The Final Blog

When I looked at the hints about the introduction, about it being enticing so as to hook the audience, to not be choppy, but punchy, and to be about 2-4 sentences, I noticed that the NPR audio essays followed those rules exactly, so I thought mine should too. I thought that my introduction successfully portrayed those traits because I used strong diction, with words like “famous”, “roaring”, “carved” etc. I also noticed on many introductions on NPR, that they incorporated an interviewed person right away as to change up the sound of the introduction and get people hooked on believing that other people are interested and involved in the subject, and I also used that tactic in my transcript.

Next, I reviewed the hints regarding the body of the audio essay and how to most successfully convey the bulk of the information at hand. The hints seemed to be based heavily on the interview sections that should be incorporated into the essay. Providing context and analysis to what the interviewees have to say throughout your transcript is very important and well done in the NPR essays because that provides the audience with support, thus a sense of credibility. Without this key trait, the audience may become confused and since it is audio, there is no way to look back on what they have heard, and this could result in them losing touch with the subject and the point completely.  I found that I am successful with this in my own audio essay and a good example from my own is when I am talking about the quality of our Sun Devil Stadium’s field. 

Copied and pasted from my essay, I can show that I introduce my point:

Described as being literally “carved into the desert”, the Sun Devil Stadium not only makes an ostentatious visual statement, as it emerges from between two mountain buttes, but also serves as one of the “best college football facilities in the country” based on its field safety and athlete facilities, progressive renovations, spectator environments and seating options, etc.

Then provide evidence with an interview:

“The quality of just the field and the maintenance that goes into it; our entire crew, including our students, take pride in the field and want it to be the very best” says Brian Johnson, the Manager of the Athletic Grounds Facilities.

Then explain what is being said and provide evidence:

A complete field playing surface renovation was launched in the fall of 1992 right before…

This technique also helps the audience move through questions by introducing and explaining what is said and why.  The use a sound bite to provide further contextualize “real time” happenings is also important to engage the reader and allow them to not get bored of just talking and to make a personal connection to the scenario, and I tried to do that very well in my essay since the ambiance of Sun Devil Stadium strikes the ASU community so strongly.

Finally, I figured in my conclusion that I need to find a way to direct listeners somewhere else for more information, but I do have a punchy one line sentence, not choppy, and I wrap it up by elevating the connection to the Sun Devil Stadium using audio and sound-bytes that anyone can connect to.