Martha Murphy

Audio Narrative Reflection

Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric

30 January 2015

Initially, I was very excited about the audio narrative project because I have always

enjoyed writing personal assignments more than writing papers on subjects that disinterest me. I

remember last year how much I enjoyed working on my college essay supplements because I got

to talk about my life and experiences, and I thought that the audio narrative assignment would be

another similar opportunity to express myself through my writing.

I remember thinking of several different topics which would fit the criteria for the

assignment, however arriving at a subject that incorporated the role of screens in my life was the

difficult part. I brought my cross country team picture as my artifact to class, thinking that I

would write about my experience with running, but this topic didn’t have any influence with

technology. My years on the high school cross country team also didn’t tell much about my

central identity. I realized that what most of my new friends here at Notre Dame associate me

with is my adoration for Taylor Swift as well as my guitar playing and singing ability. Since the

nature of this assignment was to reveal my personality and identity, writing about Taylor Swift

would be the only topic worthy of this challenge.

Developing the script was pretty easy because this journey was one of the main

“storylines” that helped me grow up. I had other aspects of my life at this time, but relating to

and maturing alongside Taylor Swift, who was just a few years older than me, made me who I

was at the time. Therefore, it would be tough for me to forget how this process came about. I also

remember learning how to play guitar very clearly not only because accomplishing my goal

made me so happy, but also because I got in trouble for going into my brothers room and taking

his guitar.

After the writing process, I was very eager to attempt recording my script; however, I

was very frustrated about just how difficult reading with expression and without stuttering could

be. With practice and many run-throughs, I started to get the hang of the process, and when I was

critiquing my work, I started to easily notice the improvement I was making. Towards the end of

my recording process, I started to notice that I actually sounded interesting to listen to, almost

like a narrator for a book-on-tape.

I was finishing up my process when I realized that my essay, which talked all about

technology and music, lacked actual music. Adding the songs I referenced created the effect of

bringing the reader into my experience with me. Then, I added myself singing to serve as

evidence to Taylor Swift’s influence on me and my improvement over time with guitar.

Overall, I learned so much from this assignment about multimedia and how to sound

more interesting when delivering speeches. I was stubborn at first when it came to improving

voice inflexion and sound quality, but the process of fixing these issues made me learn so much

about this medium. The audio narrative assignment was a very good introduction to this writing

course, and I liked how it was very heavily influenced by multimedia, rather than just print. It

took a new approach to revealing yourself to an audience.