In “Reading on the Air,” Jonathan Kern advises the audio essayist to write the essay for our own voice. He states that “We have some people on air who, in the heyday of radio, would not have gotten jobs – they don’t have pretty voices – but they write for their own voices in a way that makes them good storytellers” (132). In Joshua Wheelers, “Ugly Pew” he does not have a voice that can captivate an audience, like say a Morgan Freeman, or a David Attenborough. Having said that, he writes the piece to fit his style, and his voice. (133)

Wheeler also is effective in a few other strategies mentioned in Kern’s article “Reading on the Air.” Kern states that that we need to speak conversationally. He ask the audio essayist to question if they would say something, that they’ve written, to their mother’s or friend. He also mentions that we need to pace ourselves, slowdown in the margins, and to enunciate our words, to help show words of importance (135/135).

An example of these is provided in “Ugly Pew,” at 8:30-9:25, when Wheeler states that “sometimes people just want to die.” I don’t know how to exactly describe his emotional state, but there was almost a blank sincerity within his words. He then goes on to describe a scene with his mother in an extremely frank and matter of fact account of the event. Within each pause, it allows his audience to grasp the severity of the information being told. He continues by recollecting a statement he made to his mother. While in church, Wheeler told his mother bluntly that her daughter wanted to die. After a long pause, Wheeler recalls that he braced for some sort of emotional reaction, but instead she braced herself, and then they sang together. Eventually, his Mother acknowledges her daughter death. Wheeler pauses and describes her deep breath as a slight ascension from reality, but once his mother exhaled she was grounded in their tragedy. The pauses not only help the listener follow the story, they also really make the reader analyze the events that just transcribed. When articulated so casually it is easy to overlook to tragedy and sadness within the story.

I think that I can incorporate some of these pauses for transitions for my piece. I also tend to read quickly, so putting slow down in my margins may not be a bad thing. I also think that I am going to focus on how I sound in my piece. Kern states that standing up can be effective when recording your voice. I will also try to evoke deeper meaning by emphasizing specific words in my essay. I think that the way and how we say things is almost more important than what is actually stated. Something that sounds smooth but is rude, is almost more effective than something that sounds course, but is polite.