If you go into a tv newsroom, chances are, you would see a bunch of people talking to themselves. No, they haven’t lost their minds (at least not most of the time). What they’re doing is writing out loud.
They know what they write is going to be spoken out loud so, their approach to their script has to follow this rule.
Their script needs to be easy on the ear and comfortable to the tongue, which means it needs to be easy for them to say and easy for the viewer to understand.
Try this exercise. Go to your company website and try to read aloud a description of a product, service or better yet, the company itself. Chances are, the words won’t flow readily off your tongue.
That’s because most business communication is designed primarily to be read silently, not spoken. So merely cutting and pasting copy from another business document into a teleprompter script will probably leave you tongue-tied. You need a new approach.
Rule number one when writing for the spoken word — write the way you speak.
Watch this video as Karin Reed explains how to write in your own voice.
Learn More: On-Camera Coach
If you found this information valuable, check out my book, On-Camera Coach: Tools and Techniques for Business Professionals in a Video-Driven World, now available from Wiley Publishing. On-Camera Coach aims to take the mystery out of communicating through the camera and provides specific tips and techniques that can make your message sing—and you, the messenger, feel confident in a job well done.
