Comparing written and spoken versions of a story

0:00- [David] Readers, hey! I want to talk to you about different ways you can experience a text. There can be a big difference between reading a text to yourself versus hearing it read aloud or seeing a performance of it. And I want to go through that. I want you to read a short story by yourselves.

0:15You'll need to pause this video, but I'll give you a ten second music break so you'll have time to pause. (bright music) Now it's my turn. I'll read this text aloud. I want you to think about what's different when you read a text in your head versus when a text is performed.

0:40What do you see in the words that you also hear in my performance? All right, take a listen. It's hot out at Nick's blueberry farm. It's the weekend after the 4th of July, and I'm up in Indiana with my parents. It's already so hot out that I feel like I'm melting.

0:57Sweat pours down my neck. (nature buzzing and chirping) On my way to the blueberry bushes, I walk through a buzzing cloud of gnats. I think I swallowed one by mistake, gross! but I make it to the bushes, and suddenly I'm in cool shade, and there are no bugs here somehow, and everything is peaceful, quiet, sweet relief.

1:22So two questions. First, how does my spoken or performed version reflect details in the text? And then is there anything in the spoken or performed version that isn't in the text? Let's start with the first question. I'll make a little chart. The text shows the narrator was feeling hot, like they were melting.

1:45In my performance, I stretched out the words, and I made my voice all creaky and slow to show that I was hot and unhappy about it. I used my voice to show how the narrator feels. In this line here about walking through a cloud of gnats, I really tried to show the narrators disgusted by keeping my lips tight as I read, like I didn't want to get any more bugs in my mouth.

2:09This is another place where my performance highlighted a detail in the text that the narrator is grossed out by the bugs, and that's reflected in both the text and in the performance. And finally, at the end, when the narrator expresses that feeling of peace, I relaxed my voice.

2:26I'm sighing a bit more. By relaxing my voice, I helped you understand how relieved the narrator feels when it gets to the shady spot. And then what wasn't in the text that was in my spoken or performed version? Well, my performance had sound effects in it. Bug noises, wind in the leaves.

2:45I included those to bring the descriptions in the text to life to make it so you could better imagine what the narrator is feeling. There's nothing quite as lovely as when the breeze picks up on a hot summer day, and it doesn't say that exactly in the text, but I added it in as a sound effect to make the performance more interesting.

3:04Hopefully it worked. Now, there were some details in the text that I didn't choose to emphasize in my performance. I didn't treat them any differently. No special attention was given to the fact that the story takes place in Indiana or that it was a blueberry farm or that it's after the 4th of July.

3:20What I emphasized in my performance were details that would show through in my voice, details that related to the narrator's feelings about his experiences. As a performer, I'm always making choices about what details I want to highlight in a text. This is something all performers do.

3:36When you hear texts performed or read aloud, pay close attention to what details are emphasized and when performers include things that aren't in the text. That's all the time we've got for this one, readers. Oh, now I really want blueberries. Until next time, you can learn anything.

3:54David, out.