[3.4] Task 3: Voice to Text Task

by markpepe

Photo of a concert program in a theatre.

Broadway Across America’s Hairspray at the National Theatre in Washington, DC.

For this assignment, I used the dictation feature in Apple Notes. I am telling a brief story of a weekend trip to Washington, DC to visit my friend and watch the musical Hairspray.

About a month ago I went to Washington DC I went to visit my friend Peter who is a guitar player for the touring company Broadway across America the show he is in is hairspray the trip started with me going to the airport for my flight to Toronto that started that was supposed to depart just past midnight that was delayed by over an hour I finally take my overnight flight by the time I arrive in Toronto the I missed my flight to DC so then I got rerouted to Montreal and then to Washington DC arrive there at about three in the afternoon and this whole trip was arranged by me and my friends friend Addison so we surprised Peter when I arrived at the hotel he was so shocked and so surprised he was so happy when I arrived I settled in and then we went for dinner at this place called circa by George Washington University it was actually pretty cool staying there because George Washington University was having their graduation ceremony so he saw a lot of graduates walking around with her cap and gown it was really cool and then we went to the theatre and I watched the very first very first I watched my first show of of hairspray it was fantastic it was so good I couldn’t believe how well trained those singers and those musicians were the show was really really tight and it’s not an easy show to perform so that night we walked back from the theatre to our hotel and we got to walk by the the the national monument the Lincoln Memorial and then the next morning we went for breakfast at this I can’t member the name of it but done it’s really cool breakfast the place and I noticed the the bartender was making was making Caesars so I asked the bartender on my cake can I have a Cesar and he just looked at me funny and then I remembered of my old they’re not cold Caesars in America they’re called bloody Mary’s so I ordered a bloody Mary it was delicious had a really good breakfast also had grits for the first time then we took a walk around DC we took a really good look at the Lincoln Memorial then took her a good look at the at the national monument and then there were also many protests going on this is the same week as Roe versus Wade was was in the headlines so it was really interesting being in Washington DC the home of democracy and seeing democracy in action pretty neat and I watched one more performance of of hairspray that night was absolutely fantastic then the next day we went for breakfast one more time and me Peter and his friend Addison we had a really good breakfast I had grits for the second time these grits were way better than the one before but this place they specialize in making their own pop tarts they weren’t bad I got the s’more‘s but I probably should’ve gotten the strawberry instead of dry and then after that just before I was gonna leave I just took another tour of the national mall and then I wanted to go to the capital building but there was there was a big event going on so I couldn’t get in and then I flew home and that was my trip to Washington DC. The end

Let’s look at how my spoken text deviated from the conventions of written English through spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. Spelling was fairly accurate, thought there were a few words in the text that I did not say but was what the dictation feature notated. Here are some examples, “so I asked the bartender on my cake” and then a little later “they’re not cold Ceasars in America.” Not sure what I said for “on my cake,”  but I could have pronounced the word “called” better rather than my utterance that sounded like “cold.” There weren’t any spelling errors, just some cases of mis-dictation, or mispronunciation on my part. For capitalization, the dictation feature did a good job of automatically capitalizing the names of people, places, and points of interest. Had I known how to add a period while dictating there would have been capitals at the beginning of sentences. Punctuation was picked up by the app for the marking of contractions and possessive nouns. Though on one occasion it didn’t pick up on a possessive noun, “my friends friend,” rather than ‘”my friend’s friend.” Interestingly it notated “s’more’s.” However, there were no commas, or periods; until I added that period at the end by saying “period.”. Regarding grammar, my text looked like strings of clauses and phrases. It turned out to be a poorly executed recreation of James Joyce’s stream of consciousness. Words were often repeated, and I found that this happened when I stopped to think about what I was saying. Also, there were too many words to convey a point, it could have been more concise. As explained, there were plenty of mistakes and things that were wrong, but the story that was told was right.

Boroditsky (2011) says “the way we think influences the way we speak” (p. 65). I previously mentioned stream of consciousness, scripting would have put those thoughts and ideas in order. Like I am doing right now with this task, I have deleted words, changed words, and reordered sentences and paragraphs. If the story was scripted, it would have been more concise. There would would have been more details conveyed with a fewer amount of words. The story would have been linear and there would have been an opportunity weave intricate details and nuance. Gnanadeskin (2011) says “writing is generally more deliberate than speaking, so finished written pieces are much more carefully crafted than a typical spoken sentence (p. 5)

How is oral story telling different from written story telling?

I always thought a well written story would be just as interesting if it was spoken. I recently had a conversation with someone about an assignment I did with my Italian classes. I had the students recite, with text in hand, the first six lines of Canto 1 of Dante’s Inferno. I was asked, “isn’t that old Italian? Would it not be hard to read and understand?” I replied, yes, it is old Italian but it is easy to be read out loud and sounds beautiful. The famous Italian actor and director Roberto Benigni is famous for reciting cantos from La Divina Commedia across Italy. See the video below for an example.

Haas (2013) says that “for Plato… material implements and artifacts of writing are a psychological crutch” (p. 8). As musician, I often feel that I use the musical score as a crutch even though I have the text and music memorized. Just a quick glance makes me feel comforted in being able to convey those musical ideas. Though when I see a performer using music I do wish it wasn’t there because then I would see a true representation of their craft. Though, I must say, that I too am guilty of that. Listening to Orson Well’s perform Julius Caesar is a more authentic representation of the text, and more entertaining.

Oral story telling would have to be captivating. The retelling of my trip to Washington is far from captivating, it’s just a step or two above nonsensical rambling. Ong (2002) says that “speech is inseparable from our consciousness” (p. 9), so to conclude, I am left with the questions, how did orators think about what they are speaking? If it was not written down, how were their thoughts organized? Did they rehearse their speeches? Were they orated exactly the same every time? The more I think about it, the more questions I have.

References