Reading and Writing in a Digital Age

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.

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.

Dear Listeners,

Audio Draft 

In my audio draft, I tried to picture a moment in my life with two different perspectives revolving around one fact. (which is not yet revealed in this draft.) Initially, I planned to record my part of the story, trying to create as much suspense and interaction with the audience by evoking questions in their minds and then add it together with my dad’s recording which would convey the truth of the whole incident. However, I came across a minor set back after I got a phone call from home that my dad is at the hospital due to unexpected health problems. Having seen my dad healthy all the time, I never expected this to happen and I am quite worried right now. I’m trying to figure out whether I should go with this idea with slight changes or switch to plan B.
As for my part of the recording, I wanted to make it more interesting while sticking to the  facts. To not confuse the audience with esoteric concepts, I made slight changes in names and events by generalizing and replacing it to similar English terms.

The two advice from Ira Glass which I tried to follow were

“In broadcasting you have  two basic building blocks[: the anecdote and the reflection]. … The anecdote, [which is a sequence of actions] … is so powerful … that it has momentum by itself.” (part 1)

“The more you are actually yourself, the better off you are” (part 4, 0:55 – 0:59)

First, I really liked his first advice on formatting the story by sequence of events no matter how boring the fact maybe. When you think about it the imagery, following the questions are what really helps the audience to follow and interact rather than throwing them with topic sentence and list of relevant examples. I also realized how some dull facts can really become interesting when recalling by sequence of events and you might end up finding an fascinating twist in the end. I tried to add my actual thoughts at the exact moment to make it more lively and to give a more personal voice to it rather than just listing facts and sounding fragmented.

Second, I tried to relax before I wrote down the anecdote and started recording it to make it more personal. Due to many exposure by the media, people tend to imitate certain voices of others which, unless its perfect, only adds to the uncomfortableness to the person reciting and the listeners. I thought it was really important that I find my voice to most successfully deliver my story. I tried to add some character as well.

The biggest challenge I think I faced was not being able to contact my dad directly but then some of the minor problems included, vocal clarity, adding music, and forming the story and trying to make it interesting. Due to slight cold, I may not sound as clear but I’m willing to work on it with more practice and I am willing to add some music after the workshop. (I just left the parts blank just in case) I will be visiting the writing center to work on better formatting of the story so that it has the more effect.

What an extremely tiring process that was. Phew* Here’s the finished product 😛

I knew this project was going to be hard, but I didn’t expect it to be sooooo hard. I tried my best to make everything flow as best as I could but in the end there were still too many choppy parts. My purpose or point to this project was to show people how important words are in controlling different situations. Although It might have taken a while to get there, I think I was able to make my point clear. Regretfully, some parts do not flow into each other as well as they could and that leaves some parts of the project quite empty and I will fix them.

Two pieces of advice I followed from Ira glass was to kill parts that didn’t make sense in part 2 and to say it like a story in part 1. I cannot begin to count how many things i cut out from my audio essay. I feel like I made two different essays just by the sheer amount of stuff I had in total but I did manage to cut things out and make sense of most of my pieces. I also tried my best to make it sound like a succession of events that lead to one another but I feel like that part was lacking somehow. In my revision I will try to make the flow better. I tried to make my voice more exciting in order to tell it like a story and I hoped that worked a little. These two pieces of advice were important to me because I felt like they are what makes a story come together and makes the story flow so that it is easy for a listener to enjoy.

The most difficult part of drafting my audio essay was coming up with the project itself. I couldn’t quite get the wording right even though my project was ironically about words. It took a really long time just to get my first lines recorded and even more time to edit them. Another difficult part was figuring out how to save the files so that they could be uploaded. I’m not particularly tech savvy so I probably spent around 30 minutes just trying to get it uploaded onto soundcloud.

This was definitely a challenging project and it really left me in awe of people who do this everyday.

Revision:

*Didn’t include an intro, I somehow feel it wouldn’t work with this… Tell me if I’m wrong.

2nd Draft

*I’m going to add this later but, I will add in the end of the audio clip my question “what would you give if you were to give away something?” – It will make people think more about it.

First Draft

Dear readers,

The message that I’m trying to convey through this very rough audio track (music is not included yet…) is that people are generous when it comes to giving things away. A lot more people tend to care about others, especially the ones close to them, and have the potential to carry out the act of giving for the greater good of everyone. The first step I took to try and show this point was organizing the recorded replies that I attained. After listening through all the responses twice, it appeared that I got more serious answers than trivial ones on what people would give. So it made sense to me to open the audio clip up with the trivial answers then let it progress to the serious ones. I decided to end with a little boy’s response because I thought it provided a great contrast with many of the serious responders – they were older people (not teenagers, although some were). He was probably around ten, or younger, but he was already thinking seriously about making others happy while at the same time sharing that experience. I had never expected a kid to say that. Age didn’t seem to matter when it came to giving generously. Plus, I found his response to be cute. Hopefully others would too and feel a little bit more warm-hearted and generous about giving after listening.

For this project, the first Ira’s advice I kept in mind was on how difficult it would be to get an interesting story and just cut down to the best ones (Part 2, 0:00 – 1:46). I knew from the beginning that I wouldn’t get great responses immediately. I asked many people, but a lot of the things they say are boring not helpful. Some didn’t seem to think before they replied and some seemed to avoid the question by giving a general statement. Once I narrowed down to what I could use, I further took away ones that were interesting at first independently but didn’t work with other responses. But I did keep one: the first response on the audio segment because I thought a general response like that would work only to introduce the audio (0:00 – 0:06). I, however, would play around with it and maybe add in an introduction that would serve as a frame for the piece. The second advice from Ira would be to have a moment of reflection in the audio (Part 1, 3:18 – 3:34). It was near the end of NYAF that I got the little’s response. It was an amusing response, quite thoughtful of him to say that. Honestly, however, his response right now is still weak because I haven’t worked out the way I wanted to emphasize it (4:38 – 4:48). I do believe that it has the potential to be a powerful ending that would engage people in thinking about human generosity, which is exactly what I need in this eclectic audio essay.

There are many problems and many things I need to work on for this project because I am exhausted from three days of walking around in NYAF. Somehow I managed to edit and write this, but it’s very crude. The first problem would be music; I’m still not sure what sounds I should go to move the listeners emotionally. I have a few sad OSTs in mind but I didn’t have time to test it out. Editing the recordings that I got was horrible and tedious. I tried GarageBand but I didn’t really know how to use its equalizer function to reduce background noises of people talking. Then I searched around Google for noise reduction tools and found a helpful guide on noise reduction with Audacity. It was easy with the instructions but it of course didn’t eliminate all the noises. It did lower it though. The tedious part came in when all the responses were recorded around large crowds of people or on the street, and so I had to do it for all the ones I thought would be useful (over thirty… -.-). Using the Noise Removal tool though sometimes changes the recorder’s voice quality which I disliked. I tried to work around to keep the voice quality while minimizing noise – it was impractical…

And so, what I need to do now is to refine the audio sounds (with Audacity, especially on background noise reduction), reorganize some segments to have a better logical flow, and maybe try to frame the piece better (which I would probably need to introduce what I was going for in the beginning).

Sincerely,

Gen Hua Tan

http://soundcloud.com/user695749558/englishaudioessayaboutnyc

Question: What do you like or dislike about New York City?

I interviewed people in Bryant Park, Herald Square, and Washington Square Park, all in one day. I got a lot of rejections and almost all were generic responses, but that is to be expected. I didn’t get many special responses, but I put together what I could. I had about 50 responses saved, but I guess it wasn’t enough.

The point of the audio essay is to show how perspective is a very significant factor in judging things or people. When asked the question, many people said how diverse the city was, and I think it’s partly because that is what it is known for. That’s how they see the city. That’s how I see the city too. Sometimes we don’t think much more of it. You can share certain incidents, but that doesn’t mean it is the norm (I had one response from a guy who said he dislikes the dangers, as he got mugged last night, but NYC is supposedly safe). I’m satisfied that I found a person who said they like the crowds since there were a few who disliked them (I like the crowds).

One piece of Glass’s advice I want to focus on is understanding the building blocks of the story (part 1, 0:13-3:05). While I’m not explicitly doing a story, I’m try to structure the audio such that it builds up to something. I want to keep people engaged, but I wasn’t sure how. I put more of the simple responses in the beginning and then towards the end I include the more interesting or longer responses. Even if part of the content of the response is generic, I like the way it is presented, so I include it later. I don’t have any questions to raise other than the main question, so I could work on that. I’m afraid people get disinterested towards the middle because there may not seem to be a point to it, so I have to work on that. The other piece of advice is having a moment of reflection (part 1, 3:19-3:34). I am thankful for the person who did the second to last quote in my audio because I think that makes people reflect on likes and dislikes in general. It questions how we feel in a particular moment versus how we feel in a daily basis.

I tried to figure out how to use garageband to lower background noise but failed. I could try for more responses from people to get more insight. I definitely need to edit the sound. There are one second gaps, but I didn’t put any sound or music in, and I want to reduce the background noise. I forgot to put in music in the intro as well.

I’m trying to convey to my listeners the simplicity of our generation’s dreams. After discussing the layout of my essay with Professor Smith we came to the conclusion that my classmate’s dreams seemed limited. Almost like we all grew up to enclose our aspirations, taught not to step outside the box and imagine greater things. About 60-65% of the responses I received were very simple things: things that could be easily accomplished with little to no risk of failure. Some of my interviewees veered off into more adventurous territory and the small remainder dreamt as big as I expected them to.

Despite my own predictions before I started interviewing people, I wanted my listeners to walk away with a sense of surprise and essentially reflectiveness. By the time they’re done listening to my segment I want them to think, “What would I do if failure wasn’t an option?” Surprise stemming from the nature of the interviewees responses and reflectiveness from the question itself.

In Part 3 from 3:54-4:08, Glass tells us how not to talk in our radio segments. Although it was his eighth year on radio, he still emphasized the pronunciation of every three words making the segment sound robotic. Although I’m not talking a lot in my own project, I made sure to sound as natural as I could. Since I’m beginning and ending my audio essay, my voice will be the last one lingering in the listener’s mind. The last thing I want is to make my listener cringe or tune me out at some of the most important points in my segment.

In Part 4 from 4:20-4:44 Glass talks about the balance between interviewer and interviewee. Although the kind of story he talks about is different from the one I’m creating, I still added a sort of introduction and conclusion to my audio essay. I did it mainly because I was afraid that it would be too difficult to figure out what exactly the point in my story would be and also because I wanted to give my input on what I initially expected and how the project turned out. I also didn’t want to throw the listener into this essay without any kind of background information left to wonder what is going on. I used this advice in the beginning and end of my audio essay.

The most difficult part of this project was finding a common thread behind the responses I received. Not knowing how people would respond, and hoping that after asking dozens of people I actually would find some sort of common theme was one of scariest things about this project. Actually, I didn’t find one until I freaked out after hearing everyone’s proposals in class and staying after class and talking about the responses I had received with Professor Smith. I think it’s a little bit risky, going from ordinary, to funny, to serious, all trying to convey the idea that our dreams begin small and crescendo into greater, less possible things to accomplish. I used the bell curve effect that the creator of 50 People One Question to try and tie this theme together in a more organized manner.

I think at this point I need to work on interviewing more people. I don’t think I have enough responses. I interviewed a lot of people but many of the responses were no longer than 2-3 seconds, which makes it difficult to meet the 3-4 minute timeline required for the assignment. I want to work on making it more refined, and eliminating background noise.

http://soundcloud.com/daniel-golub/audio-essay

My audio essay is meant to inform my listeners of the critical components that comprise my core personality. To this end, I had three longtime friends of mine comment and reflect on some of my more idiosyncratic behaviors given that they [my friends] have long been exposed to such behaviors and have brought them to my attention on countless occasions. They are opinionated enough to offer their own decisive outlooks on what they make and have made of my behaviors. I formatted my audio essay to start with my interactions with friends in freshman year to sophomore year to junior year. Different people with different ways of thinking encountered my antics and me at different times. This can effectively paint trends that persist as will as evolutions, if any that have occurred. My only legitimate problem was recording over background music in Dunkin Donuts with my second guest. I had to lower the volume to make the background noise less conspicuous and the vocals more audible.

I have no intention of tailoring my audio essay to fit the advice / mold offered by Ira Glass. I was not entertained by his audio show and was put off by its format. I did not find much to enjoy or connect with in his commentary on what constitutes good storytelling. I have changed my opinion from what I had wrote in Required Blog Post #6 now that I have had more time to think about it. I have no intentions of establishing a professional work. To me, a professional work follows a set of widely accepted guidelines with slight variations and hints of personal touches. I prefer to break the rules and make my own rules, such as being loose with my material and allowing spontaneity if I think that it will enhance the purpose of my essay. I don’t remember Ira Glass being “brave” or “professional” enough to risk live recording in a public place with background music. From what I remember, he didn’t use music to identify or highlight key traits of his guests or panel of fellow speakers. This project came to me from a spontaneous thought in class and I rolled with it and did what I thought was best. Although I didn’t go along with a demonic voice in my audio essay, I do acknowledge that there are some basic rules that one must follow, such as being easily audible and heard, which I tried my best to do. But once the basic rules are established and followed, I did my project how I felt it should be done, not what Ira Glass thought should be done. I AM…A CULT…OF PERSONALITY!

This girl!

The link is here. [x]

So here’s the story:

I went out and I tried to interview people. I really did. I didn’t have a sign but I put on a big, friendly smile and did my best. The fates were conspiring against me though, I swear it. The forecast was supposed to be sunny skies and a light breeze, when in actuality it was rain and clouds and humidity — essentially, it was the kind of weather that destroy’s people’s good moods. It was also nearing rush hour, and okay, that was poor planning on my part. But still.

Nobody wanted to talk to me! I’ve never felt so ignored in my life. And the people who did talk to me gave me generic answers to my question.  (Which was, just to refresh your memory, ‘what does it mean to be an American?’) It was like my worst nightmare. What was I to do?

I thought some about why I went with that question in the first place — which is because of my fascination with cultural identity, by the way. And somehow that lead to me deciding to interview my mom? My mom, who barely speaks English? Yeah, good thinking Damla. That’s clearly a reasonable thing to do.

So. Now you have nine minutes of me essentially grilling my mother and then going back and commenting on it. I didn’t mean for it to be that long, I swear.

I think for the final I’m going to try the 50 People, 1 Question  again – maybe in Washington Square Park, the NYU kids seem nice – and I’ll bring a sociable, bubbly friend to help me out this time. Hopefully it goes better. If not, then I’ll try to reign in this monster of an audio essay.

(I promise I won’t take it personally if you fall asleep while listening.)

I think my main issue was developing a point that appeals to the audience. I may like this dumb culture stuff, but that doesn’t mean that you guys do. So I guess at some point I’ll probably have to do some major editing à la Ira Glass.