Monday, May 21, 2007

Writing For Multimedia
Something to think about, if not to learn from by example! :-)
One way to achieve this is by keeping your scripts in the active voice. Active voice is more direct, and usually shorter than a passive construction. The passive voice tends toward imprecision, which affects clarity. A good way of cleaning up your scripts is performing a global search for words like “be,” “can” and “will.” There are some instances where passive voice is acceptable, usually shifts of time, or sentences where the person who performs the action is unknown or unimportant:

1 comment:

Ed Darrell said...

Boy, howdy, did you hit that nail on the head.

When I wrote for politicans, I discovered a great secret in the active voice, especially for speeches. But there is danger in the active voice.

Active voice inspires action. Active voice takes a stand. Active voice draws lines and asks others to choose on which side of the line to stand. Active voice makes people angry.

All that is good, if that is your intended effect. Watch the anger part, when you're delivering messages to people that you know they won't want to hear.