The document provides tips for writing scripts for broadcast media. It recommends writing as you would speak to make the writing sound natural and like a real person. Some key tips include using simple sentences with one idea each, putting attributions before quotes, avoiding passive voice and hypothetical questions, and spelling out foreign words to avoid stumbling during reading. The overall goal is to communicate with listeners in a conversational style.

1. Writing for Broadcast
No. It’s not the same as print.

2. Write the way you speak
• Remember: You are communicating with
one person at a time the way you would
talk to a friend or family member
• Reverse engineering: Think about how
you talk, then write with a similar
vocabulary, syntax, grammar, and
cadence.

3. How to Sound Like a Real Person
• Say your sentences before you write them
down
• Don’t use words in a recording that you
wouldn’t say at other times
• Don’t use syntax that does not occur naturally
• Use the present progressive tense: clock is
striking midnight, people are sipping coffee.
Pretend you have a person on the phone to
whom you’re describing exactly what’s going
on.

4. How to Sound Like a Real Person
• Put the attribution before the quote
• Simple sentences: Simple structure. One
idea per sentence. Subject, verb, direct
object.
• Avoid generalities: many people think,
studies show
• Make scripts reflect colloquial speech
• Easy on the titles

5. How to Sound Like a Real Person
• Get rid of the passive voice
• Get rid of the hypothetical questions: Have
you ever wondered?
• Remember the audience is made up of
listeners, not readers
• Watch out for grammatical errors: The letter
describing the four separate studies reads like a mystery
novel.

6. How to Sound Like a Real Person
• Avoid needless repetition of words
• Get rid of clichés, acronyms, superfluous
names and numbers
• Spell out foreign words or hard-to-
pronounce so you won’t trip yourself up as
you read.

7. Writing for Broadcast
No. It’s not the same as print.