Interpretive Toolbox: Verbal techniques,part 6

The sixth and final installment in the series of verbal techniques for use in Interpretative Programming, here are the last ideas in alphabetical order that help give the interpreter more techniques and methods to work with for a better program. Despite coordinating another location move, this is the third blog post this month and a little later than planned but now complete!

Creating tension can push some personalities to the breaking
point so be mindful your effect on the visitors

Tension - Unrest, suspense, or anxiety that provokes a emotional reaction within a performed piece. There is a problem or a need that every program needs to address and that puts the tension on the visitor to find out how it resolves or find emotional release through the interpretive experience. This technique can be used as a hook to draw in visitors and make a narrative compelling.

Testimony - Description of first hand experience, often a confession in this case. Telling the visitors of the interpreter's own experience helps give authenticity to the program, a candid confession of the "expert" learning from experience, but also can be used as a procedure to introduce new ideas or ways of thinking and share experiences with the visitors.

Tone - A stylized manner of relating information that can set an emotional mood for the program, such as speaking in a lighthearted and easy manner compared to creating a heavy, sad or anxious mood for any given program. Approaching the material in this style will cause different reactions with the visitors that may cause them the experience the resource in a different manner than had it been done without any thought as to how the material is presented.

Transition - A verbal or written change in topics often is a signal that one discussion is ending and another one is beginning. This is a kind of foreshadowing that indicates that something new is going to happen as the location or the discussion topic changes. It is a good habit to get into when writing the script for a program to include a sentence or two on the transition from one segment to the next. Try giving the visitors something to think about as they move locations, give them a question to ponder or a riddle to solve so that they verbally anticipate what is going to happen next before the next thing happens. Transitions are essentially continually introducing the next big thing.

Triad - A triad is the rule of three's. "I will give you three examples", for instance, or "There are three things to remember." There are three options. Three's an odd number, which tends to stick in the mind better than fours or even numbers. Examples of groups of threes include things like breakfast, lunch, and dinner; Lee, Stonewall, and Stuart; "I came, I saw, I conquered." Such groups help give ample examples to the point illustrated. Having one or two triads in a program is excellent, but avoid over use.

Trip Hammer - "A repeated word, phrase, or gesture that serves to reinforce a concept". One example is the use of the phrase "water is vital to survival" when discussing something like the adaptations of animals and plants in desert ecosystems. Every time an adaptation or feature is brought up ending with the catch phrase, the message will be reinforced.

Understatement - the restraining of commentary on a topic for a rhetorical effect. It is almost the exact opposite of exaggeration or hyperbole. It is the action of the phrases "The less said, the better" and "Less is more". This method works on serious topics or a topic that have been talked to death. Delivered just right, the effect can be used to be amusing. 

Voice Modulation - The control of emphasis or volume in the voice. This includes things like whispers, exclamations, funny voices for animals, onomatopoeia, speaking fast or slow, round tones, or other acoustic skills the interpreter may possess.

Word Choice - Selecting the vocabulary with intention for effect. Word choice matters. When working with children, the words you use will help them understand complex ideas and concepts if the interpreter can bring it to their level without "dumbing it down". It can also dance around sensitive and difficult topics. It can be precise or vague, depending on what the intention is behind the choice for a word.

Captivate them with your eloquent and vivid description

Word Picture- A vivid description that gives allows for easy imagination. Choosing to be descriptive can take a visitor "there" in their minds and mentally "see" what is being described. Select sensory words to make a clear picture. There apparently is a hierarchy of using senses interpretively : "The sense of sight first, the sense of sound second, the sense of touch third, and the senses of taste and smell next."

Word Play- Amusing verbal plays on words like puns an double meanings. It is an excellent amusing technique; the "dad jokes" and puns do some work for you. On the other hand, be aware of some of the meanings of double entendres as it may show up on a comment card afterwards.

Once the main portion of the program is over, every great program needs a conclusion, a way of ending that closes the program. Conclusions provide emotional release and closure that we have been conditioned to expect. Books, plays, TV shows, movies, research papers all conclude and so must the program. Ending with a "That's all folks!" is not a conclusion. Think about how some of the most impacting TV shows, movies, plays or books end and see if you can do the same but for your content. When ending a program, there are a few techniques that work very well that helps reinforce your message and leave the audience satisfied.

Analysis - An evaluation of the whole and parts. Analysis is a evaluation of everything that has been done or discussed and making a determination or a judgement about it. This technique is really a conclusion technique because information and evidence needs to be gathered first before it can be analyzed. Looking at the interaction of parts and the whole help reinforce the relationships and functionality of a message. Posing the analysis as a question helps open the matter to discussion and exchange of opinion.

Summary - A condensation of information or distillation of it that rephrases the message of the program. Remind the visitors of the main points of the program and how what was talked about or done at those points reinforces the interpreter's message. This review also serves to reinforce. Repetition is a powerful learning tool. Use summary as a method to gather your evidence one last time for a call to action!

Get the word out!

 Call to action - A forceful and persuasive comment about what to do next. Tilden's principle #4 said that interpretation is provocation. What was the message of the program? Did you answer their "So what?" What can be said to provoke them to take the next step without explicitly telling them to go do something? Telling them what to do ruins the learning and discovery part of learning. Perhaps by telling them what to do curtails their own ideas about what to do that might be better than the suggestion! Ending on a strong impacting note make a lasting impression.

This is the end of the portion on verbal techniques at long last. The techniques and methods described are many and plentiful, and involve coordination in order to be effective. This portion has been relatively exhaustive, but by no means contains the only verbal techniques available. Being that we humans communicate in such complex manners, remember that it take time, practice, and careful planning to make each and every program presentation effective, memorable, and fun. Using these verbal techniques in concert will help give the interpreters a wealth of knowledge and ideas to play with as they fine tune their programs. Next month the topic of discussion will be active participation techniques. The information will center of low level activity with increasing ability to the highest forms of activity that can be engaged that anyone has thought of. Stay tuned for next week as we get active!

I relied on Handles: A Compendium of Interpretive Techniques to Help Visitors Grasp Resource Meanings by Peggy Ann Scherbaum for ideas and material to share and is a great resource for ideas and examples and I could not have done this series without it. I do not claim to have some up with the techniques described since I used Handles as a resource; all I did was arrange the material in such a way as to make the concepts categorically available.