How writing for the ear, differs from writing for the eyes.
When you’re reading an article, digital or hard copy, and you don’t understand a piece of it you can pause and re-read over the section multiple times. You can sound out the letters and say the words over and over until your brain eventually understands what it’s looking at. But when your audience can only listen to what is being said, many times complex words or sentence syntax becomes impossible to comprehend. No matter how many times they replay the recording it still goes over their head because they can’t actually see the words.
This is why writing particularly for the ear is important because it is different than writing for the eyes.
Vocabulary and Syntax
When writing for the ear using everyday language and simple words is the best way to keep listeners interested and attentive. When you’re writing a paper, you’re told to speak formally and write with the best adjectives and verbs you know. For example, if I was writing a sentence for an article about a sunny day, I would say… “It was a gorgeous sunny Sunday, the birds were chirping, the grass was a perfect shamrock green, and the smell of the freshly cut grass wafted through the air.” But writing for an auditory experience would change how it was written. First, I would put it in the active voice, and I would use contractions like, “It’s a”. The next step would be to lessen the use of wordy adjectives and sophisticated vocabulary. In the end the sentence would sound something like, “It’s a beautiful Sunday morning, the birds are chirping, the grass is a lovely bright green and it’s freshly cut smell floats through the air.” This new sentence written for the ear uses a lesser amount of words with less complexity to them. “Shamrock green” and “wafted” might slip right by a listener since they’re not used commonly in everyday conversation.
Voicing and Diction
Other ways to aid writing for the ear, are the use of sound effects and specific voicing and enunciation. When writing for the eyes you aren’t given the opportunity to read your work aloud for the audience, but when writing for the ear you can actually read your work exactly how you want it to be heard. You can stress specific syllables or words in a sentence and add emotion to written dialogue. In RTDNA’s article about writing for the ear, they speak highly of using your voice to convey the story. “Your intonation, inflection, and emphasis appropriately place the listener in the room with you. Your voice should reflect the mood of the piece. If a basketball championship game has been won, you can shout above screaming fans. If you are reporting from the scene of a candlelight vigil, whisper as you describe the way mourners are swaying while softly singing.”
Overall, when writing for the ear thinking about word choice, syntax, voicing and setting the sense, using compelling interviews, sound effects and music is important. Shorter words and shorter sentences in the active voice, allow listeners to stay interested and fully understand what’s being said.
Whether you’re writing for the ear or the eyes, you want to accomplish the same thing … tell a compelling story, but each form of storytelling contains different characteristics. If you remember to execute these characteristics for the different media outlets, then you can achieve excellence in both forms.
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