Speak an unscripted, 5 minute long story into a voice-to-text app. Unscripted means that your story should not already exist in a written format. Think of this as simply talking to a friend and telling them an anecdote. Except, in this case, your "friend" is the microphone of your device. For this task, you can use any voice-to-text tool available in your phone, tablet, or for your computer.
The Story:
I'm going to tell the story of my friend Lo. Now, lo and I met in University in Ontario in art school, and became best friends. When we decided we wanted to become teachers, we decided to move out west to BC and do our PDP together at UBC. Lo is a character to say the least her life is always ridiculous and often very hilarious. So, sort of the most recent ridiculousness that's going on with her life is that about three or four years ago, she had been dating this guy named Rory here in BC, and they broke up and they'd been dating for about three years so she was obviously devastated and she decided she was going to move to Bali and find herself for six weeks. When she got back from Bali after six weeks. I remember her calling me and he like, oh my god, I found the guy of my dreams. He's so amazing. His name is also Rory. And I'm going to move to Bali. I'm going to sell all my stuff and I'm so excited. And she did. She sold everything she moved to Bali. She immediately moved in with this new guy and right from the beginning, I remember having this impression that he was very like, greasy. This new Rory he was very like almost like cult leader II and I it made me really sad that like through dating this guy, she I felt like she really started to change. She's always been one of those people who kind of takes on the characteristics of whoever she's dating. So for example, when she was dating Rory in BC, he was very into like backcountry snowboarding and so she got very into that. And he was very into mountain biking and so she bought a bike and started getting into mountain biking. So she's very like, impressionable, I guess. And so this guy in Bali was like totally into like health and like wellness, which is fine. But then the pandemic hit, and the two of them started to just go absolutely off the rail with like conspiracy theories. And I probably should have known that. It was starting because I remember having this conversation with her on the phone where she was like, What do you think of the like five G conspiracy theories and I remember just laughing and laughing because I was like, oh my god, they're so silly. And she kind of didn't really laugh. And in retrospect, I should have realized that she was asking me because she kind of believed in it and then she she and I both went to art school. So at the time, she was trying to like make a go of being an artist, and meanwhile, this new Rory that she was dating was like the head of an MLM, like a multi level marketing scheme that sold like smoothies. And so she got really into that and like I remember having huge fight with her because she was trying to sell me these weight loss smoothies before my wedding and like she knew that I had all these previous like issues with my own body image and weight and she's always been very petite. And so we had a huge fight about that. And then she started posting these very intense pieces of art on her Instagram, about conspiracy theories and COVID and like, one of them was like, an American eating like a hamburger, but it was really a baby, and the baby had like vaccines in it, like needles sticking in it.
And like the comments of these Instagram posts were like all of these, you know, friends from her past life in British Columbia and even Ontario who were like What the hell is happening? What what is going on? This is insane. And she and I had a huge huge fight like paragraphs and paragraphs and paragraphs of text about vaccinations and you know, it ended with her being like I just don't believe in any of this and me asking her Is there any source that I could give you that would convince you otherwise? And her saying no. And so I just knew at that time that that that was it. We were we couldn't continue having a conversation about it. So after all of this a few months ago, she messaged me and was like, Oh, I finally broke up with Rory Bally Rory and I'm so happy and he was a narcissist and he was so abusive and emotionally abusive. And I was horrified because, like I never really liked him, but she wouldn't really hear anything bad against him. Oh, and by the way, during all this time that she was in Bally bally, Rory was totally into crypto. And so she got super into crypto. And she made like, I wish I was exaggerating about this. She made about $300,000 on crypto over about an eight month period. So, anyway, so where we're at right now is that she has broken up with Bally Rory. She's dating this new guy who's French and like doesn't even speak any English basically. And she's just living like her best life. off of all of this crypto money that she's made. And now that she's broken up with him, she's still antivax but she's not like, totally off the deep end. antivax like conspiracy theory, or at least she's not posting on her social media anymore. And, yeah, she asked me to go and visit her. And I'm very conflicted about it. I don't know. Can you be friends with somebody still in a very real way, who has changed so much from who they were when you knew them? I don't know. Something to think about.
Responses
1. How does the text deviate from conventions of written English?
The text deviates from conventions in a number of ways. The most prominent of which is that the speech to text app had a really hard time with commas and paragraph breaks. For example, there are often mistakes with the commas. They were often missed or put in funny places. Another deviation is the phrasing of thoughts and use of “filler words” such as “um” and “like”. When speaking orally there is more repetition of certain words. In written English you try to avoid repeating a word too often, but it’s less noticeable in the moment with oral language.
2. What is "wrong" in the text? What is "right"?
Starting with things that are right, the text has a fairly clear beginning, middle and end. It flows fairly cohesively from idea to idea and the story is comprehensible (if you ignore the typos, filler words and the occasional odd phrasing).
For things that are wrong, there is a part about crypto where I meant to add it earlier and forgot, so I back tracked and added it later in the story. Orally, the speaker would have seen in my body language and intonation that I was going back to the forgotten point, but in the written version it’s less obvious. Also, if I had written this story out, I would have been able to edit it and add it into the appropriate place.
I’ve talked with many friends about the “saga of lo” because it’s quite entertaining to follow the trials and tribulations of her life abroad. But so much of the fun and comedy of telling her story is the facial expressions, the dramatic pauses, the listeners' reactions. Much of the “juiciness” of the gossip is lost in the writing of the story.
3. What are the most common "mistakes" in the text and why do you consider them "mistakes"?
The most common “mistake” in the text is the phrasing. There are many, many places where the story gets somewhat garbled because it’s a run-on sentence, or missing a period, or the comma is in the wrong place, etc. I consider these mistakes because they take the reader out of the flow of the story. Similar to how I always notice a typo when I’m reading a published book or piece of literature, these phrasing mistakes are even more noticeable and annoying to get through.
4. What if you had "scripted" the story? What difference might that have made?
If I had scripted the story it would have had an even better “flow”. It would have had a tighter middle and a “punchier” end and there wouldn’t have been any backtracking or forgotten details. It also likely would have been slightly shorter. If I was to go back in and edit the transcription, there are many parts that I would cut down and condense for clarity.
5. In what ways does oral storytelling differ from written storytelling?
One could view oral storytelling as a more “organic” way of telling a story. It sometimes deviates or branches off from the main story in unexpected ways. In the moment, this is part of the sociality of storytelling, especially a story where you expect your listener to interject and ask questions or clarify details, as is the case with gossip. I also think that oral storytelling allows the teller to change tacts on the fly. For example, this isn’t the kind of story/gossip that I would tell to just anyone. If I were telling this as a casual anecdote to a new friend, I would leave certain parts out because they might cast me in a bad light (ie: judgemental, etc). However, if I were telling this to someone very close to me, who also knew Lo, then I might exaggerate the details even more, knowing that they are familiar with her history of misadventures. For example, I might disclose to a close friend that we often refer to the Rory who lives in BC as “small dick Rory” and the Rory who lives in Bali as “big dick Rory” or SDR and BDR. However, in a static written form, I cannot know exactly who my audience might be and I would have to choose a stance.
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