From Print to Audio

Posted on: Mon, 07/08/2019 - 13:13 By: Daniel Anderson

First read the materials at the link below.

Next, consider the topic of yourpodcast, and then add a comment to this posting. In your comment explain how you plan to translate the advice in the reading to your group's script for your audio essay. Post your comment before class on Tuesday, July 9th.

https://training.npr.org/audio/the-journey-from-print-to-radio-storytelling-a-guide-for-navigating-a-new-landscape/

Comments

My plan to translate the advice in the reading to my groups script is understanding how listeners listen, use good work for sound, and to focus on a mainstream topic. In order to do this my group will have to focus on our podcast being interesting about the climate change topic overall and elaborate well on it. 

The information from this article is very useful and relevant to creating our group's script. One of the key ideas that the article discusses is staying away from the inverted pyramid. The article explains that the inverted pyramid is essentially beginning topics with too much information. This is viewed negatively because often providing too much information right away overloads the listener as well as does not allow for conversation to last longer and develop. So, it will be important as our group begins to write our script that we try and avoid saying too much too early. Also, another key idea of the article is writing on your own voice. This is extremely crucial because when dealing with podcasts listeners aren’t seeing what you have on the paper but instead what your voice is saying. So as a group when we write our script we need to make sure that it is written in a fluent way so that it does not come off as robotic.       

I feel like I sometimes speak too fast or don't think through my words so they make sense when they come out so this article set some good guideline as to how I can avoid that. I need to make sure that I use short and easy to understand sentences so that the listener can catch and absorb everything I am saying, but also make sure that what I say isn't boring and comes off fluid and not robotic. One thing that I do think I am good at that the article mentioned is writing for my own voice. The article suggests that you should "speak it before you write it" which is something I always do with my writing already. I also feel like it is easy for me to write like I am having a conversation. Another thing the article emphasized was the importance of quotes and outside research. Going into the podcast I need to make sure I have a lot of evidence and outside research to bring into the conversation to expand on and introduce new ideas.

This article makes a really good point about how different print and audio are when it comes to storytelling, or just talking in general. One of the main points that are made is that it is important to avoid speaking in dependent clauses when using audio. I think this will be very beneficial for me to implement in my group, because I tend to speak how I write, meaning I use dependent clauses sometimes and it can become confusing. While talking about the topic of climate change which is confusing enough, my speaking needs to be clear in order to get my point across more effectively and efficiently. Another piece of advice that will help the script flow more is to speak it before you write it. This means speaking what you want to say so that it sounds more natural instead of using a monotone form of writing. 

Something I would like to focus on is when the article talks about writing for your voice. Before writing out what I want to say, I'm going to make sure it's more conversational and that it sounds like me. Another thing I never thought about is the understanding of how listeners listen. Instead of giving out data and important information all at once, it needs to be more spread out and broken down into shorter sentences. I liked it when the article brought up the importance of silent cues because the microphone can pick up anything. So instead of laughing or reacting during the podcast, I can give a head nod or hand gestures to communicate with others. Overall, this article was very helpful and made me think about the do's and don'ts of podcasts and what to focus on. 

When planning out my part of the podcast, I really need to focus on writing how I will speak.  Therefore, I need to make my notes basic so it will give me room to discuss it with the rest of my group, but specific enough to get a point across quickly.  I also need to make sure not to speak too quickly and participate in the other discussions before we start mine.  The article was helpful with making it clear that the translation from writing to speaking is a lot different and will be perceived in a different way.  It is important to remind yourself that you are having a conversation and not writing an article.  It will also be important for my group to transition smoothly between topics without overloading information.  Each person will have their own section of knowledge, but everyone will have an even amount of input during discussion.  One last thing the article highlighted was the importance of being aware of your surroundings while recording.  We need to be careful of any movements or sounds we make because the listeners will immediately pick up on them and could give away our body language.

The most interesting part of the article was the emphasis on writing the script using the same tone, vocabulary, and syntax that you naturally use when you speak. It is not prudent to speak the way you write. Oral communication is generally composed of short sentences, clear vocabulary, and independent clauses. When I'm writing my script for the podcast, I need to remember to write clear sentences that are easy to follow auditorily. 

A few takeaways I got from this article is to make sure you don't make unnecessary noises such as "uh-huh" and other little things because microphones can easily pick up on that and might distract listeners. Also, since there are 5 people in our group, it is important to not speak over each other and respect everyones turn to talk. When using quotes, make sure they introduce a new idea or data and are not just repetitive and repeat what has already been said. Also, make sure everything is in your own words because you don't want anything to sound pre-written or forced. 

Something that I plan to focus on during the podcast creation is the idea that we cannot explain and represent all of our top, most important information within the very beginning of the podcast. By doing that, it causes the attention to be grabbed my the audience for a quick minute, only to later be lost when less and less important information and statistics are explained. In other words, as the podcast progresses, the information being spoken should get more and more relevant, therefore continuing to engage the audience throughout the entirety of the podcast, and not just the start of it.

In the section "Understand how your listeners listen", I think a key takeaway is the presentation of information. My group's topic is mental health education, so we have statistics and facts to talk about. I think it will be important for us to avoid presenting too much heavy information at once. In relation, the section "Rethink your use of quotes" explains how the choice of quotes/clips is very important because radio stories include more quotes than print stories. I think that because our topic requires background information and details about current legislation, we have to consider if some quotes or clips are easy to follow and listen to during the podcast. Other sections also pointed out that it's important to allow conversational language that's natural and to avoid using dependent clauses. Those sections were helpful for me because I'm used to writing very formally, so I plan to adjust how I write my sections of the script to avoid sounding too formal on the podcast. 

This article gave me a new perspective of how to do our podcast. One thing that I believe is very important that this article showed me was to "understand how your listeners listen". If I was listening to a podcast I'd want to make sure it was nice and clear, with understandable dialect. Another thing that the article stated was to avoid the inverted pyramid. I never really thought of it but it is a very good point. It states that you don't want to pack all your information within the first couple sentences. You want to make sure you give the listener time to understand the information you're giving. Last thing is that I want to make sure that I am making an equal contribution to my team members information so we can give the listeners different perspectives on the issues being discussed. 

My sophomore year in high school, one assignment we had for English was to write an Oratory. While that is not completely the same entity as a podcast, there are many parallels in regards to speech and writing style. This reading from NPR points out the “fundamental difference” that are commonly overlooked. I think the biggest difference personally is the use non-conversational language, “If you wouldn’t say it that way, don’t write it that way.” One thing the article suggests is to actually speak before writing. In our pod-cast, the script is intended to be more of a guideline for a more organic conversation, rather than a rigidly set in stone. 

Honestly I have never really listened to a podcast or ever messed with a podcast so most of this was new to me. The section that talks about understanding how listeners listen was eye opening to me. Telling a story is a good way to get the listener attached and possibly relate themselves to the podcast making it more entertaining and understandable instead of throwing out a bunch of numbers and "making the listeners do math" which distracts them from the story you are really trying to tell. Also something else that will be useful is narrowing the stories focus to try and keep the listen from getting lost. You really have to make sure the podcast doesn't get too boring otherwise it could turn the listener away. Questions and quote will also be useful because talking for 30 minutes about a topic isn't that easy, especially when you are trying to make it entertaining. Good questions and quote are something that can easily spark conversations and possibly lead to some pretty good and interesting stories that some of our group members may have. Lastly the podcast needs to flow, it can't be something that's just scripted. Once again it's going to be boring most likely if you're stating random facts and the podcast sounds choppy. Overall this was a very good read going into making this podcast.

This article was SO insightful; I'm completely second-guessing the way to go about the script. One of the first pieces of advice from the article may be the most important for me: talking in shorter sentences, and in a slow, clear voice. I tend to talk nonsensically for long periods of time, and it's useful to think of how the audience receives and absorbs the information before getting ahead of myself. 

The point of having a 'narrative arc' is advice that I didn't even know I needed. It changes the way I plan on approaching the introduction and the organization of the podcast as a whole, which I now think needs to be edited to tell a more enticing story. The final takeaway I need to remember is that there should only be one or two key points to the podcast; it can't be riddled with extraneous information and try to emphasize too much at once. 

The article is very useful as it points out the major differences between a print and radio. There is no going back in radio so you have to stick with pace and make sure that your transitions from one topic to another is smooth and apparent. Sentences that work in print may not necessarily behave well in radio as it may seem like an unnatural conversation. Phrases need to be precise, short, and to the point in order to get the reader engaged and interested in the topic. Talk before you write is an interesting advice as it prevents you from interfering with how you would normally type, keeping the writing natural. Keep the story focused throughout the entire process as being broad will make the conversation awkward and harder to keep up with throughout. Use quotes to introduce new topics and keep the radio moving forward which helps not to get stuck on one topic for too long.

One thing I learned was to pay attention to how I talk when on a podcast. You can't just talk like you would if you were writing something because it will be hard for the listener to keep up. It's also important to restrict yourself from using number so you don't lose the listener. This article was helpful because it gave examples of what to do and what not to do. This whole article was basically a guideline of how to create  proper podcast.

For the podcast, I plan to introduce and use more quotes. Before, I believed that quotes would be used sparingly. Now I see that quotes are essential for introducing new ideas and expanding on older points. Finding more quotes that could add to the conversation is essential. I also plan on focusing on more specific topics to prevent the audience from being lost. Many of our topics at the moment are too broad and need to be narrowed down.

When speaking in my podcast I will make sure to keep at a good and consistent pace. The article suggests slowing down and break up sentences, so the audience is not overwhelmed with the information. I will use this advise in my podcast by making sure my sentences are short instead of long. The article states to practice speaking out loud to find a “radio” voice. Before we finalize our podcast, I will make sure to practice the script before speaking out loud. Also, I will use my own voice instead of trying to sound professional. I will make sure to transition the different sources each group members used for our podcast smoothly so that the listener will be eager to follow our podcast.

Sometimes I speak too fast or I tend to mumble my words so this article helps me with what to do when I am mumbling or talking fast. I need to make sure that I use short and easy sentences so that the listener can understand everything that is being said. I also need to focus on having an interesting topic and not to go on to long on one topic. Going in to this podcast I will have a series of key words that will help me make conversation about our topic.