Linesch 1 Sarah Linesch Dr.

Erin Dietel-McLaughlin Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric 13 September 2013 Audio Narrative Reflection Initially I was worried about writing this narrative because narrative writing has always been a weakness of mine. It took me a long time to come up with an idea and an even longer time to start writing. The biggest problem I had with the writing process was the length of my paper. I am a very wordy person, so my rough draft was almost five pages long. Initially I tried to sign up for a Writing Center session, but they were all booked during the times that I was available. Fortunately, a friend of mine who lives across the hall from me is an English major, so she helped edit my rough draft. I originally edited the paper down to four pages, but this proved to be too long when I recorded it. I needed to edit out about 300 words, which proved difficult because I didnt want to take out any important aspects of the story. Eventually I was able to edit my paper down to three pages, which is the length of my final draft. This was my first time recording an audio essay so it was difficult to figure it out at first. I used Audacity and I had to play around with it and test it multiple times before I was ready to begin recording. I also had to find a quiet place to record, so I chose to record in my dorm room. I closed all the windows, turned off all the fans (which was frustrating considering is was 97 degrees outside), and recorded my essay during a time when my roommates were both gone. I originally recorded my four page essay and the recording lasted over seven minutes, so I knew that I needed to cut it down. After I cut down my essay, I recorded it again and it was just over five minutes long. The second time I recorded my essay, it was early Friday afternoon. My dorm

Linesch 2 room faces Zahm, and they had begun blasting music from their dorm, as they do every Friday. Even with the windows closed I could still hear the music, so I taped a blanket up onto my loft to create a curtain around my desk. This proved to be very effective in blocking out any external sounds. I didnt use an external microphone to record my audio essay because there were none left to be checked out, but I think the quality of my essay came out well. Although I was regretting writing this essay and recording it onto audio, I ended up really liking this assignment. I learned how to better convey my thoughts in a narrative essay and how to edit down my paper so that only the essential pieces of the story were needed. I also learned how to incorporate audio media into my writing process, which is something that I have never experienced before. Overall, this project helped to expand my knowledge of different multimedia mediums that can be used in writing and I improved on my narrative writing skills.