Here's a sample story that we're going to write into our "Writing for the Ear" newscast. It'll be the last story in a newscast that's full of Washington-based political and government news. We're going to include two soundbites that you gathered during the week, one to prove...and one to disprove this basic idea: Most voters have already made up their minds about who they'll vote for in the next Presidential election. Here's the basic print story you can use to write around:
Recent national polls pitting Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton against Republican leader Rudolph Guiliani have Clinton leading by between 2 and 7 points. When asked to choose between those two, only 3 to 5 percent pick another candidate, and less than 10 percent say they are unsure.
So, given that story - let's insert some soundbites from our interview subjects. Say who they are, and where they're from, and whether they've made up their minds. Say who they're voting for...or, if their unsure.
A few things about writing soundbites into a story: Let the tape say the interesting stuff, you can handle the rest. Get people saying something emotional, or controversial, or exciting. Don't use an a piece of tape to just roll off a series of numbers, or boring facts. And, don't let the tape say the same thing you're saying in your copy. Some examples....good:
John Doe from Hamden is a lifelong Republican, but he said he made up his mind weeks ago
Doe: "I'm voting for Hillary. I'm just sick of the war, and Bush, and I think she's the best one to get us out."
Here's a bad example:
John Doe from Hamden says he knows who he's voting for - Hillary Clinton.
Doe: "I'm voting for Hillary."
You see the difference. The first example uses tape to help tell the story...the second example just sticks it in to no effect. Oh, and that format works pretty well. Identify your soundbite, then write it out in quotes.
