Recently I received the following email.  I responded with an email then I went ahead and wrote two more episodes of The Public Speaker.

Hi Lisa,

I really like your post on Quick and Dirty Tips about How to Sound Conversational. I particularly like the example you gave. Could you point me to where I could find other such examples? I manage a team of learning designers who are converting book text for video delivery, and I’m trying to get them to use that style: keep the essence of the book, but use a conversational approach.

_______here’s my reply email with tons of resources______

Dear Joan,

I **think** I initially was introduced to these concepts from a few articles about David Candow that NPR used to hire (not sure if they still do cause he’s at retirement age) for helping the reporters to sound more conversational. I tried to contact him once and never got a response.

Here’s  some links you might find really helpful:

Here’s an article in the Washington Post about David Candow…When This Guy Talks, NPR Listens. Excellent article that includes examples

Here’s an BBC Radio News Style Guide This is little long but again, helpful.

Sound Story is a 21 page PDF guide for reporting with sound.  It was created by by J.Carl Ganter and Eileen E. Ganter for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. It covers story development, writing, and gathering sound and includes extensive advice about interviewing.  They give credit for some of the content to David Candow.

Five Steps To Multimedia Reporting This site offers a series of tutorials on  how to produce stories in the field using audio, video, photos and web design tools. The site is sponsored by The Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism program,

Here’s an article about an audio digital darkroom.  Very interesting if you are interested in sound editing.

Here’s a PDF that explains succinctly many rules to follow for conversational style.

http://onlinevoicecoaching.com/?page_id=10 (A book on voice coaching but includes a chapter on sounding conversational and how to mark up scripts.)

Here’s a website from Mary McGuire that lists a ton of great resources.  She lists many of the ones I also listed, but she has more aimed at teachers of medial.