For this task, I decided to record an unscripted story on my struggles, as a post-secondary educator, with academic dishonesty. The story was recorded using Speechnotes (https://speechnotes.com) and converted into the following written text:
| During the pandemic academic dishonesty has been a real big issue for teachers everywhere I find that no matter what you’re teaching gaming Comfort over exam Integrity making sure that students are doing things properly is is very difficult to achieve for example I recently taught a course in principles of accounting so introduction 101 type of thing at a local College in BC and I was just finding grave instances of academic dishonesty on a consistent basis for example right before my midterm exam I warned everyone I told them that hey you know what if you were to post your assignment online on a website or seek external help from a friend. Forms of academic dishonesty and I told them straight up some of the different methods and I would use to catch them including Googling their questions from shagger course hero or searching up questions that I posted and and telling them that you know each of them had a unique and different set of numbers 2 for the exam and search eating would be a completely futile effort you may as well just try it and make sure you pass without any effort on your own yeah I remember this one’s too night I told him that I was going to try to do this method of going through and checking for each and every individual question that’s on the exam in and she ended up taking my damn question and posting them on to Chegg a study website that turns around a result for you and say 30 40 minutes during after the exam my Google to questions as I usually do and I spotted that he had posted one or two of my questions on the website now course the only person with that set of number so it was really impossible that anyone else could have the set of questions so consistent with the college’s academic Integrity policy I booked a meeting with him and walked him through what I had felt I asked him how a lot of these questions had ended up online and he had really no good explanation you said play the this could have been me I couldn’t have been the person that did it and so I asked him you’re the only person with this set of numbers is it can’t possibly be anyone else explain to me or help me understand did your friend fall into your computer and there’s no other explanation around it he eventually gave up and admitted to the dean that he had indeed committed I just find that absolutely hilarious know what justification or what excuse can you provide when you are the only person with that set of numbers no one else can possibly have that setup number I remember telling people about it and then they thought it was just absolutely hilarious. Able to communicate the consequences and still someone felt the need to kind of cheat the system or felt the need to question. I put out the real shame about this dude play Hello is the fact that had they not cheated on exam received a zero on that midterm exam from the dean they actually would have passed the course all together and I remember I distinctly remember right towards the end of the course they realize this themselves and they had reached out and asked whether they could do anything as extra credit to make up the marks in the dep it’s like there’s no way you’re so late to the game and then you did something that was dishonest why would I give you the opportunity to make it up so to speak I want every other student has done this correctly or is done this properly so II all in all you know I I I really do feel like academic dishonesty has been a great problem within the education space and. Why is saying how students think they can get away with so much but kind of also underestimate the ability of Educators and teachers to detect this academic dishonesty |
Analysis
How does the text deviate from conventions of written English? What is “wrong” in the text? What are the most common “mistakes” in the text and why do you consider them “mistakes”?
The most glaring deviations from the conventions of written English (in the text) were the lack of punctuation, paragraph breaks, and proper grammar. Firstly, the text had no commas and a total of 4 periods. The periods that did appear did not always assist in breaking up the text or making it easier for the reader to comprehend (e.g. “External help from a friend. Forms of academic dishonesty). The result was a collection of run-on sentences. Secondly, the text lacked paragraph breaks and indentations. This made it unclear for the reader where thoughts started and ended. Lastly, certain words were capitalized where they should not have been (e.g. “Comfort”, “Integrity”, “Educator”). Punctuation, grammar, and paragraph breaks help to increase clarity for a reader.
Another mistake was the repetition of certain words (such as “I”, “and”, and “is”). I did not consider this an error on the part of the software as I felt nervous in parts of my story and repeated these filler words multiple times.
The text-to-speech converter had challenges understanding proper nouns and misinterpreted certain phrases in my speech. It particularly struggled with names. For example, rather than referring to the homework help site, Chegg, the text-to-speech software wrote “Shagger” in my text. I also found that the text-to-speech converter incorrectly interpreted parts of my story, leading to phrasing that did not fit in the context or would be confusing to a reader (e.g. “search eating”, “numbers 2 for the exam”, “you said play the this”, “possible have the setup number”, “i put out the real shame about this dude”). These inaccuracies detracted from my ability to create an accurate written representation of my story.
The last deviation from the normal conventions of written English was the use of more informal or conversational language (e.g. “Hey you know what if you were”). I did not consider this to be a mistake. When a story is told orally between friends, the story is often told in a casual, conversational tone. The text-to-speech software simply picked up on this.
What is “right”?
For the most part, the text-to-speech software captured the gist of my story on academic dishonesty. It was clear that the story was about academic dishonesty in a post-secondary context and the result that cheating had on one particular student.
Something I noticed that the text-to-speech software did well was avoiding transcription of certain vocal fillers (such as “ums” and “uhhs”), as both do not appear in the written text, despite using them throughout my unscripted story.
What if you had “scripted” the story? What difference might that have made?
Despite lecturing to large audiences for a living, I felt nervous talking in an unscripted manner for 5 minutes. Unscripted storytelling is not something I usually do and I had trouble figuring out where I was going next with my story without a clear plan.
With a script, I believe that my story would be more organized and have a clear beginning, middle, and end. I would have remembered to emphasize or repeat key thoughts or parts of my story and experimented more with my diction. I also would’ve expected a greater degree of comfort with the content, leading to fewer vocal fillers (such as “ums” and “uhhs”) and decreased repetition of non-value-added words (such as “I”, “and”, and “is”).
I noticed that there is an ability to add punctuation to Speechnotes. If I had scripted my story and tried again, I would probably ensure that my story had the appropriate punctuation and line breaks, thus reducing the number of run-on sentences and making the text easier to comprehend.
In what ways does oral storytelling differ from written storytelling?
Oral storytelling differs from written storytelling in several ways. Most notably:
- Oral storytelling relies on an individual’s memory rather than a written record. As Gnanadesikan (2011) highlights, writing is meant to solve the problem that information only exists if it can be recalled.
- If done face-to-face, oral storytelling can rely on non-verbal cues (such as hand gestures, facial expressions, and body language) to communicate key messages. This is not available in written storytelling. As Gnanadesikan (2011) discusses, information such as the emotional content of a speech can be lost when writing is used.
- If done face-to-face, oral storytellers can adjust their stories accordingly to meet audience needs. For example, a storyteller who sees that a listener is losing attention, can vary tone, increase their volume, and ask questions to hook the user back in. Stories told orally can also differ a little bit each time and change depending on the audience, time available, location, and the mood of the storyteller or audience members. Written storytelling does not provide for this real-time feedback and response.
- Oral storytelling can capture tones and volumes (which can be important in preventing misunderstandings). Storytellers can rely on repetition to emphasize key concepts.
- Oral storytelling generally has to confine itself to what is digestible for a person in one sitting. Written stories can be picked up and put down multiple times.
- If done face-to-face, users can interact with an oral storyteller and ask questions. Written storytelling does not allow for impromptu questions and answers.
- Written stories can be edited and developed more deeply. A written storyteller can return and add subplots and complexities upon viewing their drafts. Written storytellers can closely analyze the order of their words. As Gnanadesikan (2011) highlights, written words can be examined, analyzed, dissected, and discussed. Oral storytelling is likely to be more concise as too many details can bog down the overall message of the story or lose the attention of listeners.
- Oral storytelling gives way to more slang and casual/conversational tones. Written storytelling tends to be more formal. I look at Canvas discussion posts and live classroom discussions as an example. In a live, synchronous course, group discussions can be casual and informal. Grammatical errors and punctuation are often overlooked and more casual terms can be used (e.g. “wanna”, “gonna”, etc.). In a Canvas discussion post, grammar, punctuation, and referencing are essential.
- Oral storytelling does not require the listener to be literate. As Gnanadesikan (2011) notes, “Reading and writing do not come naturally and must be taught” (p. 4).
- If done face-to-face, storytelling requires the storyteller and the listener to be in proximity to one another (unless it is a recording). Written stories can be easily shared and transmitted.
References
Gnanadesikan, A. E. (2011).“The First IT Revolution.” In The writing revolution: Cuneiform to the internet. (Vol. 25). John Wiley & Sons (pp. 1-10).