DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SPEAKING

AND WRITING

Handout

Tim Riter

Thursday 1:45

I.                Understanding Communication

            A.        DeVito Model of Communication

                    Context

                    Source/Receivers

                    Encoding/Decoding

Channels—

verbal words                              written words       

numbers                                     pictures                 

audio                                        movement             

artifact                                       optical                   

touch                                        time

spatial                                        smell

                    Messages

                    Noise

                    Effects

          B.       “A Rose by Any Other Name…” Understanding Words

                    Inherent Meaning?

                    Abstraction Ladder

          C.      “The Audience is Sovereign,” Engel. Or is it?

D.             Writing and Speaking Differences

Similarities

Differences

          Audiences

          Medium

TRANSFORMING SPOKEN WORDS TO WRITTEN

Handout

Tim Riter

Friday 1:45

I.               Rewards

II.            Recycle

A.             Markets (Christian Writers Market Guide)

Books: royalty publishers—200

Books: self publishers—100

E books

Periodicals—350  (adult, teen, young adult, children, family, writing)

Blogs—host or guest

Newspapers

B.             Topics (32)…

III.         Revise

A.             Clarity

1.    Thesis Sentence

2.    Concise

3.    Use active voice, not passive

B.             Powerful Leads and Titles

1.              Brief

2.              Match tone, topic

3.              Specific

4.              Grabs attention

5.              Fresh

Narrative

Thematic

Quote

Question

Shocking statement

C.             Smooth transitions

D.             Avoid repetition

POETRY IN PROSE

Handout

Tim Riter

Saturday 1:45

“a fragment empowered by implicitness”

I.               Break the Rules!—Rhetorical Devices

A.   Grammar

Polysyndeton

Asyndeton

                    Anaphora

B.   Diction—word choice

                    Euphony

                    Assonance

                    Consonance

                    Sound

C.   Figurative—not literal

                    Metaphor

                    Simile

                    Apostrophe

                    Personification

                    Metonymy  

II.            Choose Your Words—Diction

A.   Aspects of words

Denotation

Connotation

Sound

B.   Strong words

Replace modifiers when possible.

Use active verbs, not passive

III.         What Do You See-Imagery

A.   Show, don’t tell (or, telling facts)

“Bad Analogies”

Samples

IV.          Write Tight—Concise       

Thesis Sentence

Concise

Exercises for Transforming Spoken to Written Words

Clarity

1.    Take a previous work, writing best or speaking, identify the Thesis Sentence (TS) you used. If you didn’t have one, then craft one.

2.    Go through several pages of the piece, and delete all that does not explain or support the TS.

3.    Have a friend read the original out loud, cold, with no previous reading. Ask him which felt the best? Which was most clear to you?

Titles

1.    Evaluate several titles you have used.

2.    Revise them to better catch attention and give the slant.

3.    For your next new writing project, craft a title.

Leads—Intros

1.    For your next new writing project, write a one paragraph lead.

2.    Revise it.

Exercises for Poetry in Prose

1.    Chose one Rhetorical Device from each category, write a paragraph using it. Explain your purpose and how the device helps meaning.

2.    Combine the sense listed with the two-word noun into a noun in action.

Hearing, hot day:

Touch, warm light:

Sight, smelly dog:

Any two senses, wild monkey: