Excellent effort! Consider focusing on your enunciation. Unless it's expected to be a cold read, always read over your script several times to get as comfortable as possible with the language and pacing. To be fair, this is by George Carlin, one of (in my opinion) the best comedians and social critics ever. If you have a chance, check out a video of him doing this bit. It's meant to be a bit of a tongue twister. I look forward to seeing how you improve going forward in this class.

Good work!

0:02 read “style” instead of “styles” minor word change. The words that have “s” at the end and “s” at the beginning of the next one can be challenging. A good way to ensure you pronounce the entire word is to slow down a little so you can comfortably leave enough space to say both words naturally.

0:04 I feel like “saving” was kind of rushed through and not fully pronounced. Be sure to read at a slow enough pace to fully pronounce the words. 

0:17, 0:56  When you misread (happens to everyone and it’s okay!), it’s highly encouraged to start again at the beginning of the sentence or paragraph or a point that would make it easy to remove and replace the mistake during editing. If you just keep going and don’t return to a solid point that makes it easy to edit out the mistake, you may need to come back later and re-record, and it becomes challenging to make it sound the same as the original recording. So, a good rule of thumb is to record so that it’s easy to edit later.

0:25 read “musk” instead of “muss”

0:32 read “changes” instead of “charges”

0:33 missed the word “on” in “no one will call on you”

0:53  It sounds like you went a little off mic. Be aware of where the microphone input is to ensure your clarity and levels remain consistent during recording.

0:57 To take things to the next level, ensure that any repeated words or similar patterns stay different by using change-ups and variation to keep things interesting.

1:05 read “representative” instead of “representatives” - be aware of changing words and dropping or adding “s”.

1:38 odd break/pacing/breath in “key ring … magnifying glass… and garden hose” - may be worth another take if you hit an odd pacing/stride in your read

1:46 I hear “vile” instead of “vinyl”. Be sure to clearly enunciate and articulate your words so that they can be clearly understood. Don’t be afraid to look up how to pronounce words online if you aren’t familiar with them. Some great reference sources include Cambridge Dictionary (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/), youglish.com, forvo.com and You Tube Videos among other places (there’s a lot of options out there). You can simply type in “How to pronounce [word]” in Google search and it should give you several references. 

For the purpose of this homework to work on projection, I felt you did an excellent job of working on this quality! 

In general, it’s okay to slow down your read - be sure to read at a pace where you can clearly enunciate and fully pronounce all of the words rather than just trying to get through the whole thing. Practice reading out loud and focusing on enunciation - the more you do it the easier it will become. 

There was quite a bit of background noises and movement in your recording. Ideally, you should not hold the microphone when recording - it’s good to have it on a boom arm or desktop stand. Shockmounts are also helpful to reduce movement of the microphone during recording. If you’re recording on a phone, set it down or in a holder to minimize movement during recording.

Nice job - keep up the good work!