Tech Biz Writing

The AV has moved on from the old magic lantern days — but perhaps less so than we think. Multimedia may be the rage now, and even videoconferencing across continents. But to avoid confusing the medium with the message, we’ll here concentrate on the basic information required, as might be prepared for a simple slide presentation. Those who wish to go into the technical specification of hardware available should consult the many books found on most library shelves. A good look at Microsoft’s Powerpoint software, bundled with its Office suite, would also be a useful study addition.

Audio-visual work for industry can be placed under two heads:

* Information (including training)
* Sales (including publicity, exhibitions etc.)

AVs are often used for general staff training or for imparting information about a new system or equipment policy. If the organization is large enough, an entire “information package” may be commissioned, including video presentation, talks, plus supporting literature: brochures or booklets.

The most well-known form of presentation is the simple slide show with supporting speech or voice-over. The slides are synchronized with the sound track and are changed by a pulse recorded over the voice commentary.

The writer’s job, in most cases, is to prepare the supporting script, usually in close collaboration with the speaker, who will want his personality to show through the presentation.

Occasionally, a technical author may be asked to produce the entire package, from concept to end result, a tricky job involving liaison with many other trades, such as photographers, film-makers and sound recordists.

For a small AV presentation, a member of staff may be chosen to record the script or give the talk. In a large corporation, the commentary will often be spoken by actors working under studio conditions.

Whatever the size of the job and the cost of production, the basic principles remain the same. An audio-visual production, combining script with slides or video stills, should be approached in much the same way as any other writing task. The problem set, as always, is one of communication. Certain common features flow from this:

* The material should be fully understandable, and written to the level of expertise of its principal audience.
* A general overview should be followed by a progressive breakdown into relevant details.
* For conceptual material, abstract ideas may be illustrated by anecdotes or concrete examples.

A special point relating to audio-visual scripts is that they are by nature highly concentrated and, equally, highly selective in terms of detail. There is an upper-limit to the weight of factual matter that can be accommodated within a 15–20 minute commentary. A script that sound like a list or page from a telephone directory is hardly likely to be a good vehicle for its subject.

The answer is to paint with a broad brush, leaving much of the detail to the supporting literature. Try to maintain a light touch without losing sight of the main purpose: to complement the visual images in an interesting and informative way.

The layout of an AV script may vary with house-style. It’s worth asking to look at several samples before putting words on paper. For example, a script may be typed landscape (longer edge horizontal), fastened by a staple at the center of its upper edge. Or portrait (shorter edge horizontal). As each page is turned, a line drawing, or print of the appropriate slide, is shown at the top of the sheet, with the commentary on the lower.

Usually, an A4 (11″x6″ approx.) page is divided into two halves vertically, with the slide number on the left and the voice script on the right. This is most suitable for short, snappy descriptions. If, however, the explanatory material is lengthy, either the landscape approach, or a two-page spread should be used to give it more space.

As for length, a reasonable rule of thumb is to allow 15 minutes for 2000 words of script. If long pauses are expected (perhaps for well-deserved applause), this will reduce the wordage per minute considerably, while a continuous conversational style could extend it by as much as 300–500 words. At all events it’s advisable to read the script through at the projected pace with an eye on a stopwatch.

Next 11. Educational Textbooks.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 27th, 2006 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Technical Writing, Business Writing, Publishing, Syntagma Media, TechBiz Writing, Educational Textbooks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.