You've probably spotted that a handful of the same names pop up on the Newsjack credits list every week. It's not all that surprising. I think it would be downright peculiar if every week, 30 unique names appeared, implying that no-one ever got better at writing for the show.

However, the list is jumbled mix of commissioned, non-commissioned and BBC Radio Comedy department contract writers, so it's probably handy to explain who is who. Now, I'm going to use the writer's list from Series 5 episode 2 for the next clutch of statistics. (I considered breaking down a few other episodes, but anyone with a passing knowledge of simultaneous equations would be able to work out who is who, and I suspect that breaks the data protection act).

So, here we go. In series 5 episode 2, there were 22 writers credited (not including myself). Of those: 63% were non-commissioned writers, 22% were commissioned writers, 10% were the BBC Radio Comedy department's in-house writers (Benjamin Partridge and Andy Wolton) and 5% was Jon Hunter (A fellow Newsjack script editor and commissioned writer for episode 2, but who will be inheriting the red pen for episodes 3 and 4 of this series).

So, let's explain each of those roles...

Non-commissioned writers send in material to the newsjack@bbc.co.uk email address and, unsurprisingly, make up the bulk of the writer's list. 63% is a lower figure than normal for this category - but I think that's because this week's episode had fewer JackApps than normal and not as many occurrences of me constructing a gag-heavy Frankenstein's Monster of a sketch, by wedging two (or more) contributions on the same subject together.

I'm sure this process has been documented elsewhere on the BBC Writersroom blog, but we get somewhere in the region of 1000 sketches and 1000 pages of one liners into the Newsjack inbox and every single one of them gets read. Not by me. They get read by the producers of the show, the BBC Radio Comedy department's contract writers, production co-ordinators and the producers of other shows. Good sketches get put into a folder, which the script editor and both producers read on Monday night, deciding what is good to go, what might be fixable and what won't make it.

The Commissioned Writers come into the office on the Tuesday and they write sketches on stories that have broken Tuesday morning, and anything that we had hoped would be covered by the non-commissioned writers, but wasn't. The commissioned writers are people the producers are confident can be given a topic and provide a funny, broadcastable sketch in a fairly tight timescale.

The reason that the deadline for non-com sketches has to be on Monday at the latest is that we'd never have the time to read and edit everything by Wednesday's recording otherwise - that's why we need a handful of trusted writers on the Tuesday to fill the gaps.

Now, these Commissioned Writers aren't plucked from the sky or some pool of established BBC favourites - they are the people who have had a consistently good hit-rate, having submitted material on a non-commissioned basis for previous series of Newsjack. This gives the producers an opportunity to meet the people behind some of our favourite sketches, get to know them and show them exactly how a sketch show is put together. Newsjack would be a thoroughly pointless exercise if we just dished out the occasional on-air credit and did nothing else. Getting people in to see how we operate and how the show works hopefully offers some form of progression, and commissioned writers for the next series will no doubt include a few names that have come to light on this current series.

The BBC Radio Comedy Department's In House Writers are currently Benjamin Partridge and Andy Wolton. They are on a one-year contract and work in the department 4 days a week, on whatever shows need extra writers. You've probably heard their names at the end of The News Quiz or The Now Show. On Newsjack, they are part of the team who read the sketches on the Monday, and are in the meetings with the commissioned writers on the Tuesday. They also do sterling work, saving sketches that the producers or I like the idea of, but aren't quite ready to go on-air. I also show them the opening monologue on a Wednesday morning, as they can always spot an opportunity for a joke that I may have missed.

Benjamin Partridge actually got his first credit on Newsjack, back in Series 2. He was then invited in as a commissioned writer, was recommended to some other BBC producers for other projects and was then invited to apply for the in-house job.

The Script Editor has to turn the sketches into a workable show. Sometimes it's gagging up a sketch or tweaking lines. Sometimes it's taking 4 page sketch and turning it into a 2 page one. Sometimes it's making so many changes, that when the writer receives their cheque in the post, it's a puzzle for them to work out which bit was originally theirs. Anything that helps make a broadcastable show.

I always want to put as much as I can on-air. I want to give as many people a chance at getting an on-air credit. But late on Tuesday evening, when all the sketches are in front of you, it really is only about making a really good radio show. Saying "oh, but it's all by new writers", isn't going to impress someone catching 10mins of it when they get home for work (or, for that matter, impress BBC Radio 4 Extra if we want them to keep commissioning it!) It really is all about making the funniest show we possibly can.

Which is why Newsjack is not a "new writers competition". There are no winners. It is a sketch show with an open door policy, where the team behind it promise to read and consider every single sketch that is sent in. It's also probably the best way to get noticed and get your first radio credit.

Visit the Newsjack website and find out how you can submit your sketches and one-liners to the show.

Because we're a few series in, there are already a plethora of articles on the BBC website full of tips and tricks on how to give your material the best chance of getting on-air. Dan Tetsell, who script edited series 1-3, wrote an excellent series of blog posts for the BBC writersroom, which you can still read, and there is now a brand new writer's brief on the show's homepage (which I'm expecting around a quarter of contributors to ignore, and stubbornly continue to send in sketches and jokes tailored for Miles).

One topic I'm not sure has been mentioned, however, is how we plan to deal with some of the larger news stories that have happened during our time off-air. In particular, one regular Newsjack contributor asked whether we were planning on covering the rioting in a stand-alone sketch, as a runner, in the opening monologue, or in gags across the show.

First of all, Newsjack is definitely about this week's news. I know BBC Radio 4 Extra often trades in archive material, but the fact we record the show so close to transmission is one of the things that makes Newsjack stand out - So whole sketches which could have been written a month ago will immediately feel rather out-of place.

Having said that, the riots were a major news story, the discussion and debate about what happened continues to rumble on, so I would expect the topic to crop up somewhere. Maybe as the punchline to a sketch on something else entirely, maybe in a sketch marrying the riots with Alistair Darling's new book (I've seen stranger things tried), maybe just in a JackApp? The truth is we don't know yet.

The way the question was phrased made me think that the contributor thought there was a "right answer" on how to cover a story. Newsjack isn't a competition or puzzle where we spend Monday sifting through hundreds of sketches trying to find the one that is most like the one we already had in our heads (which we then put that on-air and award the writer a prize based on how long they managed to drag their answer out for).

On the Monday, the team go through the sketches looking for the ones that are fresh, relevant and, most importantly, make us laugh. Inevitably, a lot of people write very similar sketches, so it's often the quirky ones that approach the story in a way we didn't expect that really stand-out.

As the series goes on, there'll no doubt be topics and jokes we get lots of, and things we could really do with more of. Keep an eye on the NewsjackBBC twitter account, updated by the show's producers, and there'll be webchats throughout the series with myself and the other script editors (Jon Hunter and James Kettle) where you can ask us anything and we can skilfully avoid difficult questions.

Good luck!

The new series of Newsjack starts this Thursday on BBC Radio 4 Extra at 22.30.

Newsjack want YOUR sketches and one-liners - find out how you can submit.