In Chapter 7 of their text, Beach et al. write, "In creating podcasts, students are doing a lot of writing. They may often write a script or notes to read aloud o their podcast. In performing their script or notes, they may then recognize the need to revise or edit their writing to enhance the sound of it."
This reminds me of a workshop I attended at the 4-Cs last semester. Lead by Peter Elbow, the workshop questioned the patterns of speaking that are found in written text. We analyzed the text of speeches, identified elements of "voice" that we noted in the text, and then compared them to the spoken speeches. The workshop served to reinforce the importance of the concept of "voice," and the exercise lead me to believe that voice can be expressed much differently, or perhaps even superiorly, in speaking rather than in writing.
For this reason, I think Beach et al. are on the right track when they discuss the benefits of spoken projects in the classroom. When students are asked to read their work aloud, they must add elements to achieve the "flow" we often ask them to achieve in writing. When they speak their essays, I think we encourage students to develop their voice and encourage them to revise to achieve the authentic voice we so hope they will discover as they complete our courses. The element of voice is one of the hardest to teach in the traditional composition classroom. It's abstract, illusive, and almost impossible to explain until a student actually does it. When students read their essays aloud, they immediately begin to notice how they "sound." If they're using words that don't "sound like them," they will be quick to realize this as they stand before the sound recorder. They'll also begin to use elements of style, like varying sentence type and length, word choice, and literary techniques (like assonance, allusion, etc.) because they'll start to see that including these rhetorical elements makes a podcast more interesting.
As for the project I am developing, I believe this holds particular implications. Although students can choose any genre in which to create their capstone projects for my advocacy writing class, those capstone projects will be, at least to a degree, persuasive. And perhaps more than any other type of writing, persuasive writing must have the art of "flow," as it's hard to convince an audience to take your side if you're stumbling over your words. In addition, requiring a project that includes a written and a multimodal component can make it much easier for students to see the differences between writing that is meant to be read aloud and writing that is meant to be read to ones' self. This leads to an excellent lesson on rhetorical analysis, as students can relate the medium of publication to what is communicated and how that message is communicated.
I think using podcasts in the classroom can, as Beach et al. suggest, help students to learn to teach each other the methods of composing and the differences between different kinds of compositions.
Miranda,
ReplyDeleteYou make a valid point when you suggest that fluency is easier taught to students who experience their writing orally. Students do not see short, choppy sentences or lengthy run-ons until they read aloud. Unfortunately, they usually look at their instructors (or me, at least) like they've lost their minds to suggest that the class collectively read their essays aloud to themselves to listen to their fluency.
The lack of fluency becomes glaringly apparent during a podcast. Students will not be able to speak extemporaneously and record an excellent podcast. Students will be coerced into writing not by the teacher, but by the nature of the medium.
Of course, we should remember that the art of persuasion was originally taught and perfected orally, dating back to the ancient Greeks. So, if the technology existed, Aristotle most likely would have opted for a podcast over other forms of expression.
ReplyDeleteSomething like a podcast is a good tool for teaching voice because, unlike in writing, it makes the concept of voice concrete and tangible to students.
Laura's comment about "students will be coerced into writing. . . by the nature of the medium" is a good point. I also would add writing/revision because I have seen students spend much more time and energy revising a podcast than they ever would have spent on a strictly written text.
Hi Miranda! liked everything you had to write about and what the first two comments were about! I was just going to say that. Kinda kidding.
ReplyDeleteBut, in your post-you wrote about editing, and revision...it is just something that people absolutely Hate to do! Idk why? I think that it's weird, but I even know students in College that hate to as well. I just always say, "there's no shortage of words"...which I do think or wonder that sometimes writers really like a certain turn of phrase that they've come up with, or an idea that they have written down, to what they consider the best of their abilities. And, they maybe don't want to lose what they treasure that they think or feel that they have captured or created. Have a great day!-Angie
Voice is difficult! I never really fully understood voice until I had different clients wanting me to write with a certain tone: conversational, authoritative, humorous, ect… Voice is more something you feel rather than being something you can precisely employ in your writing. There’s always some tricks, such as using second person in conversational pieces and using certain kinds of words, such as writing the word “inebriated” vs. writing the word “drunk.” Voice is definitely easier to hear when it is actually spoken than it is to imagine in the written word. Also, I suspect that some degree of written voice is subjective. I’m sure readers would read a text differently if they were told that the writer was a librarian or a stockbroker.
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