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Chapter 2. Copywriting Style – Basic Mechanics. How many people are you trying to communicate with when you broadcast? Who else must the writer keep in mind besides the viewer or listener? Radio and TV format
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Chapter 2 Copywriting Style – Basic Mechanics
How many people are you trying to communicate with when you broadcast? • Who else must the writer keep in mind besides the viewer or listener? Radio and TV format • See p. 18 and 19 – Radio and TV copy formats. What is the big difference in radio and TV scripts? • Good method of setting up a two-column format on p. 20. • All “shops” don’t follow exactly the same format.
Neatness • What would be the effect of copy with a lot of corrections (crossed-out words)? P. 21 • With word processing, little need for hand-written corrections. • What does “wordiness” mean? (bottom of p. 21) Abbreviations • What about abbreviations? P. 22 • Differences in hyphenated abbreviations (Y-M-C-A) and acronyms (MADD). P. 22. • What about symbols? P. 23 • What are the problems with web addresses?
Conversational • Why should we write in a conversational style? • Try to write each spot so it can be read and understood the first time through. • What about contractions? P. 23 • When do you not want to use contractions?
Cliches and superlatives • What are clichés” When we talk about clichés, we’re mainly talking about broadcast advertising clichés. See Table 2.1 on p. 24. • What are superlatives? What are the problems with using superlatives? • What about questions that listener or viewer can answer with “yes” or “no”? (“Do you ever wish you could work seven days a week?”
Punctuation • What does punctuation do for the announcer? • Difference in a comma and a period? • Difference in a comma and a dash or an ellipsis? • Difference in a dash and a hyphen? • Why underline a word or phrase?
Numbers • See p. 27. Spell out “point” or “dot.” • Round-off large numbers. Why? • If you use telephone numbers, give them at least twice. Why? • What’s a better way to give location than a numerical street address? • What should you do about difficult-to-pronounce words or names?
Grammar • How can you overuse pronouns? Why can pronouns be confusing? P. 29. (Use advertiser’s name instead of pronoun). • Can you ever leave out verbs? P. 30. • What’s the difference in active and passive verbs?
Additional rules in brief – p. 32. • Generalizations – better to be specific. • Avoid “if” • Avoid negatives. • Use present tense.