Observations on differences between our spoken language and written language
I regularly produce accounting videos for work that require me to, essentially, lecture alongside Powerpoint slides given to me. Sometimes I think about what I am going to say in some detail, but sometimes, that material is very familiar and so talk “off the cuff” with little forethought. To be accessible, I need to produce a transcript to accompany the video. Often I have tremendous difficulty doing so as my spoken language does not translate into proper, written English easily. This exercise went a little better, perhaps because the subject matter was not of a technical nature that needed to be carefully explained for understanding. However, many of the same issues arose, and I will detail those below.

What would I have done differently if I had a chance to script the story?
I expected that I would miss details and need to go back to fill in the blanks. That didn’t really happen in this instance, but there was one piece to the story I had thought of that I missed including. Had I scripted the story, I would have included it. (The piece was regarding a rejection we received for a different dog. We contacted a local rescue and the lady didn’t think we were the right house for the dog. We were rather indignant about her assessment of us, however, in hindsight, we were thankful that we were passed over and that we got the dog that we did). I might have embellished with a few more details, and I would have corrected some of those mistakes as noted below.

That said, I think there is a balance between speaking on and off script. It is clear when someone is simply reading a script, and it is not usually enjoyable to listen to. I used to think that is was obvious one was reading from a script because of the pauses, the inflections, etc. Thinking further about the differences in spoken and written speech, it is probably because it sounds like a reading of written speech, rather than spoken communications.

The most common mistakes and why I consider them mistakes:
Most commonly I find it difficult to put my spoken words into proper grammatical form with periods, commas, etc. When speaking, I tend to have run on sentences or fragments that are not complete sentences. I also find I have a tendency to start several of my spoken sentences with “so”, or other words that we are not supposed to start sentences with like “but”.
I also find that I repeat words, often using the same word in the same sentence or very close together. This is not so much a mistake as it is repetitive and less precise. These errors may be hardly noticeable when one is listening to the story but become so when the words are on paper, or a screen, for reading, re-reading, and critiquing.

Oral storytelling differs from written storytelling in the following ways:
– Oral storytelling can be much richer as the speaker can add to the story with varying volumes of voice, different pitch, or short or long pauses for extra effect. Non-verbal communication can also be used such as hand gestures, facial expressions and body language. These extras can add a tremendous amount to the story and are not possible in a narrative, unless written as a script as used for a play, for example.
– Written storytelling may unfold more clearly as facts can be sorted out. For example, there is little need for phrases such as “I think” since there is time to research or recall if in fact, things went that way.
– Written storytelling can be more organized and follow a temporal order because the author can add in remembered details to the right spot in the story.
– Written storytelling can be enhanced through use of a wider variety of word choices. Our written vocabulary is great than our oral vocabulary. In writing a story, the author has the opportunity to utilize synonyms for more precise language and perhaps to add dimension to a story.