[story credits.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Credits for [[A Christmas Story]. The names joined by "and" means that these three writers each worked separately on their drafts of the screenplay.]]

In the United States, screenwriting credit for motion pictures and television programs under its jurisdiction is determined by either the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) or the Writers Guild of America, west (WGAw). The Guilds are the final arbiter of who receives credit for writing the screenplay, the original story, or creating the original characters, a privilege it has possessed since 1941. If a production company is a signatory to the Guild Basic Agreement, it must comply with Guild rules.

Rationale

The system is seen as important to writers primarily for reputational purposes. Nearly all sources (e.g. the Internet Movie Database) list only the official credits certified by the WGAE or WGAw. John Howard Lawson, the first president of the Screen Writers Guild (the former name of the WGAw) said "a writer's name is his most cherished possession. It is his creative personality, the symbol of the whole body of his ideas and experience".