In “Reading on Air”, Kern talks in detail about speaking in contrast to writing essay–the difference for example between saying news on the radio as oppose to reading it in a newspaper. What was stressed most was to sound conversational–that many people on radio or what not don’t even use scripts at all. He says, “You are not giving a lecture; in fact, as far as the listener is concerned, you’re not even reading a script. You’re just talking” (133). He suggests for one to speak as if they were holding a photo, to imagine talking to a family member or a close friend. That there’s an importance of establishing a sense of familiarity between the speaker and the listener.
When listening to both of the audio essays, I felt one succeeded in this more than the other. In “Ugly Pew”, I didn’t get the sense of conversation that Kern spoke of. He opened up with many adjectives and long sentences, and at times I felt like I was being read an essay than being spoken to. He says, “The soft hands of mothers and their babies and the chubby hands of those babies teething the wood of the pews,” (1:45). The sentence is is descriptive and uses too many adjectives, and while it paints a picture, I feel like I’m reading something rather than hearing someone simply speak to me.
This contrasts to me from “I’m White and Mennonite”, where the speaker felt like someone familiar, like she was just talking and not reading. She says, “Patrice beat boxed me into a corner, and we started making out. We made out in his bed, his roommates bed, my bed, the stairwell, empty shower stalls…” (8:35). She’s not overly descriptive, and she talks as if she’s just talking to her friend.
That’s what I feel like I need to work on in my essay: to be able to talk to someone as if they’re just a friend, as if I’m not reading from a script at all.