Writing Style

 

BROADCAST NEWS STYLE RULES

Use upper and lower cases. In other words, NOT all ALL CAPS.

Do not abbreviate the names of states, street addresses,and titles (except for the courtesy titles Mr. Mrs. and Dr., which may be used sparingly.

Avoid using the initials of organizations unless they are well-known by their initials. Examples of acceptable abbreviations are F-B-I, Y-M-C-A, G-O-P and F-C-C, which may be used in a first time reference. When you use initials for these or other organizations, forget the period after each letter and use a hyphen to separate each letter. This tells anyone reading your copy to pronounce each letter separately. However, some organizations that are well-known by their initials are pronounced as a word, so hyphens nor periods should be used to separate the letters. Some examples are NATO, SEATO, UNICEF, HUD.

Use contractions freely to make your writing more conversational. But be careful that the contractions you use don’t cause confusion and perhaps mispronunciation, such as a news reader saying “ill” instead of “I’ll.”

NEVER start a story with an unfamiliar name because the listener may miss it. Set the name up first (delayed identification), then provide it in a subsequent sentence. You may begin your story with the name that most people are familiar with, such as President Bush, Governor Abbott, Senator Cornyn, etc.

If a person is well-known, the first name may be omitted, such as President Obama, Governor Abbott etc. Omit the middle name or initial of a person in the news unless the person is normally known by the full name, such as George Bernard Shaw, Martin Luther King, etc.; or in a case where the middle initial is needed to complete the identification of person, as in cases of very common names, such as John ( ) Smith, James ( ) Jones, etc.

Normally use a person’s title before his or her name. However, if the title is long, such as the Director of Parks, Streets and Highways, then you produce a “freight-train” effect when the person’s name is also hooked onto it. In a case like this, use the person’s  name first and then the title with dashes or commas to offset the title. Titles are usually not repeated after the first reference.

In the case of a married woman, use Mrs. only if the story mentions both husband and wife. In such case, the courtesy titles (Mr. and Mrs.) are needed for the listener to be able to distinguish which person is being referred to.

For a man, Mr. is NOT USED in news copy except on rare occasions. Examples: to distinguish between husbands and wives as described above; in obituaries; or in the titles of some clergy.

The words “Junior” and “Senior” after a man’s name are not abbreviated and are not set off by commas from the man’s name.

Be sparing in the use of pronouns in referring to previously mentioned persons or groups. Make sure the listener will not be confused to whom the pronouns refer.

Punctuation in broadcast news is for the news reader, not the audience. Therefore, FOUR PRINCIPAL PUNCTUATION MARKS are used in broadcast news: the period, comma, hyphen and dash (the dash is two or three hyphens —). Forget the colon and semi-colon. They are rarely used. Use the hyphen between letters of a word when you want it spelled out on-air. Use the hyphen in telephone numbers and auto tag numbers to indicate they are to be read slowly and distinctly. The dash is used to call for a longer pause than the comma (and the ellipse, three periods…, can sometimes be used in place of the dash of this purpose.)

Hyphenate words such as semi-annual, anti-pollution, co-defendant, non-fiction, non-proliferation, for the ease of the news reader, despite what the dictionary may say.

Avoid using the words, “quote” and “unquote” to indicate you are quoting material until you can prove to yourself that there is no other way you can let the listener know that this is a direct quote of as news maker. (Yes, you will hear on radio and at times on T-V newscasts, these words: “quote” and “unquote”, but, even if they are used as such, they provide an abrupt break in the story. Learn how to get the point across WITHOUT using them.) Rephrase direct quotes into indirect quotes or paraphrases: “The President says he will veto the bill unless it has been changed from its present form.”; break long quotations into indirect and direct quotes. Use phrases like

“As he/she put it,” or “He/She continued,” or “In his/her exact words,” or “To use his/her words,” etc. Normally you can end the quote without calling attention to it, except for an inflection or brief pause.

Regarding numbers, WRITE OUT the numbers one through eleven. USE FIGURES for the numbers 12 through 999. BEYOND 999, use whichever of the above rules apples to the first part of the number, and WRITE OUT the words thousand, million, billion, etc. EXAMPLES: one-thousand, 12-million, 750-thousand, etc. (One exception is permitted: We sometimes handle hundreds in like manner, such as 12-hundred dollars or 25-hundred dollars, but not in the lower figures. Not one-hundred dollars, but 100 dollars, not six-hundred dollars, but 600 dollars.)

NEVER start a story with a number. However, you may begin a subsequent sentence with a number as long as you write it out. In such cases, even the numbers 12-999 would be written out. So, an exception to the 12-999 rule is followed when the number is used to begin a sentence.

AVOID using long lists of numbers. Round off large and detailed numbers where the story content will allow such. Simplify large numbers by such generalizations as “about,” “nearly,” “almost,” “approximately,” and “more than,” etc.

ALWAYS spell out fractions and hyphenate them (one-fourth, one-half, three-fourths or three-quarters, etc.)

In writing time, use figures (8:30, 2:15, etc.) followed by the time of day. For example: “in the morning,” “tomorrow afternoon,” or “last night,” etc. The use of a-m or p-m is allowed, but, to avoid redundacy, do not use a-m or p-m in conjunction with the more specific time references listed above.

In writing addresses, dates and ordinals, spell out “first” through “eleventh” and use of the figures for those 12 and above, followed by the appropriate “th,” “st,” “nd,” and “rd.” Hyphenate numbers in addresses as you want the news reader to pronounce them (27-18 Melrose Avenue).

Forget the dollar sign ($) on your keyboard. WRITE the word “dollars” at the end of the amount. Example: 250-thousand dollars.

Forget the percent sign (%) on your keyboard. WRITE “percent” after the amount.

DO NOT substitute “a” for “one” when it can sound like “eight” on the air, such as in “a million dollars,” which could be misunderstood as “eight million dollars.” Instead, write it as “one-million dollars.”

AGES. Use the exact age if it is a part of the story. (Ages which are routinely included in newspaper stories are frequently omitted when not needed in broadcast stories.) When included in the broadcast story, the proper form is “21-year-old Herbert Smith,” NOT “Herbert Smith, 21” or “Herbert Smith, age 21.”