It’s judgement day!! Today Katherine (I’ve forgotten her last name) came into class and gave our group some well needed feedback on the rough cuts of our podcasts.

As a group, we went in knowing what exactly we wanted feedback on. With our podcast, we knew we wanted our information, and story telling to follow a clear narrative. What we wanted to know, was that our narrative came off strong to someone who had not been present as we created the podcast. We gave Katherine the headphones and watched her listen to our piece. As nerve wrecking as it was, we knew she would give us the praise and criticism that we needed to hear.

One of the tips she gave us was to use less ‘big’ words in one sentence. What she meant by this was, to “write how you speak”. She told us that some of our sentences/paragraphs were a bit wordy, and should come across more casual, so that it is easier for the listener to take in and understand. As a group, we’ve decided to go through and re-word some parts of our planned speeches, and make them more casual, as Katherine has told us to. We aren’t changing our information, or making it less professional, we are however just making it easier listening for our audience.

Another tip she gave us was regarding our narrative. Katherine told us, that to create a strong and clear narrative, that we need to have a distinct closing, or passage/clip that ties our entire podcast together. Our podcast is based largely around comparisons between Donald Trump and Warren G. Harding. As a group, we were unsure whether to end our discussion with statements/clips regarding Trump or Harding. Katherine mentioned to us that the end should bring a sense of closure to the piece. For this, she has said we should end with Warren G. Harding’s death, yet follow up shortly after with a more recent clip of trump. It shows a clear jump from past to present, whilst making for a clear closing, as we use Warren G. Harding’s death. She told us that it will leave the audience curious, but not confused, or asking too many questions.

As a group, we are definitely going to incorporate Katherine’s feedback into our piece, before the final cut is due. We have planned to meet as a group to rerecord some of our audio pieces and make them flow better, and easier to consume, as well as plan exactly how we want to close our podcast. Overall I am very confident in our piece, but Katherine’s feedback and tips will definitely help us create an even better podcast.