Things I Learned From Vet: Paralanguage
In vet school, they taught us some basics about communication and how to get through a consult. A minor part of that was a mention of paralanguage.
Paralanguage; noun
In vet exam rooms, the idea is how you portray yourself. Acting interested, engaged, sympathetic, professional. Interestingly, I find paralanguage exists in writing, too.
Obviously, in writing, you don't have speed, intonation, or pitch. But the more I critique, the more I find the author's attitude and personality makes it onto the page. "Speed of speaking" comes through as sentence length and paragraph breaks. "Intonation" comes through with choices of punctuation.
Even more subtly, sometimes it shows when an author is confident or knowledgeable--or not. I've read manuscripts from friends who are always self-guessing themselves, and that hesitation comes through in the narrative somehow. There's repetition sometimes when the author isn't sure they've made their point well enough. There can be over-explanation if the author got distracted by their research or is trying too hard to sound smart. Dialogue can sound stiff when the author isn't comfortable with the characters' voices.
It seems kind of obvious, but there's this ubiquitous paralanguage between the lines of everything written on the page. In the hands of a skilled writer, they can manipulate how you feel about what's going on, or exude so much confidence you trust them without understanding why. In the hands of a rookie writer, it shows when someone "hesitates" or "stutters" metaphorically--the proverbial stage fright, when they don't believe in what they've written.
I'm not sure if this is a useful topic to think about, but it's an observation.
Paralanguage; noun
the nonlexical component of communication by speech, for example intonation, pitch and speed of speaking, hesitation noises, gesture, and facial expression.
In vet exam rooms, the idea is how you portray yourself. Acting interested, engaged, sympathetic, professional. Interestingly, I find paralanguage exists in writing, too.
Obviously, in writing, you don't have speed, intonation, or pitch. But the more I critique, the more I find the author's attitude and personality makes it onto the page. "Speed of speaking" comes through as sentence length and paragraph breaks. "Intonation" comes through with choices of punctuation.
Even more subtly, sometimes it shows when an author is confident or knowledgeable--or not. I've read manuscripts from friends who are always self-guessing themselves, and that hesitation comes through in the narrative somehow. There's repetition sometimes when the author isn't sure they've made their point well enough. There can be over-explanation if the author got distracted by their research or is trying too hard to sound smart. Dialogue can sound stiff when the author isn't comfortable with the characters' voices.
It seems kind of obvious, but there's this ubiquitous paralanguage between the lines of everything written on the page. In the hands of a skilled writer, they can manipulate how you feel about what's going on, or exude so much confidence you trust them without understanding why. In the hands of a rookie writer, it shows when someone "hesitates" or "stutters" metaphorically--the proverbial stage fright, when they don't believe in what they've written.
I'm not sure if this is a useful topic to think about, but it's an observation.
Good point! This is the best explanation of an author's "voice" I've heard so far. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks! I never even thought of it as "voice" until you mentioned it!
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