HE WANTED TO TALK

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 17, 20 October 1939, Page 27

HE WANTED TO TALK

But There Was Much To Learn (Some Notes by the Talks Supervisor) [II]

\ X 7E left the prospective talker going away with an idea in his head and a booklet of advice in his pocket. He sends in the script, and the Talks Department goes through it. As we said last time, the script will be judged ‘primarily by its freshness, If it is stale, the style won’t matter — it will be condemned straight away. By stale we mean that it goes over well-worn ground and doesn’t say anything fresh. No Encyclopaedia Talks One of the types of talks that the Service has had to guard against is the encyclopedia talk, something worked up purely from reference books, though it must be remembered that reference books are extremely useful at times, and indeed essential. If you are doing a talk, for example, on the centennial of some great man, then you will probably use reference books to some extent, and of course they are liable to be used in various kinds of topical talks. Cleaning Up We will say then that the stuff of the talk is acceptable, but that it needs some cleaning up. It is gone through carefully both for facts and for style. The person who sub-edits it is on the lookout all the time for errors, in fact, and statements that might give offence. You see, if anything inaccurate or injurious is put over the air it gets a very long start. General knowledge is very useful in this kind of checking, and with its help and the cultivation of a critical attitude it is possible at times to pull up even experts. A mistake in a date, or the omission of a vital fact, may be spotted, and the Talks Department is always rather suspicious of dogmatic assertions such as that such and such a thing |has never happened. Quite a lot of

trouble is taken at times to check statements that are doubtful; or the Talks Department may write to the speaker and ask him to verify certain things. At the first interview the Department may even suggest directions in which the speaker can get material. Style Then there is the question of style, The talk is gone through with an eye to its right style. If it is necessary, sentences are chopped up and expressions simplified and contractions made, or perhaps the talk will need re-writing in whole or part, in which case the Department may return it with certain instructions for the speaker to do the job. Sometimes the Talks Department will do the re-writing itself. Delivery Then comes the question of delivery, The speaker will be given a voice test at the microphone, and whatever faults he might have will be corrected. He may speak too slowly or too fast. He may speak too monotonously. He may speak in such a way that it is obvious to the listener that he is reading. This is one of the most difficult things to acquire, the art of reading from a script without appearing to read. The Talks Depart~ ment tries to teach the speaker to speak slowly and distinctly, but at the same time to avoid a set delivery, and to acquire a really conversational style. Radio speech, he is told, has a rhythm of its own, and if it is flat, well, the listener will probably cut him off. It ‘is really the governing possibility behind this preparation, that the listener can so easily cut off the speaker. Holding The Listener As has been said, there is no audience link between the speaker and those he is addressing, so the Service has to take care that the listener’s attention is caught at the outset and held throughout.. The listener doesn’t like to be consciously ‘instructed. He doesn’t like radio speakers > be "superior" or to appear to be "superior." He likes to be treated as an equal; and to be talked to (not ®) in a friendly way. So the Service tries its best to give the public talks that are new in subject or at any rate new in treatment, that are suitable in style, and that are -- in an attractive way,