The need to write effectively for audio coincides with the industry’s overall shift toward digital storytelling. Audio matters in broadcast and online ― and to every newsroom with a digital presence. Writing well for audio ultimately means telling compelling stories and communicating information to time-pressed listeners ― core skills for a 21st century journalist.
This requires a dramatic shift in the way we have been taught to write. In school, our teachers rewarded long, complex sentences with multiple commas and parenthetical clauses that showed we have mastered the basic rules of grammar, spelling and syntax while exhibiting critical thought, nuanced arguments and SAT-level vocabulary. Great writing, we have been taught, is meant to be read ― silently.
“Writing for the Ear” will teach you that great writing can also be spoken.
