John Kern writes in Chapter 8 of “Sound Reporting” about the different ways a reporter or radio host can tell a story by modulating characteristics of their voice. “Do you seem to be stressing the key words? Are you reading more slowly or giving more emphasis to the ideas?” Joshua Wheeler applied stresses when he described how the eponymous pew was worn away by hands in the opening segment of his audio-essay, “Ugly Pew.”

Starting at the 1:37 minute mark, “…the dirty hands of ranchers, tired from chores; the soft hands of mothers with fussy babies, and the chubby-grabby hands of those babies with their teething on the edge of the bench; and the strong cold hands of pallbearers; and the damp hands of brides, and grooms, and antsy teens with drug-tick fingers…”

While he reads he accents almost every noun, verb, and adjective, bringing them to the forefront, while the prepositions, articles, and conjunctions fade into the background. The result is that the listening experience is hyper-concentrated with imagery and information. See the same passage with accented sounds in bold.

“…the dirty hands of ranchers, tired from chores; the soft hands of mothers with fussy babies, and the chubby-grabby hands of those babies with their teething on the edge of the bench; and the strong cold hands of pallbearers; and the damp hands of brides, and grooms, and antsy teens with drug-tick fingers…”

With the style in which he dances across strings of these accents, he harnesses the musical quality of rhythm. Therefore, the words are imbued with a sort of percussive freneticism. The style fits the form of the essay’s beginning, which is about a pew’s molecules worn away over time, by the impact of hands. A budding audio-essayist should keep in mind the potential of such a style-content relationship, and how to incorporate Wheeler’s performative technique into their own, for the sake of vividness.

It would make sense to swap in words with a high percussive potential, when refining an audio-essay script, and if one wanted to employ the style exhibited by Wheeler in the above passage. Notice the many words he uses that are “top-heavy” with consonance. The specific phrase, “antsy teens with drug-tick fingers,” could have been said with a different word choice, and the meaning would be the same. For example, “edgy youth with limbs moving a lot.” The meaning of this phrase is the same, but the assonance holds back its full percussive potential.