Adopt recognised good practice style guidelines where they exist

Conveying the relevant information as completely as possible, in a way that is easy to understand and that fits into the time available, is a skilled editorial task. There are a number of audio description resources available that offer very detailed guidance on how to achieve this, including specific tips on the use of English linguistic mechanisms. For example, the Audio Description Coalition Standards includes guidance such as:

Use “while” and “as” to join two actions only if there is a connection between them: “John picks up the knife as Jill turns away.”

These are very useful as sources of further guidance on techniques that may be used to meet many of the functional guidelines presented here.

They provide suggestions on such matters as how to indicate different types of sounds, how to convey the speed or pace of sound, when to indicate the name of the speaker and how to present text on screen for maximum readability, and other aspects. They may covering stylistic considerations down to a fine level of detail, such as whether to use onomatopoeia.

Some of these are official or recommended style guides for a particular organisation or industry. An example is the BBC online subtitling editorial guidelines which outline the requirements for AV content commissioned by the BBC for bbc.co.uk. Another is as the Closed Captioning Standards and Protocol for Canadian English Language Television Programming Services,adopted by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters as the mandatory guide to Canadian English language closed captioning for television.