The world is filled with books about how to write...for print, for broadcast, and now for "new media." If you took everything I've read about writing for radio and television, and distilled it into a few simple rules, it'd be something like this:
1. Use short sentences. By breaking up long sentences into more manageable bites, reporters can get the point across more effectively. There's no chance of someone getting lost in a sentence, and failing to follow the main story points. It helps with pacing and rhythm, keeping listeners interested. Also, because so much of broadcast news writing is very condensed, short sentences allow you to easily restructure a story.
2. Be Conversational. The cliche (we'll deal with those later) is: "Tell a story like you're talking to your grandmother" or someone else in your family. That's the basic idea of conversational storytelling...but it's a bit simplistic. Obviously, newscasts are a more formalized style than sitting across the kitchen table...but the concept is the same. You're telling a story - not just reading words. Read your copy aloud to someone else...and you'll hear very quickly when you're not being conversational.
3. Use simple, powerful language. A broadcast news report is not the place to try out fancy words or obscure references. People only have one chance to hear your story...don't confuse them. Now, this doesn't mean you should communicate like a fifth grader. It does mean that you should always find the most direct, understandable, and descriptive language to convey your point.
4. Write in active, not passive language. Some people have trouble understanding active writing....here's a pretty simple example: "Somebody did something to someone else." That's in contrast to a passive construction, where "Somebody had something done to them by someone else." The problems with the passive? The sentence is longer by nature, violating a key rule. Also, there's a question over who the "actors" in the story are. Active writing helps us to establish attribution in the story very early on. Of course, as in all things, rules can be broken.
5. Get rid of unnecessary words. This is the editing process in action. Almost every news writer has to write fast and on deadline...and must meet strict story lengths. So, after you've written a nice news story, read it aloud - and start to pull out the words that don't need to be there. The extra adjective that isn't really descriptive; the redundancies; the long-winded titles of public officials; everything that doesn't serve the listener in understanding the story.
6. Avoid cliche. They're everywhere. You can't get away from cliches, especially when you're writing the news. Luckily, if you're following some of the other rules, you don't have to worry about using cliches. A "firestorm of controversy" isn't conversational...so don't use it. Calling people "inner city youth" isn't direct or descriptive - it's a cliche...so find a simpler way to say what you mean. Sometimes you can't avoid them...but I try to avoid cliches "like the plague."
Note: The links in this post are all taken from stories on poynter.org. Poynter is a great resource for journalists of all types. Click on the links, and you'll find yourself in some very interesting discussions of writing, journalism, ethics and broadcasting.
