Deliverable 2:

How to compose the Podcast

1© Karen Thompson ● Department of English ● University of Idaho

English 317: Technical Writing

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Table of Contents

Learning Objectives ............................................................................................................................................. 3 About Podcasts .................................................................................................................................................... 4-6 How to Create Your Podcast

Options for Tools and Required Test Recording ...................................................................................... 7-10 General Subject, Audience, and Purpose of Your Podcast .................................................................. 11 Choosing a Specific Focus for Your Podcast .......................................................................................... 12-13 Writing a Podcast Script ............................................................................................................................. 14-19

Presentation Speaking Style: how to develop an effective style ................................................................... 20-30

Learning Objectives:

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Adapt prose style concepts for the ear.

Apply presentation speaking style concepts: vocal variety, pace, pause, and diction.

Compose a podcast script.

About Podcasts

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A British journalist combined the Apple’s iPod with the word broadcast to coin the term Podcast.

Podcasts can be:

•Audio-only Files•Video Files

and/or

• Broadcasted (live or prerecorded)

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How businesses and organizations use Podcasts:• Externally: to promote products and

services to clients and customers.

• Internally: to share information between employees, particularly, in project teams.

• You will compose an audio only podcast aimed at an external audience.

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How to create your podcast.• You need a microphone, and the one in

your computer will be fine for this project.

• Your podcast must be hosted on a site that allows users to play it without having to download the file.

• There are several options for creating the audio-only podcast.

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Option 1: Use PodSnack• PodSnack is a free cloud

computing tool that allows you to record and will also host your file.

• You will find a link to PodSnack under Tools and Resources and also a slidedoc tutorial on how to use it.

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Option 2: Create an Audio File and Upload to Host Site.• If you know how to create an audio file (MP3,

.WAV etc.), record your podcast and upload to a host site such as YouTube or SoundCloud.

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• Digital audio files (mp3, wav etc.) are not accepted in this course.

• Here’s why. You are practicing how to create and share these types of files as they are shared in workplace settings.

• So, if you choose to create an audio file on your computer, be certain it is uploaded to a host site and will play without a user needing to download the file.

• Audio files uploaded to bblearn will not be graded nor earn credit for this part of the project.

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Your Podcast:subject, audience, and purpose.

• The general subject of your podcast will be research at the University of Idaho.

• Your audience will be members of the general public.

• Your purpose will be to inform the audience about research currently being conducted at the university.

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You will need to choose a specific focus.

• You may choose to focus your podcast about

• some specific research, • a research program, • or one or more

researchers.

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To find a focus, do some investigation.

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TheUIResearchandEconomicDevelopmentwebsiteNewsandFeaturesisagoodplacetostart.

After you have chosen the focus and taken some notes, you will need to write a script and practice it.

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The goal is not to sound like a professional broadcaster but to develop a clear presentation speaking style.

Practice the principles of effective prose style when writing the script but adapt these for the ear by keeping sentences short.

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You should be able to say each sentence in your script in a single breath.

Your script will need:

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IntroductionAbout 30 seconds.

Key PointsAbout 2 minutes

ConclusionAbout 30seconds.

Timing

Introduction:

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About 30 seconds

Brief salutation: greet the audience and give them an idea of what you will be presenting in the podcast.

You can also start with an engaging question such as “have you ever wondered about ……?” and then use the salutation.

Body:

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About 2 minutes.

Key Points: think about how many points you can reasonably talk about in 2 minutes.

About four key points and 30 seconds to talk about each one should work well, but don’t follow this as a rigid rule. Think about what works best for what you will talk about.

Closing:

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About 30 seconds

WrapitUp.Haveaclearconclusion,herearesomeideas:• What’snext?– pointlistenerstofutureresearch,

• WherecanIlearnmore?– pointlistenerstowheretheycanlearnmore.

• ETC.

• Thanktheaudienceforlistening.

Presentation Speaking Style Concepts• Vocal Variety

• Pitch• Tone• Volume• Rate

• Pause• Diction

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The content on the following slides had been adapted from: Write-Out-Loud. Links to this site with exercises for how to improve your presentation speaking style can be found under Tools and Resources on the project page.

Whatisvocalvariety?

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• Vocal variety or vocalics refers to the nonverbal features of our speaking style. These features are pitch, tone volume, and rate.

VocalVarietyGoal

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• Your goal as a speaker is to have a range of vocal variety that allow you to adapt your speaking style to meet audience needs.

• For example, giving a eulogy at a funeral would require a different speaking style than delivering a conference presentation.

VocalVariety:Pitch

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• Our voices all have a natural pitch, which is like music with high and low notes.

• If your pitch range is narrow, mostly high or mostly low notes, your voice will have a monotonous effect on listeners.

Go to Tools and Resources on the project page, to learn exercises to help you develop your pitch range.

VocalVariety:Tone

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• Our voices carry emotional content through the tone we use.

• If your voice lacks expression, it will be flat and lack energy.

• If you fill your speech with too much energy, it will seem overly exuberant and forced.

Go to Tools and Resources on the project page, to learn exercises to help you develop an effective tone.

VocalVariety:Volume

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• Some of us naturally speak softer or louder than others.

• Volume affects how the audience perceives your trustworthiness.

• Learn how to consciously control the volume of your voice.

Go to Tools and Resources on the project page, to learn exercises to help you develop volume control.

VocalVariety:Rate

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• When we speak, rate refers to the pace of our speech.

• Speech rate is calculated at the number of words spoken in a minute.

VocalVariety:Ratecontinued

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Slow speech is less than 110 wpm.

Conversational speech falls between 120 wpm at the slow end to 160 - 200 wpm in the fast range.

People who read books for radio or podcasts speak at 150-160 wpm.

Auctioneers or commentators who practice speed speech are usually in the 250 to 400 wpm range.

Tocalculateyourspeakingrate:

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Time yourself speaking from your script.

Next, take the total number of words spoken and divide by the number of minutes it took you to speak them.

SpeakingRate(wpm)=Totalwords/#ofminutes

Go to Tools and Resources on the project page, to learn exercises to help you develop an effective speaking rate.

Remembertopauseperiodically:• It will help the audience to

understand you,• Help you control the rate of

your speech and avoid distracting filler words (um, er, ah), and• allows your mind to “catch

up” to what your mouth is saying.

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Go to Tools and Resources on the project page, to learn exercises to help you develop effective pausing.

Diction

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• Diction is not about changing your accent (yes, we all have an accent).

• It’s about clearly enunciating the words you speak.

• Speaking too fast will affect diction.

Go to Tools and Resources on the project page, to learn exercises to help you develop effective diction.