0945 – The ‘Choppy’ delivery

2023.08.03 – 0945 – the ‘Choppy’ Delivery

‘Choppy’ delivery

Symptom: This is the style of [breath] having to take a breath [breath] after every few words [breath] in a sentence. The scrip is disjointed. Chopped up. Rather than a smooth flow. Short word-groups are said. Rather than a full, phrase. Or a sentence. And so, the script may be hard to understand. (I referenced a famous British newsreader who does this, in episode 412.)

Prescription:

·        Ensure you have enough breath. Have you just been talking off air immediacy before opening the mic and so you don’t have a ‘full lungful’? You’ll also be out of breath if you run into the studio at the last minute. Relaxed breathing will help you read more smoothly and increase your words-per-breath ratio.

·        Relax. You may also have emotional stress affect their voice, as tension will restrict the amount of breath you can take and the support you can give it.

·        Put aside time to read and understand the script. Some reads are perceived as choppy because the broadcaster is reading ‘blind’ and taking random breaths because they don’t know where the sentence is taking them and when the next opportunity it might be. It’s along the lines to what we looked in in episode 270.

·        Be more conversational and don’t stop after every word. Some perceived choppiness is because the reader is being too precise in their diction, sounding every letter when we usually let words merge. For example: when one word ends with the same letter as the next word starts. So, say “that table” as “thattable” and “next time” as “nexttime”. Similarly, when the first word ends with a consonant and the next word begins with a vowel: “about it” becomes “aboudit”, “passed out” is said “passdout”. Individual words can be (depending on the context), be ‘thrown away’: “and” becomes “n”, “but” is said “buh”. We looked at diction from episode 126 and conversational reads from 446, both in some detail.

·        Consider re-writing the script. Sometimes the words on a page (especially short sharp sentences of a commercial) are set out almost like a poem, with lines of a similar length. If it’s OK, change the layout and join up the phrases so you have your own rhythm, and provide a take of the original and the more ‘conversational’ read. There’s an example of this in episode 171.

·        Ignore the written punctuation slavishly, and go over them, so you run-on some sentences, and consider ignoring commas. More in episode 502 on this.

·        Understand the ideas in the script, and the flow of them, so there’s a developing concept rather than a list. 

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