RE: Wood eye? Wood eye? Tin ear! Tin ear!

Subject: RE: Wood eye? Wood eye? Tin ear! Tin ear!
From: "Roth, Ronica" <Ronica -dot- Roth -at- 247media -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 16:06:04 -0700

Dick Margulis wrote:

<What I took away from this interview was that some people read with their
eyes alone, and others listen to their subvocalization of the words on the
page. I know, for example, that I do the latter, making me a much <slower
reader than someone in the former group. I ran up against this when a
coworker and I, in reviewing each <other's work, made complementary
corrections: she took repeated transitional words out of my prose, and I
<added them into her prose. Once we realized the reason, we just laughed
about it, of course. But it remains <something that I try to keep in mind as
I read.

Sorry to add late to an old thread, but i must say THANK YOU...on several
levels.

First, in my recent years discovering many aspects of technical
communication--including training, user docs, design docs, and focus group
design process--I've become increasingly aware of how people think
differently and communicate differently. As my development group has moved
toward a brainstorming-oriented design approach, I have sat in groups in
which one member re-expresses what another has said--more visually, for
example, or going to the white board. I've become quite fascinated,
therefore, in understanding more about how others think. Your tale of an
oral Bible has certainly added another lesson and more to think about.

Secondly, I must thank you for helping me to understand better why I read so
much more slowly than others. Or, at least you've given me a better way to
explain it to others. I, too, subvocalize the words on the page. It makes
"skimming' a text quite difficult indeed. But it helps me read/hear better.

Third, I'm left with a new question: How to explain why on the one hand I
subvocalize when I read and can listen to NPR for hours, absorbing it all (I
know people who can't), and on the other hand I don't like people to read
articles/passages aloud (I must view them for myself). I had an argument
with a fellow creative writer (side projects) about how to run a writers'
salon. He insisted the only REAL way to hear what an author REALLY wrote is
to have him read it aloud. I countered that if you can't get the
tone/meaning from his writing/punctuation/grammar/etc, then it isn't
well-written. But THAT is a whole 'nuther topic.

Ronica Roth
Senior Technical Writer, 24/7 Media
Denver, CO


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