The Art of the Audio Essay
PWR 2 Fall Quarter 2007
Jonah G. Willihnganz
Stanford University

Script Annotation
1 Copy of annotated script, with end comment, due in class day of workshop

Before workshop, please provide a written response on the script that accompanies the audio essay. You should provide comments in the margins and a short end comment that address the following questions. Your comments may be handwritten or created using the comment function in a word processing function. I suggest that you read the script as you listen to the audio essay and note places that merit feedback, but wait until you hear and read the entire piece before writing out your comments. You will find that the kind of suggestions you might make sometimes change once you have heard the entire piece.

Questions:

1. Is the point of view of the piece sufficiently clear, clearly developed, and dramatized? If not, how and where might the point of view, its development, or its dramatization be improved? Is the research sufficiently narrativized—i.e., is it delivered as an unfolding plot?

2. Is the opening effective in drawing you into the piece and convincing you that something worthwhile is at stake?

3. Is the essay persuasive? Are its amount and range of evidence sufficient for the point of view? Can appeals to pathos (i.e., persuasion by how we are made to feel) and ethos (i.e., persuasion through the credibility of the narrator or others) be strengthened at all?

4. Are the delivery of narration and use of sound (music, sound effects, sound-beds, etc.) effective? How and where might they be improved? Is the writing suited to oratory? Are there any unrealized opportunities to use sound to help make the piece more effective?

5. Are there rhetorical strategies (use of scenes, appeals to pathos and ethos, kinds of evidence, use of metonymy, metaphor or analogy, manner of delivery, etc.)