AS Language: Text Types - Voiceovers and Scripted Speeches

1. AS Language: Text Types
Voiceovers and Scripted Speeches

2. VOICEOVERS
Voiceover = the voice of an unseen narrator, spoken material.
In the exam you may be asked to write the script for a voiceover. The type of
voiceover i.e. whether it is persuasive, promotional, discursive,
informative, will depend on your AIM – i.e. what the question asks you to
do e.g.
Write the script for a voiceover of a radio programme aimed at teenage
audience called Brave New World. In the programme, a student on the
point of leaving school describes her or his feelings about moving into a
new stage of life. In you writing, create a sense of the hopes and fears that
the narrator is experiencing.
From this we can deduce:
• T – TYPE: voiceover
• A – AUDIENCE: teenagers
• A – AIM: convey the hopes and fears the teen may be feeling at the point
of leaving school – To discuss, inform...can even be entertaining
• T – TONE: informal, humorous but also element of seriousness so as not to
undermine the life change the teen is about to embark on

3. ELEMENTS OF A VOICEOVER SCRIPT:

4. SCRIPTED SPEECHES:
Scripted speeches are those that are prepared and written down in
advance in contrast to the kind of spontaneous conversation and
dialogue we use in everyday situations. Scripted speeches may
be political speeches or speeches addressed to particular
organisations or gatherings. They may be intended for public
mass audiences or for more local and private meetings. Such
speeches:
• Seek to engage their audience in a range of ways, often with
rhetorical techniques similar to those used in persuasive writing;
they may or may not offer counter-arguments
• Tend to offer a particular line or point of view and attempt to
persuade listeners to share their vision
• May try to establish a particular mood, a particular attempt to
come to terms with issues or events or a vision of the future;
they may draw on a range of techniques to achieve these ends.

5. KEY TECHNIQUE: THE DIRECT APPROACH
• What is the main point that Aung San Suu Kyi makes in this speech?
• How would you describe the mode of address? Is it direct and straightforward? Or
more subtle and complex?
• How can you tell?

6. SCRIPTED SPEECHES: CONVEYING TONE OR MOOD
FURTHER RESEARCH: For more examples of scripted speeches visit the
following websites:
www.historyplace.com/speeches
http://www.nobelprize.org/index.html

7. KEY FEATURES/CONVENTIONS OF SCRIPTED SPEECHES
Recap your persuasive techniques in order to effectively
summarise the conventions o scripted speeches under the
following headings:
• LAYOUT/STRUCTURE
• STYLE
• AUDIENCE
• AIM
• TONE
Hint: Consider things like rhetoric; emotive language (figures –
metaphors, similes etc - and parts of speech); repetition in
the form of words, phrases, ideas, themes or images; use of
personal pronouns; contrasting images, ideas, themes that
may or may not be juxtaposed to achieve a particular
effect; discourse markers; personal anecdotes; a call for
action.