How to Write a Radio Serial Drama for Social Development- PDF

Chapter Two: Writing Begins: The Writer’s Brief 21
Technical knowledge projects frequently have several purposes. The
purpose statement might resemble the following example, which was
taken from the design document for a distance education serial for rural
health workers:
• To teach health workers specific skills of communicating with
and counseling clients on choosing a contraceptive method;
• To ensure that health workers can recall and use correct
screening methods when assisting clients to choose a
contraceptive method;
• To upgrade health workers’ knowledge of the newest
contraceptive methods and to motivate them to learn, recall, and
use this knowledge correctly; and
• To provide higher qualification opportunities for health workers.
If a project has more than one purpose, the Writer’s Brief should specify
whether the scripts should present the various purposes sequentially or
simultaneously.
Without a clear understanding of the project’s purpose, based on
audience and social needs identified by the baseline study, the writer can
only guess at the degree of change the project hopes for and the speed
and frequency with which the serial should deliver the information
leading to change.
6. The overall message and its main emotional focus. Every Enter-Educate
radio serial has an overall message such as, “A planned family leads to a
better quality of life for individual family members and for the
community at large.” Different episodes stress different aspects of the
overall message. Some programs might focus on delaying motherhood
until age 18, the health benefits of spacing births, or the economic
advantages of smaller families. The writer must make sure, however, that
throughout the serial the listeners receive the overall message that a
planned family improves the quality of life for everyone.
The Writer’s Brief should also specify which emotion or moral value
will underlie the serial as a whole. A family planning drama, for example,
might focus on the emotion of happiness as the role-model characters
enjoy improved health and increased prosperity as a result of child
spacing. Alternatively, it might stress the moral value of selflessness, for
instance, when a husband agrees to limit the size of his family to improve
the well-being of his wife and children. (A further explanation of
emotional focus can be found in the notes on “theme” in Chapter 3.)
Without an overall message and emotional focus to link the multiple
plots together, the writer might create a serial that jolts along from one
event to another without cohesion.
7. and 8. Number and duration of programs. The writer must know from
the outset the duration of each program (usually 20 to 30 minutes for a
radio serial) and the number of episodes planned. If the serial is to
continue indefinitely, the writer should have a clear understanding of the
treatment (see below) of at least the first year’s programs before any
writing begins.
2