Musical Listening Resounding: Sonic Rhetorics in the Technical and Professional Writing Classroom

By: David Measel

Musical Listening 

“Musical Listening” is a pedagogy that applies the theory of musical expectation to patterns in text. It helps students to analyze media and consider their own reading and composition choices. As a pedagogy, it puts course curriculum in the context of a discussion about pattern recognition (Measel, “Musical Listening”). Although it includes exercises in listening for musicality, it is not to be equated with the same phrase as it is used to refer to the act of listening to music (Rice 102). I have a history of teaching with Musical Listening primarily in Rhetoric and Composition, and herein I describe how we might apply this pedagogy to Technical and Professional Communication (TPC). Doing so will help teachers and students to understand the why and how of composition patterns and our responses to TPC media. My focus herein is on affective patterns (patterns of emotional response) encountered in silent reading (reading that takes place quietly, as opposed to speaking the language aloud). I also hope to provide teachers with a way to connect sonic rhetorics with technical and professional writing. For more on the field of sonic rhetoric, its key concepts and texts, visit the Digital Rhetoric Collaborative. 

Musical Listening is inspired by the pedagogy of Steven B. Katz, who theorizes and discusses classroom practices in composition pedagogy in his book The Epistemic Music of Rhetoric with exercises that involve listening and reading aloud. He borrows Leonard Meyer’s “Principles of Pattern Perception,” part of his theory of musical expectation in his own pedagogical theory and practice (Meyer 83, Katz 186-95). Musical Listening incorporates David Huron’s work, which expands on Meyer’s theory of musical expectation and applies empirical evidence to prove the experience of and response to expectation (Sweet Anticipation). It operates on the principle that music and language both feature logical arrangement (Langer 31). As a rhetorical tool, the theory of musical expectation allows us to analyze that experience, which is built of “tension and release” patterns (Langer 27). Similar to the endeavors of Katz and myself, the literary critic and rhetorician, as well as poet and musician, Kenneth Burke observes musicality in texts as well and calls these patterns of response to rhythms the “arousing and fulfilling of expectations” (Counter-Statement 144). When expectations are aroused, we experience physical tension as we predict what will happen next, and we are emotionally affected when expectations are fulfilled or denied. 

Musical Listening utilizes the theory that rhythms in prose and speech are musical, and based upon them we make predictions that lead to affective patterns of tension and release. The theory of musical expectation states that prediction of upcoming musical stimuli generates physical and psychological expectation and subsequent fulfillment or denial of those predictions, which leads to positive and negative emotions (Huron 12-13). Expectation is influenced to some degree by our biology (Huron vii, 4; see also Huron, “Affect Induction through Musical Sounds: An Ethological Perspective,” 2015). Meyer and Huron agree that expectation is also influenced by culture (Huron vii, 4; Meyer 21-22). Finally, expectation is shaped by our listening experiences as well (Huron 219; Meyer 73). For more on musicality in prose and specifically technical writing, see Morris Croll’s Style, Rhetoric, and Rhythm. 

Musical Listening encourages students to identify musical elements in and across texts (such as patterns in volume and tone) and analyze them with the basic principles of expectation theory. For more on David Huron’s development of musical expectation theory, see Huron’s 2015 article “Affect Induction through Musical Sounds: An Ethological Perspective.” In a larger context, Burke observes rhythms in our reading selection, interpretation, composition, and attitudes (The War of Words 176-182). I address these in discussions of Musical Listening as well (see “Activity 1” and “Signficance”), encouraging students to see themselves as a filter for attitudes in a complex sea of media and contrasting forces. 

Musical Listening applies to Technical and Professional Communication due to how we experience rhythms in text. We see musicality via rhythms in text visually and understand there is sound implied in the written word, but we can experience that sound internally through silent reading, also known as “subvocalization” (“Subvocalization”). Most of us hear an “IRV” (inner reading voice, Vilhauer 38) when we read. A study by Ruvanee Vilhauer indicates that over 80% of the respondents reported hearing an IRV when they read (38). Some readers hear their own voices, while others hear the voices of others such as loved ones (41). Our students hear IRV’s as well. Some individuals may not notice IRV’s until after the question is posed to them (39). While not all individuals hear IRV’s or audible thinking, this approach is relevant to all learners because the patterns will explore in “Activity 1: Sonic Analysis” are also visual and spatial. Respectively, Huron’s theory has evolved into a “more general theory of expectation” that applies to all of our interactions with stimuli, so the observations and activities herein are relevant to all of our students and their individual learning orientations. The Sonic Analysis, described below, focuses on the experience of reading a memo. 

Activities 

Application of Musical Listening to the teaching of Technical and Professional Communication allows for the analysis of media for appeals to rhythm. Simpler activities include analysis and discussion of a sample document within the context of the theory of expectation described above. More complex activities ask the writer (student) how to compose in a professional rhetorical situation. Both the Sonic Analysis and Sonic Remix activities, described below, demonstrate comprehension of genre conventions and are accompanied by a reflection that further demonstrates this understanding as well as describes the composition process. In both in-class presentations and reflections students can discuss their rhetorical choices, answer questions, and compare their reading experiences to those of their peers. We begin exploring students’ sonic reading experiences in Activity 1, the Sonic Analysis. 

Activity 1. Sonic Analysis 

Activity 1 is an in-class discussion that features the analysis of a technical document such as a memo (I highly recommend using a brief document like a memo, resume, or business letter for this activity because the analysis can get much more complex with longer documents) with the class as a whole or in groups of 3-4. In both cases students are asked to analyze the arrangement of the memo through the lens of Musical Listening. In groups, one student leads the discussion; when we practice this activity together as an entire class, I run the discussion. Together, we imagine that we are employees of a company, “Technical Writing Solutions,” receiving weekly memos (see Figure 1). We discuss how receiving and reading these memos weekly and absorbing their content through silent reading creates expectation. We become accustomed to patterns as we absorb them over and over on a regular basis. Along with our prediction of those patterns we experience expectation (expectation and prediction are explored in further detail below under (“Activity 1: Sonic Analysis” and “Significance”). 

We discuss the patterns we see, both those particular specific to the memo genre and those recurring within the document itself. We merely observe and collect data about the document in this phase. We do not yet draw conclusions. Results will vary from student to student. However, together as a class, we might conclude that firstly, the heading and address are extremely consistent in format and language (in green: see color-coded memo, Figure 2), except for some elements of the address. Secondly, this is followed by three paragraphs averaging around 3 to 5 sentences, followed by a signature that is usually shorter and ends in a linked email (yellow). Lastly, the three longer paragraphs are divided by brief bolded headings of few words that generally run less than half-way across the page (purple); each of these sections is further divided by hierarchical spacing (no color/white). A color-coded version of the memo appears in Figure 2. 

These patterns are visual, spatial, and sonic. The students identify in discussion common and individual experiences in ‘hearing’ the memo through IRV’s in silent reading. I ask students to ‘listen’ to the memo and report the quality of sounds they hear, and the relationship between patterns in those sounds and visual patterns. Responses will vary, but commonalities will emerge, both between audio and visual patterns and between students’ auditory experiences. I observe in my experience, even when scanning, that headings and bolded language can be loud (hear Clip 1) and paragraphs can sound like chatter (Clip 2) or even static, while white space remains silent (see Figure 2).

Students have their own unique sonic experiences with varying sound qualities, and even different personal voice associations, and the same is true for you. Whose voice do you hear when you read silently to yourself?

Regardless of the sound quality experienced by individual students (which they are asked to consider and apply through composition of audio media in the following Sonic Remix project: see “Activity 2: Sonic Remix” below) the discussion and color-coding of this memo or any other piece of TPC media opens the door to a conversation about pattern recognition and technical communication in the context of a theory of expectation and moreover Musical Listening. Students are able to repeat the practice of color-coding with this or any other document on their own or in groups, in preparation for Activity 2. Repetition of this activity and/or a combination of Activities 1 and 2 will improve students’ skills at sonic analysis, allowing them to approach longer documents, and in general more complex examples of TPC media.

The greater discussion of Musical Listening that contextualizes Activity 1 is ongoing in my classroom. Students understand from class discussion before beginning these activities that repetition of patterns across different documents within a single genre and within the same document creates expectation. We prefer predictability and can become irritated by “violation of expectation” (Huron 26). If we compose according to existing expectation, we appreciate the result largely because our brains like the predictability of repetition (127). The same is true for readers. If we are confused by a memo due to its violation of expected patterns, or a knowledge of expectation theory allows us to reasonably attribute the negative affective response to violation of the reader’s expectation. The same is true if we get in trouble with a supervisor for composing the memo in such a way that breaks those established patterns.

We do at times, of course, enjoy getting a prediction wrong. Violation of expectation can lead to a mix of negative and positive emotions, and “surprise [one of the several kinds of experience associated with expectation] can lead to fear, laughter, frisson, or awe” (Huron vii). The relevance of Musical Listening and a theory of expectation extends far beyond music and language to potentially any situation in which we experience surprise (not just in the areas of music and reading, but also in magic and comedy (Savinova and Korovkin 1). Thus, the theory that students learn under the pedagogy of Musical Listening and the skills they adopt through sonic analysis are transferrable far beyond the TPC classroom.

Activity 2: Sonic Remix

Activity 2 is a project that asks students to compose audio representing what they hear when they silently scan the memo. Students perform this activity in class, but ultimately it must be completed outside of class due to the sonic element. Students can complete the Sonic Remix in groups of 3-4 (retained from Activity 1) or individually. The introduction to the Sonic Remix begins with reinforcing the discussion of audio rhythms in a document through manipulation of the memo image. When we rotate our color-coded document counter-clockwise (see Figure 3) and place two copies next to each other as seen in Figure 4, we see that the document strongly resembles a sound wave (Figure 5).

 

Works Cited