Writing for Broadcast Journalists

Writing for Broadcast Journalists is the essential guide to writing news for television and radio, guiding readers through the significant differences between writing text to be read, and writing spoken English that will be heard. This book helps broadcast journalists at every stage of their careers to avoid newspaper-style ‘journalese’, clichés, jargon, and inaccurate grammar or pronunciation, while capturing the immediacy of the spoken word in creative broadcast news scripts. It also gives advice on providing concise online material for broadcasters’ websites.

Sections include:

• Practical advice on how to write accurately but conversationally
• How to cope with a dynamic English language, with new expressions and words changing their meanings
• Writing scripts that match the TV pictures, and use real sound on radio
• Detailed guidance on correct terminology and the need for sensitive language
• An appendix of ‘dangerous’ words and phrases to be avoided in scripts.

Written in a lively and accessible style by a former BBC news editor, Writing for Broadcast Journalists is an invaluable guide to the techniques of writing news for television, radio and online audiences.