Before reading this chapter, I immediately associated delivery with the oral aspect, although, written delivery is just as important. For some reason, I didn’t consider the written part to be delivery, but it obviously is. Combining the two types comes into play a lot. I used to write for ABC 27 News. It was interesting because I felt as if most of the formal writing training that I had in school, totally went out the window. Writing for television news is quite different from formal writing for class. I had to transition from trying to write creative, elaborate styled sentences to summarizing the main facts. These facts are written at a sixth grade level because you don’t want to speak above the viewer. It is also imperative to write a story that takes approximately thirty seconds to read because there is a lot of news to cover in a short period of time. As a writer, I quickly learned which anchors spoke fast and could handle more words per story and who delivered stories at a slower pace. The anchors have to make important delivery decisions as well. They need to consider their pacing, pausing, inflection, and tone. They need to make professional delivery choices as well. It would obviously not be appropriate to deliver a story about murder with a smile. They need to keep the viewer engaged by a talking head.
On another note, I am a sucker for the picture theory. When I am browsing books, I judge by a cover. If a color, font, or image jumps out at me, I will totally pick up that book and read the back. When I am searching for shampoo, I’m always drawn to the visually appealing bottle along with the words chosen to depict the product (ex. full volume, or sleek). If there is a picture on a menu and the item looks appetizing, then I will order that item. It is always disappointing when the food that is delivered does not look like the picture. For example, they always put little water droplets on the lettuce and have big slices of deep red tomatoes on a juicy burger. This is not always what is brought to the table. I am also somewhat of a layout snob. I hate when a particular font or image is used that does not accurately portray the intended message. The use of white space and bolding/italicizing/underlining need to be considered as well.
Overall, I feel that this is quite an interesting topic and is more diverse than I initially realized. I think that we will definitely have some intriguing conversations that will be sparked from this chapter. I am looking forward to class tonight.