Most e-learning scripts I'm sent were written to be read, not heard. That's no criticism, as most course writers spend their days writing for the screen. But a sentence that looks fine on a slide can trip up a narrator, confuse a learner or come out twice as long as anyone expected.
A few small changes before recording make a big difference. They save time in the session, cut down on pickups later and give learners narration that's easier to follow. Here's what I'd look at before sending a script over.
Write for the Ear, Not the Page
Spoken sentences need to be shorter than written ones. A reader can glance back at the start of a long sentence, but a listener can't, so anything with three clauses and a bracketed aside tends to lose people halfway through. One idea per sentence is a good rule of thumb for narration.
Watch out for phrases that only work on paper. "The former" and "the latter" force the listener to remember which came first. Lists of six or seven items blur together when they're spoken. Breaking them into two shorter sentences, or putting the list on screen and letting the voice sum it up, usually works better.
The easiest test is to read the script aloud yourself. If you run out of breath or stumble over a line, a learner will probably struggle with it too.
Sort Out Acronyms and Tricky Names First
Acronyms cause more re-records than anything else. Should "GDPR" be read as four letters or said in full? Is "SaaS" spoken as "sass" or spelt out? Different organisations do it differently, and there's no way for a narrator to know your house style without being told.
A short pronunciation guide solves this. List any acronyms, product names, place names, legislation and internal jargon, with a note on how each one should be said. A phonetic spelling is fine, and for anything really unusual, a quick voice note from someone who says it every day is even better.
Write Numbers, Dates and Symbols as They Should Sound
Numbers look simple on the page and turn out to be anything but simple out loud. Take "1/4/26". Is that the first of April or the fourth of January? Should "£1.5m" be "one point five million pounds" or "one and a half million"? Does "24/7" need saying as "twenty-four seven" or "all day, every day"?
Writing these out in words, exactly as you want learners to hear them, takes the guesswork away. The same goes for symbols like %, & and +, abbreviations like "e.g." and "i.e.", and web addresses. If a URL needs reading out, spell out how it should sound, including whether "www" is said at all.
Don't Make the Narration Read the Slide
This is the most common problem I see in e-learning scripts, and the one learners find most frustrating. People read faster than anyone speaks, so when the voice reads out the exact text on screen, learners finish reading first and then sit waiting for the narrator to catch up.
The narration should do a different job from the slide. If the screen shows a short list of points, the voice can explain what they mean or why they matter. If the slide is mostly an image or a diagram, the narration can walk the learner through it. A short heading can be read out as written, but the body text and the voice work better when they aren't identical.
Mark Your Slide Breaks and Name Your Clips
E-learning audio is usually delivered as separate files, one per slide or screen, so your developer can drop each clip into the right place in the authoring tool. The script is where those splits come from.
Number every screen clearly in the script, and if your team has a naming system for audio files, include it. Something like "M01_S03" for module one, screen three saves your developer from guessing where one clip ends and the next begins. It makes pickups much easier later too, as a single changed line can be swapped in without touching anything else.
Check the Timing Before You Record
E-learning narration usually runs at somewhere around 130 to 150 words a minute, a little slower than everyday conversation. That gives learners time to take in what's on screen as they listen. Dividing your word count by that figure gives a rough idea of how long each module will run.
If the course has timed animations or builds, check the narration fits them. A slide where six bullet points appear in ten seconds won't work with a minute of narration over the top. It's much easier to adjust the script now than to stretch or squeeze the audio afterwards.
What to Send With Your Script
Along with the script itself, it helps to send a few other things:
the pronunciation guide
the storyboard or a screen recording, especially for software training
a line or two about the audience and the tone you're after
the file format your authoring tool needs, if you know it
None of this has to be perfect. A rough storyboard tells a narrator far more than no storyboard at all.
Not Sure Your Script Is Ready?
You don't need to fix all of this before getting in touch. If you send your script as it is, I'll read through it and flag anything likely to trip up the read, such as unclear acronyms or lines that won't fit the timing.
If you're looking for a narrator for your course, you can find out more about my e-learning voiceover work, or send a page of your script to hello@timleevoiceover.co.uk for a demo read. It's normally back the same day.
