Write so that the story can be understood on the first listen. In print, readers can refer back in the story if they don’t understand a sentence or paragraph. In broadcast media, if the listeners get confused, you’ve lost them.
Adopt an informal, conversational style. Broadcast writing should be presented in a person-to-person style that develops a sense of friendship between the listener and the broadcast talent.
Write in simple, short and concise sentences. Avoid compound sentences. If the sentence requires colons or semi colons for comprehension, break it into separate sentences. Complicated sentence structure will only confuse the listener and the on-air talent.
Use ellipses as a signal for pauses. The… “three dots” should be used to cue the newscaster to the proper pacing of the piece. Commas are also used extensively to guide the newscaster as to the “phrasing” of the piece.
Use an active voice. Nouns and verbs are preferred in broadcast scripts over adjectives. Avoid vague language. Be specific. Use specific words over general ones and avoid using independent clauses. Also avoid abbreviations and contractions.
Place attribution at the beginning of a sentence, not in the middle or at the end as you would in a print article.
Capitalize key words of the script. Use large fonts such as size 14 or 16 and double space to make the script easier for the on-air talent to read.