The Deadly Sins of Broadcast News Writing

Don’t start a story with “as expected” (Don’t listeners tune in to hear the “unexpected”?)

Don’t start a story with “in a surprise move” (Isn’t news full of “surprises”?)

Don’t start a story by saying someone “is making news,” “is in the news,” or “is dominating the news”
• Just tell what’s happening
• Isn’t everyone you mention in the newscast “making news,” etc.?

Don’t start a story by saying, “A new development tonight in the....” (If it’s not new, or a new development, it probably isn’t news)

Don’t characterize news as “good,” “bad,” “interesting,” or “disturbing”
• Let your listener decide if it’s good, bad, etc.
• Was the plunge in oil prices good news for folks in Texas?

Don’t start a story with a participial phrase or a dependent clause
• We don’t talk that way
• It can cause copy to become “weak and murky”
• Can cause confusion
• S-V-O (subject-verb-object) order is the best pattern for your first sentence

Don’t start a story with a quotation
(Your listeners will presume the words are those of the announcer)

Don’t start a story with any form of the verb “to be”
• They’re dead phrases that employ linking verbs
• Use active verbs in the active voice

Don’t start a story with the name of an unknown or unfamiliar person
• Is the unknown person the reason you’re telling the story?
• Most stories don’t even need a name

Don’t start a story with a personal pronoun
(“It” is a “premature” (vague) pronoun)

Don’t write a first sentence that uses “yesterday”
(Yesterday is gone ... update that lead to read from today’s perspective)

Don’t write a first sentence that uses the verb “continues”
(It doesn’t tell your listener anything new)

Don’t start a story with “another,” “more,” or “once again”
(Why listen to more of the same?)

Don’t start a story with a sentence that has a “no” or “not”
• People respond more positively to positive statements
• “Recast” the negative into a positive

 Don’t cram too much information into a story
(Your audience simply cannot process the constant flow of facts)

Don’t use newspaper constructions (Attribution before assertion)

Don’t lose or fail to reach a listener
• Talk to your listener, not at him
• Understand that good writing is hard work
• “Easy writing, hard listening. Hard writing, easy listening.”

Don’t make a factual error (Causes a loss of authority and credibility)