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| REVISE
AND CONQUER |
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How can you tell your script is done?
For many TV reporters and producers the answer is simple: “By
looking at the clock.” The truth is that “finished”
scripts are a rarity in TV news; what gets on the air is often nothing
more than a draft. That’s because we frequently skip the important
step of revising what we’ve written. |
| Even in newsrooms with a formal script
review process, it’s critical for writers to revise their own
work before handing it to an EP. The writer presumably is in the best
position to spot problems and fix them before going into edit. But
how to begin? NewsLab offers these suggestions. If they help, please
let us know.
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- Wait at least five minutes
before beginning to revise your copy. If you start revising
immediately, you may read what you thought you wrote or
meant to write, rather than what you actually put on the
page.
- Read your copy aloud.
OUT LOUD. Not under your breath. Listen for sentences that
are too long, for awkward phrases and for double meanings.
- Replace jargon, “cop-speak,”
and “journalese” with more everyday language.
(Spot stilted language by starting each sentence you read
aloud with a conversation opener like “Guess what?”)
- Derail freight trains.
Break up long titles and awkward strings of modifying nouns
(“the 6-year-old Boulder area girl”).
- Remove shopworn adjectives
(“tragic,” “stunning,” etc.) whose
only purpose is to tell viewers what to feel. Retain or
add specific details instead.
- Look closely at transitions
in and out of tape. Be sure the lead-in sets up the tape
and explains any pronouns, but doesn’t just restate
the bite. Be sure the tag follows logically from the tape.
Remember: a well-written story is seamless. There are no
sections that can be lifted out.
- Police for spelling (especially
common mistakes) and grammar (especially subject-verb agreement
and subject-pronoun agreement). Make sure your verbs are
in the right tense, and look for any use of the passive
voice that is not deliberate, which may signal missing information.
- Double check for accuracy:
all numbers and calculations; names and titles; date and
time references; superlatives (Is it really the first? The
biggest?)
- Edit backwards. The last
word is the most powerful. Do you need that last sentence?
Those last few words in each sentence? (A chrysanthemum
show featured 51 varieties of the flower.)
- Listen to the story without
looking at the video. Make sure all the sound is clear and
understandable.
- Look at the video without
listening to the sound. Are the pictures telling the story
you want to tell?
- Screen the entire story,
and check how what you’ve written corresponds to the
pictures. Have you merely described what the viewer is seeing,
or added meaning to what the viewer is seeing?
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