Week 6: Podcast Peer Review

I reviewed Amelia’s podcast and I will note what was well-executed along with where there is room for clarification or improvement. Initially, all I was able to do is note all of the things that I should have done that she did in her podcast. It was overall well-developed and quite cohesive.

In the first segment, she did a great job of introducing herself. I don’t know why I didn’t even think of that. I liked the music in the background because it sounds less boring NPR-ish (for the record, I’m an NPR junkie!). The piano kind of gives the dialogue more unity and sets a mood, similar to a documentary would.  Or a narrative typed podcast, like This American Life.  I enjoyed the general biographical information about Berlin. I thought it was fascinating how he died! But it would be cool to maybe end on this note, to show his dedication to the field? Not sure how this would work with your current conclusion.

Identifying what the author said directly and quoting it added a nice purpose to each segment. Adding some personal discussion,( like on a radio program or something?) would add a different tone that’s a little more conversational? Maybe like a commentary from your own experiences after you defined and identified his theories would be a nice addition.

The concluding segment with an excerpt from his eulogy is very nice. It kind of brings it back around. I had a really hard time with this part! Your final thoughts were the perfect conclusion.

There are a few instances where I wish the dialogue was a little bit louder (mostly in the first segment, but a little in the second). I can hear the piano fine, but I think it might be the feed back/echo thing. 

In “Inviting the Mother Tongue: Beyond ‘Mistakes,’ ‘Bad English,’ and ‘Wrong Language’”, Peter Elbow discusses how it is important to not force students to conform to the language and culture of mainstream English. Amelia seemed to have no problems writing (and then speaking) in Standard Written English or SWE, and I would assume that like Elbow, her own “mother tongue” isn’t too different from the one presented in her podcast. It was interesting to me to try and decide whether or not to sound conversational or to sound like I was reading from a script. Since this is a podcast rather than a traditional essay or research paper, I tried to sound more casual and as a result, I’m afraid that I said “um” way too many times. Elbow notes that “speech and writing are different dialects and for writing, there is still a need to acquiesce” (645).