewer does not have the luxury of rereading formal or intellectually challenging passages to better understand what is being presented. On radio or television, a message is heard or seen just once. Although formal language and content structure can be appropriate for some documentaries and news/talk shows, the audience members who miss the next bit of action because they stopped to consider the previously presented material will quickly be lost. Be specific. Vague, generalized action or information tends to be confus- ing and might persuade the audience to switch stations. Make sure that what- ever is presented, whether visual or aural, is simple and clear. Ambiguity can be intriguing in print, but it usually is dull and boring on the air. This does not suggest that you write down to a low level of intellect or understanding. The content you present can be both significant and sophisticated, but you must

write in a way that will reach and affect the audience; otherwise, you’ve wasted their time and yours. Remember, too, that although the term “mass media” is used, the radio- television communication process is essentially one-to-one: The presenter at the microphone or in front of the camera and the individual receptor at home. The material should be written as if the presenter were sitting informally in the audi- ence’s living room making the presentation. Personalize. Demographics are essential to understanding and reaching a specific audience. Try to relate the style and content of your writing to that audience and, as much as possible, to each individual member of that audience. Be natural. Young writers frequently confuse flowery language with high style, and simple, uncluttered sentences with low style. It takes time to shed the glamour of ostentation. This is especially true in the electronic media. Remember the comment in Chapter 1 about the playwright whose 30 pages of scintillating, sophisticated dialogue were replaced by 30 seconds of terse visual writing. Avoid the tendency to write in the following manner: Enough timber was consumed by the rampaging fire in the north woods to create 232 thousand square feet of prime building lumber, the embers of these never- to-be-realized residential manors reaching into the heavens above charred, twisted treetops, disappearing into the void like hordes of migrating fireflies.

Learn to write it this way: The north woods fire destroyed enough timber to build 100 six-room homes, and the smoke and flames were visible as far as 40 miles away. As a young sportswriter, this author developed his style of writing by pre- tending that he was saying the things he was writing to a group of people in a bar or sitting around a living room. Later he adapted the style to the broadcast media by changing the group to a single individual. When you are writing, create in your mind a typical viewer or listener, an imaginary member of the audience to whom you are “speaking” directly, one-to-one. The key: Use informal, concise, active, down-to-earth language. Simplicity Ernest Hemingway’s style as a journalist and novelist would have adapted very effectively to the electronic media. Hemingway advised young writers to “strip language clean . . . down to the bones.” Be simple and direct. Use words of two syllables instead of three. That isn’t catering to the lowest com- mon denominator, but to the essence of aural and visual communication. In

Choose words that are familiar to everyone in the audience. Don’t lose your viewers or listeners by being pretentious or by trying to teach them new vocabulary words. The best way to teach is through the contents and purpose of the script as a whole—through the presentation of ideas. The more sharply and clearly the ideas are presented, the more effectively the audience will understand and learn. Sometimes choosing simple words is hard to do because you must at the same time avoid cliches and trite expressions. Pity the scriptwriter for the disc jockey show featuring a popular pianist. “Meandering on the keyboard”? “Rhythmical fingering of the blacks and whites”? “Carousing on the 88s”? You wouldn’t use any of these overused phrases, of course. But how many times can you repeat “playing the piano”? Look for fresh ways to say the same thing, and if you can’t find a new way that isn’t dull, pretentious, or inane, then just say it as simply and directly as possible. Don’t use words that might be common in your conversation but are not ordinarily used. As a college-trained professional, you have a vocabulary that is at least a cut above that of most of the people you are trying to reach. Someday, perhaps, when you’ve achieved a reputation that prompts people to listen to you not because of what you say, but because of who you are, you can use language and ideas on a level the audience might otherwise tune out. Again, this is not to say that you shouldn’t raise the level of the audi- ence’s consciousness, but unless you keep the audience tuned in, there is no consciousness to raise.

Grammar A character you create for a play can use slang or incorrect grammar as part of that fictional person’s characteristics. Slang may be appropriate for a given commercial or in the continuity of a personality. Other than that, however, you should use proper and effective grammar if your ideas are to be communicated and accepted. A news script with grammatical errors not only will embarrass the anchor reading it, but also could result in the writer losing his or her job. If proper grammar, however, creates a stilted sentence or phrase, difficult to read or comprehend, then shortcuts are required. Frequently, a short, incomplete sen- tence is better than a rambling complete sentence. Just like the sentence you are now reading.

Verbs Use the present tense and the active voice, with the subjects of the sentences doing or causing the action. It would be grammatically correct to say, “Last night another rebel village was destroyed by the Army, and many women and children were killed,” but it would be more effective, as well as grammatically correct, to say, “The Army destroyed another rebel village last night and killed many women and children.” In introducing movie idol George Starwars in an interview script, you might say, “The new movie, Robots of Planet X, was completed last week by George Starwars.” It would be better to say, “Last week George Starwars com- pleted his new movie, Robots of Planet X.” Keep in mind the sports writing analogy offered earlier in this section: Be conversational. The Right Word Make sure you use the right word. In English, many words have multiple mean- ings. Sometimes, even in context, meanings can be mistaken. Be certain that every word you use is the best word to convey what you mean, that it cannot be con- fused with another meaning, and that it is not so abstract or vague as to make your meaning unclear. Keep a dictionary handy. Use a thesaurus. Have a basic book on grammar, punctuation, and spelling available. Considering the inconsistency of spelling rules in English, it is hard to resist President Andrew Jackson’s admonition that “it’s a mighty poor mind that can’t think of more than one way to spell a word.” Nevertheless, an important sign of professional literacy is the proper use of words. For example, do you know the difference between its and it’s, your and you’re, there and their, then and than? Making errors with words such as these when trying to get into the professional field almost guarantees continuation of your amateur status. If you’ve ever been in a newsroom and have pulled copy off a wire service machine or an online printout, you’ll remember that the wire service puts the phonetic spelling of difficult words in the continuity of the script or at the begin- ning or end of the stories. If you have any doubt whether the word you are using will be pronounced correctly, do the same thing. For example, “Our special guest on Meet the Reporters today is Worcester (WOOSTER) State Representative Joe Cholmondeley (CHUMLEE).” When you’ve finished your script, read it out loud and proofread your copy. Redo your script if necessary to get a clean copy to submit to the producer or script editor. A sure sign of a careless, unprofessional writer is a sloppy script with many errors. Punctuation Punctuation is more functional in broadcast scripts than in other types of writ- ing. Punctuation tells the performer where to start and stop. It indicates whether there is to be a pause (by using an ellipsis: . . .), a shorter pause (dash:—), an

Accuracy and Research Whether writing a play, documentary, or news story, be sure you have the facts before you write. If you set your play in a northern urban high school, know precisely what the students and faculty are like in that milieu and what the physical, psychological, administrative, academic, and social atmosphere is at such a school. You can then selectively dramatize those elements that fit your play, eliminating those that you don’t want but doing it from a sound, accurate base.

In general, there are several key sources. Look into your own knowledge and experiences first. You may frequently find information on the topic that you had forgotten you knew. All of us, no matter how long we’ve been around, have more or less limited backgrounds, and we need to go further than our own selves. Recorded material is important: books, magazines, newspapers, photographs, diaries, letters, and audio and video recording. Individuals who are experts on a given subject or who know a given person are good sources, although it is im- portant to get a cross-section of such individuals to avoid slanted conclusions. Libraries, workplaces, organizations and associations, participants, video and audio archives, relatives, neighbors and friends, event sites, artifacts, museums, and educational institutions are some key sources of information. Through the Internet you can access material on virtually any subject. You can get information from official government sources or from web sites serving specialized and even arcane interests. Google, for example, opens up myriad sources on any given sub- ject. Using the Internet does not obviate the need for doing individual field re- search, but it can save much time and energy, allowing you to complete research and prepare a script in a shorter time than otherwise would be needed. A warn- ing: Because anyone, regardless of credentials, can set up an Internet web site, it is sometimes difficult to know whether the information you are getting is valid or unreliable. Before you use any material obtained from the Internet, protect your personal reputation by being certain it comes from a reputable site and by double-checking it with proven, knowledgeable, reliable sources. For example,

600 words and 2 references

1. Hilliard, R. L. (2014). Writing for television, radio, and new media (11th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

1.

Some of the chapter Reading is included

Book is

Writing for Television, Radio and New Media the 11th Edition by Robert Hilliard