Good stuff. I usually nitpick apart posts like hers, because there's no one way to do anything. She has a nice loose approach.

Learn something new every day. Didn't know ACT BREAKS weren't a part of UK TV.

So that's one place I think she's missing in terms of US TV scripts. She also lists "Ad Breaks."

In US TV scripts ACT BREAKS and AD BREAKS are synonymous. Where your Act ends is where the Ad break is going to go. Do NOT call them Ad breaks. But do separate your Acts.

One of the major reasons to include them is that ACT OUTS often are a good indicator of how capable a TV writer you may or may be. We have advertisements we have to battle. This means Acts need to be constructed in a bit more of a cliffhanger fashion. You really want to craft every Act Break in a fashion that makes the viewer not just want to come back, but hunger, need, lust, thirst to know "what happens next."

In a lot of ways, the ACT OUT is almost more important than the Act itself. So much so, that it often can effect the construction of a story.

Anyway you slice it, Act Breaks are immensely important to US TV.

NOTE: There may be some obvious exceptions, like HBO / SHOWTIME. But for the most part, US TV has Act Breaks.

Hey Scott, thanks for the shout-out - appreciated. Glad it's of use to writers and that James thinks my approach is "loose", 'cos that's what I was trying to do - I agree totally there's no one "way" to do anything in this script lark! Mad to be rigid, for sure. x

In the 90s I worked on a British show made by an independent producer for the BBC, and despite the HBO-style absence of ad breaks he insisted we structure the scripts with crises corresponding to Act Outs. He was right. It raised everyone's game, imposed a pace and a structure (and I imagine made it easier when he came to sell the show to overseas markets).

Wow, that's really interesting Stephen! Can I add that to the list? I'll tweet you as well x

Quick formatting question: what about indicating dialogue that's to be spoken in another language? Do I use a parenthetical such as "(in Spanish)"? Italics? Underlining?

@daveed: It depends upon how much foreign language you have in the script. If it's a few lines, you can indicate with a parenthetical:

DAVID
(in Spanish)
I'm looking for my wife. She was here
a minute ago. Now she's gone.

If it's several lines in a scene, you can indicate it in scene description:

David and Policeman square off. [All dialogue in Spanish subtitled]:

DAVID
This is a joke, right?

POLICEMAN
For a man's wife to run off with a
priest... I don't find that funny.

If it's a character who only speaks a foreign language throughout, then when you introduce the character, you can note it in scene description:

[All of David's dialogue is in Spanish subtitled].

To my knowledge, there's no one way to handle dialogue as foreign language, but those are a few approaches for specific circumstances.