Script to be kind…
… with your Voice Over in mind
I received a great e-learning script yesterday. It was so straightforward to read! I was immediately in love with the writer, who had kept the sentences short, used words instead of bullet points and had even written out all the numbers in words too.
Hooray!
Voice overs deliver kind writing best!
And we deliver it faster too.
Good script, happy voice artist, happy, engaged repeat customers!
A not-so-great script
Funnily enough, today I received an audition script that was pretty much the opposite of great. A paragraph that was one, long sentence, with multiple sub-clauses including two verb series’! Phew! With a bit of work it was do-able, and it worked okay. But it honestly would have been a lot more punchy split into two or three separate sentences. However well a voice over can voice, if the grammar is clunky, it’s simply clunky.
Write like you’d say it
Many script writers do this. They write how they would say it, and the script flows naturally. But sometimes the writer has been asked to adopt a particular style, and that can contribute to scripts that are overly wordy or are full of bullet points.
Finding more natural ways to write really improves e-learning scripts. It improves the voice over’s delivery, and that improves the listener’s experience too.
E-learning script writing tips:
Find ways to limit bullet points, parenthesis and brackets
Or, and, with, as well as…
Limit word series’
e.g. ‘We aim to design, build, perfect, execute and improve within three, five or six weeks, depending on your project.’
Read your script out loud to yourself
If you find something tricky - change it!
Write acronyms out phonetically
e.g. IUPAC: eye-you-pee-ay-cee? eye-you-’pack’?
Specify how a number should be pronounced
2020 - twenty-twenty / two-thousand-and -twenty?
Add pronunciation guides for unusual names (remember that what is normal for your might be unusual for me! )
Phonetic Alphabet Printable
Click on the button to get a printable phonetic alphabet table you can stick up near your desk!