ORAL COMM EAR CANDY


the occasional sweetness of student writing and speaking.

Whenever I am teaching my Oral Communication classes, and especially in those weeks when I hear a succession of forty-eight ceremonial speeches in a little more than forty-eight hours, I know that I am doing a good job and that, more importantly, my students are doing good jobs when I am moved either to copy an especially lovely and lyrical phrase into my notes, or when I am moved to stop taking notes altogether and simply enjoy what I am hearing. Though I continued taking notes through all forty-eight of this week's speeches, there were plenty of times when I set my pen to scribbling faster than usual, slashing and scratching to be sure I'd caught some particularly delicious bit of ear candy, the kind of phrase or clause or whole, sweet sentence that reaches out, commands your attention, and demands to be heard.

I collected a delectable little assortment of those oratorical bon mots and bon bons this week, and as I read over them again this afternoon, I thought that some were so good and so tasty that they deserved to be shared and sampled here. Like the end of a sentence in which a young woman, toasting her father's well-earned retirement, illustrated one of the bittersweet byproducts of his career with the image of one lonely little girl wishing her Daddy would come home. Or the clause of another young woman who praised her Chinese grandfather's love for and devotion to all seven of his daughters in a time when a daughter was considered more burden than blessing. Or the simple eloquence of a young man praising his father for one especially valuable lesson: Thanks for showing me how to love a family.

Or the sly and simple humor of a young woman recounting an especially infuriating argument with her older brother, trying in vain to convince him that Mom doesn't have to watch the Chapelle show to be a better person. Or, perhaps, the sly and sardonic humor of a best man toasting the wedding of his best friend by assuring his audience that, though It's a sad day for single men everywhere, the groom's vows will cause not much of a ripple in the bachelor pool. Or even the evocative phrasing of a young woman, trying to convey some of the beauty and power of Indian classical singing, as she invokes the echo of silence at the precipice of the palisades.

Or, finally, two different passages -- one nightmarish, one dream-like, both richly evocative -- from a young woman's speech in praise of her gourmet chef of a father, whose first job was at the slaughterhouse, skimming the fat off bloody cow corpses, and whose retirement to a much-beloved country home would leave a mighty big apron to fill: If he leaves, all the good food in the world will go with him.

These delicate morsels are more than enough, at this or any point in a long and lingering semester, to make my days a little richer, my notes a little neater, and my ears a little sweeter.

Posted: Thu - March 30, 2006 at 07:43 PM          

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