I was writing a blog to submit for a course for my master’s program. In this blog I had to find three examples of video and audio productions on YouTube and find some that had good examples of flowing audio that matches their video.

See the blog here:

https://isabellahsusino.wordpress.com/2023/11/05/icm-508-audio-design-ii/

As I hit the third paragraph writing about a sommelier, I remembered something from On Writing Well, by William Zinsser, in chapter 4: style. To make it short and sweet, Zinsser states that

“Readers want the person who is talking to them to sound genuine. Therefore a fundamental rule is: be yourself.”

He goes on to say this can be an impossible task for writers because they can’t relax. I mean, the same goes for grad students.

I really think that Zinsser is onto something. We need to put the writers back into writing. We cannot just keep reading articles that are meant to just grab your attention and have a bunch of ads that scare their audience into clicking them.

Anyways, on the next page, Zinsser says that by paragraph 4 the writer beings to sound like themselves. I saw this in myself when I was writing for ICM 508. It was so surprising to me that editors will just cut the first few paragraphs and start with something so late in in the article.

Another reminder that Zinsser offers is when you’re writing, you’re writing for yourself. Perhaps the audience will care enough when you find somethng interesting and can find the right words to tell them why. But every reader is different. I mean, my blog posts consist of a very differeny array of topics, from hiking to my time in a different country, from vegan food to book recommendations. As long as you’re the one coming thorugh the screen and not a bot, I think the audience will be fine with that.

“Just as it takes time to find yourself as a person, it takes time to find yourself as a stylist, and even then your style will change as you grow older.

But whatever your age, be yourself when you write.”