RECAST FORMATS - Radio
script
Definition: A
radio documentary or feature is a purely acoustic performance devoted to
covering a particular topic in some depth, usually with a mixture of commentary
and sound pictures. It is broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such
as tape or CD.
Example of radio
documentary script
PASSAIC ON STRIKE (2006)
NARRATOR: FEW PEOPLE ARE STILL AROUND TO REMEMBER, BUT IN
1926, INPASSAIC NEW JERSEY, 16 THOUSAND WOOLWORKERS STRUCK THEMILLS AFTER THEIR
MEAGER WAGES HAD BEEN CUT. THE STRIKELASTED NEARLY A YEAR. SUPPORTERS ACROSS
THE NATION SENT MONEY AND FOOD.
NARRATOR: THE 19 TWENTIES ROARED ALRIGHT, BUT NOT THE WAY MOST
PEOPLETHINK. COMING UP AFTER THE NEWS, A DOCUMENTARY: PASSAIC ON STRIKE!
Instrumental of 'in'TWe
Got Fun'
THE BATTLEGROUND
FUNDING ANNOUNCER: THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM IS A CO-PRODUCTION OF NJN
PUBLIC RADIO AND THE NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL COMMISSION. FUNDING FOR THISPROGRAM
WAS PROVIDED BY THE NEW JERSEY COUNCIL FOR THEHUMANITIES, A STATE PARTNER OF
THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FORTHE HUMANITIES, AND THE HISTORICAL COMMISSION. THE
VIEWSEXPRESSED IN THIS PROGRAM DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSEOF THE COUNCIL,
THE HISTORICAL COMMISSION OR NEW JERSEY NETWORK.
Street ambiance. Crowd scene.
Milling crowd, a bit threatening. At a distance. Car doors being slammed. A
tiny little bit of talking.
JOHN DOS PASSOS: At the place where the meeting was going to be
forbidden the people from New
York got out of the shiny
sedans of various makes. The sheriff was a fat man with a badge like a star off
a Christmas tree. The cops were waving their clubs about, limbering up their
arms .³All right move ‘em along,´ said
the sheriff. The people who had come from New York climbed back into the shiny
sedans of various makes and drove away. The procession went back the way it had
come, down empty streets, past endless facades of deserted mills, past brick
tenements with ill-painted stoops, past groups of squat square women with
yellow gray faces, groups of men and boys, standing still, saying nothing,
looking nowhere, square hands hanging at their sides, people square and still,
chunks of yellow gray stone at the edge of a quarry, idle, waiting, on strike.
John Dos Passos.
DEE GARRISON: Well, the nineteen twenties is presented as a time of
gayety and short skirts and short hair and lots of women dancing around Like,
people were supposed to have had money and fun. But the reality of the twenties
is that it was a very huge gap between the rich and the poor.
[Bring up music and lyrics
again.]
There’s nothing purer, the
rich get richer and the poor get children. In the meantime, in between time,
ain’t we got fun.
NARRATOR: THE 1920’S ROARED ALRIGHT, WITH THE SIREN OF
INJUSTICE. THE REDSCARE, LYNCHINGS, AND THE LABOR WARS.NOWHERE WAS THIS BATTLE,
BETWEEN THE HAVES AND HAVE NOTSMORE BRUTAL THAN IN PASSAIC, NEW JERSEY 15 MILES
WEST OFMANHATTAN. HERE, IN 1926, 16 THOUSAND WOOLWORKERS WALKEDOUT AFTER THEIR
MEAGER WAGES HAD BEEN CUT 10%. IT WAS A LONGSTRIKE -- NEARLY A YEAR -- AND IT
CAUGHT THE ATTENTION OF INTELLECTUALS AND ACTIVISTS NATIONWIDE. OVER THE
HARSHWINTER OF 1926, PASSAIC BECAME A BATTLEGROUND, NOT JUSTBETWEEN WORKERS AND
BOSSES, BUT BETWEEN THE TRADITIONALTRADE UNIONS AND A RENEGADE ORGANIZER IN THE
AMERICANCOMMUNIST PARTY, WHO ENVISIONED A MILITANT, INDUSTRIAL UNIONFOR ALL
WORKERS.
NOW THE STORY OF.´PASSAIC ON
STRIKE!
JIM SHENTON: I was born in Passaic. I lived either in Passaic or
in Clifton most of my life.
[Eastern European music
begins.]
NARRATOR: THE LATE JAMES SHENTON WAS A LEGENDARY HISTORIAN
ANDTEACHER AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. HE ONCE RECALLED THATIMMIGRANT CULTURE WAS
SO STRONG IN PASSAIC, NEW JERSEY. ITWAS LIKE LIVING IN EASTERN EUROPE.
JAMES SHENTON: My grandmother -- who came in 1878 and died in 1931
-- never learned to speak English. She didn’t have to. She could speak
Hungarian, because that was partof the fact of being born in Hungary, Slovak --
if you know Slovak, you more or less know Czech you knew Polish. She picked up
German. By the time she got here, she knew enough languages that English was
sort of an impediment. In away, it becomes a world in which the stalla babbas
-- the old women -- the old grandmas -- wearing the babushkas -- was part of
the normal life of this town. My mother’s family came from the area of Slovakia
which is called the Spisarea. This was an area that had apparently some kind of
influx of Germans, and it was an area of what was then the Kingdom of Hungary
in which wool production wasan aspect of their daily lives.
NARRATOR: IN PASSAIC DAILY LIFE WAS DOMINATED BY TWO WOOLEN
MILLS-- THE BOTANY AND THE FORSTMANN AND HUFFMANN, BOTH GERMANOWNED. IN 1890
CONGRESS HAD PASSED A TARIFF THAT MADE ITPROHIBITIVELY EXPENSIVE TO IMPORT
WOOL, SO THE GERMANSOPENED MILLS HERE.
JIM SHENTON: When World War One began, the Alien Custodian
Commission seized control of the factories that were German-owned
NARRATOR: AND WHO EXACTLY WAS PUT IN CHARGE?
JAMES SHENTON: American
officers. When World War One ended, Colonel Charles Johnston, who had been in charge
of the Botany Woollen Mills, effectively began fighting to gain control. The Germans
began fighting for regaining control, and this began to reflect itself in working
conditions. The working class got caught in between in these fights. Wages began to come down, and this is where it
gets really uneasy. The Bolshevik element came in. And the CP became a fact of
life in this area.
[The Red Army singing ³ The
Internationale.´]
NARRATOR: IN THE WAKE OF THE 1917 BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION IN
RUSSIA, THEFLEDGLING COMMUNIST PARTY IN AMERICA, THE CP, OFFERED AN ALTERNATE
VISION FOR THE WORKING CLASS IN PASSAIC. TO THEUNASSIMILATED IMMIGRANTS,
COMMUNISM WAS NOT A FRIGHTENINGFOREIGN IDEOLOGY, RATHER A WAY TO GAIN CONTROL
OF THEIRLIVES. THE RED SCARE DIDN¶T SCARE THEM.
PAUL BUHLE: There was a tremendous wave of government-inspired,
but also conservative, propaganda.
NARRATOR: PAUL BUHLE, SENIOR LECTURER IN AMERICAN CIVILIZATION
AT BROWN UNIVERSITY.under which the Russian
Revolution, for instance, was described as having nationalized women, and which
the atheistic quality of the new Russian leadership was played up as an attack
on God. And through which all respectable, God-fearing and monogamous Americans
were told that they had to resist Communism, because otherwise there would be
God-less triumph and no sexual morality.
NARRATOR: MANY YOUTHFUL AMERICAN IDEALISTS WHOSE SYMPATHIES
LAY WITHLOW-PAID WORKERS DIDN’T BUY THE RED SCARE, EITHER. SOME JOINED THE
YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE.
RADIO DOCUMENTARY SCRIPT - SOME USEFUL TIPS TO USE
Voice
Use more than one voice.
I’d recommend an announcer / main presenter and a second
voice.
Two typical structures:
A –
divide the script into two voices. One voice presenting one subject and voice
two presenting a second subject. For example, speaker A presents Bill Gates’s
private life and biography and speaker two presents Bill Gates’s professional life.
I’d recommend that the two voices present short presentations each and then
repeat until complete.
B –
divide the script into two voices using an interview format. One voice the
interviewer and a second voice the interviewee. It’s really important to have
the interviewer ask short simple open questions that enables the interviewee to
present all or most of the relevant information from the source text.
Layout
Most radio scripts have the page divided into two columns.
The first column is used to identify who is speaking and the second column contains
the script. Sometimes rows are inserted to add sound effects or music or voice
overs. You could easily present your script like this
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Jeremy Paxman [Interviewer]
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So David, in your opinion, how do A Level students survive
their exams?
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David Loffman
[interviewee]
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Preparation and practice are the two most important
factors in a successful exam period.
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Jeremy Paxman [Interviewer]
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I know that you’ve been a successful lecturer now for 28
years. Could you tell our listeners some practical advice about how to
prepare and practice for their exams.
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David Loffman
[interviewee]
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Well students often feel out of control when facing exams.
They often feel that it is a process in which something unpleasant is being
done to them and that they are powerless
and quite passive.
It is right that they are going to experience a relatively
short period of time of intense prescribed activity where they have very
rigid and limited choices to make. But I feel they should take every
opportunity to control as much of the situation they can.
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Jeremy Paxman [Interviewer]
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Like what for example
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David Loffman
[interviewee]
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Students can write an exam time table. For example allocating
specific time to particular activities. For example, at 9.30 read the SECTION
B question and annotate the extract. At 9.45 write a bullet point plan based
on the question and annotations. At 9.50 write the recast task. At 10.10 plan
the commentary and at 10.15 write your commentary. Then at 10.30 read the
SECTION A question……..
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Conventions
Use a maximum of two sound effects in your recast text. Perhaps use one at the beginning and one at the end of your extract. Remember that you are being assessed on your use of written language; however one very clear way of getting marks is to identify the genre of a recast text. One straight forward way of achieving this is to adopt its layout and the conventions - a way in which something is usually done. By quoting the conventions of a recast text you will be preparing for a good commentary paragraph. For example
Conventions / Speaker
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Text
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Voice of invigilator announcing the start of an exam. Sound of shuffling students / papers
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The time is now 9.30 this exam lasts two and a half hours. You can turn over the question paper now
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Jeremy Paxman – [Presenter]
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Well it’s that time of year again where all over the country students are sitting their exams. I have with me in the studio today……..
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Commentary extract
I used a recording of the start of an exam to draw the listener’s attention to the subject matter of the documentary. I wrote this declarative in note form because it’s part of the convention of radio script writing, ‘Sound of shuffling students / papers’ to make the programme sound realistic and to add tension for the listeners. I thought the sound effects would draw their attention.
Have a look at the way sound effects are used in the example documentary script I’ve reproduced.
But remember not to spend very much time on the layout and conventions. It says in the assessment objectives, ‘Convincing use of form with sustained evidence of audience and purpose being addressed. ‘ The term ‘form’ here relates to layout and conventions. The references to ‘audience and purpose’ will be dealt with using language.
I think if you use the margin in the answer book of the exam to place conventions and speaker information , that would be enough.
SOME FOLLOW UP WORK
RADIO SCRIPTS - Read the example radio script above and identify conventions, key features, identify how the text addresses audience and purpose, uses genre conventions and creates specific effects from an audience.
KEY FEATURES - RADIO SCRIPTS can include a really wide range of different formats, audiences, purposes and topics. For gthe purpose of the exam simplicity is the best policy to adopt where possible. Don't worry too much about how the script looks but really try and communicate specifically to an audience, adopting the basic format ideas referred to above using the appropriate purpose. Remember the content of the source article is the primary information to be addressed.
CONVENTIONS – a way in which something is usually done –such as structure, layout, address heading[s]
COMMENT – on function[s] of the convention within the context of the
TEXT - Link to audience, purpose, genre, wider context, attitudes to topic[s]and topic[s]themselves
EFFECT – identify the intended effect of the CONVENTION on an audience / reader
LANGUAGE FEATURES - identifylanguage and literary features common to RADIO SCRIPTS. Find a good quotation - short and contains strong language features - comment on these and show effects on readers.
FOLLOW UP
READ and become familiar with RADIO SCRIPTS. You will find many examples online. They are usually relatively short, accessible and on interesting topics. Avoid drama scripts and focus on documentaries.
Identify a 300 - 400 extract and identify conventions, language features, good quotations, make brief comments about function of the language feature and on effects on readers.
SOME FOLLOW UP WORK
KEY FEATURES - RADIO SCRIPTS can include a really wide range of different formats, audiences, purposes and topics. For gthe purpose of the exam simplicity is the best policy to adopt where possible. Don't worry too much about how the script looks but really try and communicate specifically to an audience, adopting the basic format ideas referred to above using the appropriate purpose. Remember the content of the source article is the primary information to be addressed.
COMMENT – on function[s] of the convention within the context of the
TEXT - Link to audience, purpose, genre, wider context, attitudes to topic[s]and topic[s]themselves
EFFECT – identify the intended effect of the CONVENTION on an audience / reader
LANGUAGE FEATURES - identifylanguage and literary features common to RADIO SCRIPTS. Find a good quotation - short and contains strong language features - comment on these and show effects on readers.
FOLLOW UP
READ and become familiar with RADIO SCRIPTS. You will find many examples online. They are usually relatively short, accessible and on interesting topics. Avoid drama scripts and focus on documentaries.
Identify a 300 - 400 extract and identify conventions, language features, good quotations, make brief comments about function of the language feature and on effects on readers.
Click here for a link to website about scripting radio documentaries. It's not written for us but it does include some useful information.
Click here for a link to a Cupcakes post that asks you to write a radio documentary script.
