Hey everybody, this is Terry Hill from The Seaplace Group and you are listening to the Audio Blog of CREATEAIVoiceovers.com, the show that explains how to best use text-to-speech technology for content writers, educators, and entrepreneurs who are looking for an effective and cost-saving way to communicate with your audience.

Today’s topic, Use Tone to Write Better Audio Scripts is provided by elearningart.com

Use Tone to Write Better Audio Script:

As with all forms of writing, it really pays to think about the people for whom you’re writing and the subject matter you are writing about so that you can choose the right “voice” for the information. The goal in setting the tone is to match both the audience and the subject matter in terms of word choice, sentence structure, point of view, and seriousness

You can probably imagine how your response to each of those would be different if you were creating a program on, say, product safety for an audience of pharmaceutical scientists versus a program on a start-up’s new bring-your-dog-to-work policy. At both ends of the tone spectrum, you’ll want to build consistency into your writing approach. Here are a few areas to pay attention to

Pronouns... If you use the pronoun “we” to refer to the collective people in your company, be careful about switching to “you” arbitrarily. (Good: “At Acme, we value our customers. We serve them attentively.” Not so good: “At Acme, we value our customers. You must serve them attentively.”) Avoid switching back and forth between collective and individual pronouns — it’s confusing and can sound a little accusatory. Instead, choose one or the other and make the most of that choice.

Verb Tenses... Another point of consistency comes in the form of verb tenses. For your first draft, you may find that free writing helps capture the information you need to present, but you owe your viewers a good review of that writing to make sure that the logic of verb tenses is working in the direction of comprehension.

Suggestions versus Rules... Even when the tone of an audio script program is friendly and conversational, it’s important to use clear language signals to help your viewers take away exactly what they need to know. For example, read the sentence, “You should turn the dial clockwise if the LED glows green.” Does that feel optional to you, as though it’s a suggestion? The words “should” and “if” may be signaling that. In contrast, does the following sound more like a rule to you? “You must turn the dial clockwise when the LED glows green.” In audio script, it’s important to vette your word choices so that they will convey the exact meaning and viewer understanding you intend.

Micro Instructions... When you drive down the highway in the US, you’ll note that all the signage is the same. That’s intentional because when issuing instructions, keeping the same experience from instance to instance means less processing time for the driver. The same is true for our audio script programs.

If you need to issue an instruction — a cue to the viewer — no need to be fancy. Just develop a list of well-worded instructions (sometimes referred to as “micro copy” or “micro instructions”) and choose from that list every time. No need to get fancy. Those are just a few areas in which it pays to build awareness so you can write the best audio script possible. As you write your scripts, pay attention to things like this that you see. Making a note of them and reviewing your notes before writing a script will help you get better and better at setting the tone and avoiding the problem areas. As a content creator, educator, or entrepreneur it is important that you are using Artificial Intelligence strategies to help save time and money as Text-to-Speech solutions can be enabled easily with minimal maintenance. Until you join us again... Thank you and have a great day!