Reading and Writing in a Digital Age

I managed to cut out about a minute and a half and tried to follow everyone’s advice as best as I could but cutting the gaps between interviews down and editing my opening and closing.

I’m still not happy with this. There’s a bunch of audio problems that I can’t seem to fix, and I think I went too gimmicky with this. We’ll see…

I’ve tallied the votes. Here are the top seven:
Joe (17 votes); Brian (16 votes); Nomi (16 votes); Ben (12 votes); Gen (11 votes); Damla (10 votes); Kunal (10 votes)

Together, these project drafts work out to a total of between 41-42 minutes. We’ll create an hour-long show that includes the seven projects as well as discussions with all the class members on the process of creating the audio-essays: the challenges, goals, and differences between composing for audio and writing for the page.

The show will broadcast from class on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 3 pm on DS106 Radio.

What is ds106 Radio?

Mikhail Gershovich will produce and Luke Waltzer will moderate.

You can follow DS106 radio on Twitter: #ds106radio. Check it out before class to see what’s going on; then, if you’re on Twitter, live tweet the show–or have friends and family tune in and tweet their reactions.

If revisions turn out to be shorter than drafts, we may add another project or two. Stay tuned for announcements!

audio-essay-revision

Email [email protected] for technical questions.

I see that many of you have not yet commented on the drafts of the people in your peer review groups for Unit 2. Comments on your group members’ drafts were due by last Wednesday. Your grade for the assignment takes into account the quality of your work at work at all stages of the assignment: drafting, peer review, and the final product.

Be sure to listen to ALL the projects before class on Monday so you can vote for the ones to go into the radio show.

A very rough draft. (Very.) I still need to interview more people and parse what I already have for the “gold.”

The point of my audio project is to discuss what actually happens over Pride Week and to bring new meaning to the name of Pride Week. I asked “What was the least proud thing you’ve done over pride?” and got many interesting responses. Most were expectedly scandalous, but a couple were deeper and/or more reflective. I want this project to be reflective, thought-provoking, and emotional.

The Ira Glass advice that I will emphasize for this project is (1) cutting things that don’t work (Part 2, 0:00- ~1:30) and (2) to “talk like myself” (Part 4, ~3:40). I was not sure how I wanted to form this project beyond the question I was asking, so my ability to cut what needed to go and to embrace my own input rather than just listening to my responses was in jeopardy.

The largest issue I had with drafting this project was finding a quiet place to edit that I could use for more than a short amount of time. The reason this first draft is so shoddy is that I didn’t have an isolated place to work and think about what to include and what to cut and when to put in music, etc. I need to work on music, timing, order of segments, cutting segments… a lot.

Letters Audio Project Draft

Dear Reader,

After much brainstorming and editing, my radio essay draft is finally complete. I believe that the purpose of my project is to convey a nostalgic feeling. To do this, I incorporated person anecdotes as well as different voices of family members of different ages to convey such a mood. I decided to focus on the three most memorable points in my life, and use letters I received at those momentous occasions to show how the letters added the the memorability of the occasion.

The first piece of advice from Ira Glass I employed was the use of anecdote. At the beginning of Part 1 ,(:38) Glass discusses how important it is to created a flow and momentum in your show. He stresses the importance of hooking your reader in and keeping them captivated. To achieve this, I told the story of three events in my life that shaped me and I hope that they are relatable to at least some of the listeners of my piece. I felt that by including a personal anecdote, I interested the listener and gave them a deeper understanding of who I am.

The second piece of advice from Glass employed in my essay draft was “dont use a radio voice.” In Part 4, Glass emphasizes the importance of sounding natural on the radio thus creating a momentum in your piece. Being that I do  not speak in public often and I strongly dislike how my voice (very powerful Brooklyn accented voice) sounds, this was a big challenge for me. At first I chose to leave my voice out of the project, but in the end decided to share some ideas with my listeners to add a more personal touch.

As for editing, on the technical side I still have more work ahead of me. I am unsure if the second song I used, “We are Family” follows the overall tone of the piece. I also need to work on the volume of my tracks and editing out backround noise. As for the content of my radio essay draft, I am unsure if the piece seems disjointed. I can see how to the listener, the point may not be clear enough although I feel that the purpose is clearly depicted.

My Audio Essay

So, I completely changed my project from what I had originally intended in the proposal. When I tried to do the audio essay about Twitter, it didn’t sound anything like what I had wanted. I decided that telling a story would come out more natural and I would be able to have a little bit more control.

In this audio essay, I talked about how we often encounter weird people on the subway who tend to freak us out. My main point is that while these people do exist, once in a while someone might do something nice that catches you off guard, and to look out for that. When I first started, I didn’t really know what my main point was. I just wanted to tell weird subway stories that had happened to me and to people I know. As I searched for an actual main point, I realized that most of them had to be cut. When I wrote down and recorded the initial story, the only anecdotes that fit were ones that involved actually talking to people instead of just observing.

I definitely used Ira Glass’ advice in abandoning ideas that just don’t work. I started over when I realized my idea wasn’t becoming the project that I wanted to make. I also tried my best to make it flow, as though I were telling a story to a friend. It’s a little bit awkward, though, recording (and then listening to, oh, God) three minutes of my own voice; I sort of wish I had done a “50 People, One Question” type of project.

There is a lot I hope to change in the next couple of weeks. I’d like to rerecord everything, and this time get other people to speak as well. I was thinking of asking people for the weirdest things they’ve encountered on the subway and recording their answers. I think this would add a little bit of dimension to my project, and make it more interesting overall.

Audio Draft

The point of my audio essay is to suggest that, while we all yearn for some sort of familiarity, it is important to actively seek out challenges. I think we all have our own personal bubbles and leaving them seems dangerous or even life threatening at times. Bubbles can be social, personal, racial, or even locational. I attempt to narrate the story of my own bubble and the continuing struggles I face today. I’m trying to convince my audience that they too live in their own bubbles, and while maybe not as extreme as mine, still need to be overcome. I want my listeners to first realize that their bubbles are often self-created, and how important it is to expand this artificial environment.

The first piece of advice from Ira Glass that I tried to employed was contained in Part 2, from the beggininng until 1 minute 30 seconds. He talks about how important it is to cut down your audio so that you can distill your argument. I still need to do some cutting of un-necessary information, and I still need to add some relevant information. However, I have at least started in doing this with my first draft of my audio essay.

The second recommendation I used from Ira Glass was the use of the anecdote, found 30 seconds into part one. My entire essay is my own personal story. While I have the story down, I need to tweak it in order to best convey my purpose and to have the desired effect I want on my audience.

For my revision, I need to focus on changing or cutting out parts of my audio to better relate my story. I want to make it interesting, but powerful and serious. This is challenging for me. I also want to better employ music and sound effects. The music I used in this first draft was not the exact type of music I was looking for.

This entire project has been a sort of experience in itself. I really have learned some things about myself through this essay. I originally wanted to do an essay on the negatives of big cities. After some time, I decided to change my proposal. I wanted to focus on how nostalgia actually can hold us back. How bubbles are negatives. And how almost impossible they are to fully overcome.