The Birth of a New Book
Order Oracy Is Not Just Speaking and Listening.
It really is like a birthday when the first copies of your new book arrive! On August 29th we celebrated a birthday – in a very large cardboard box.
‘Oracy is Not Just Speaking and Listening’ was conceived in April 2024 and written between June and September. It was not hard to write as I had researched and generated almost all the content over the previous year or more in the context of my work supporting schools and organisations.
Natural birth is always painful without intervention by others. It is the culmination of a period of preparation, growth and development that is enhanced – usually – by anticipation and some excitement. The last weeks, however, may be very painful with constant monitoring, checking, proofing, reading and re-reading, editing and worrying until at last someone has to say ‘enough is enough’ – let’s do this thing. Then we commit…
I am so fortunate in the colleague I work with when publishing. Richard is calm, focused and with an eye as sharp as a razor in the final proofing stages. This is important because – although I am a very effective proof reader – all who write will tell you that you can’t proof your own work without something slipping past you. Even with three thorough reads by each of us, Talk:Write still has one very small slip in it which I only spotted very recently. Has anyone else found it yet?
This latest book is not intended as an academic tome or an anthology of research, although it does contain sufficient information about the roots of the term ‘oracy’ to justify the interpretation of this terminology as closely as possible to the way Andrew Wilkinson intended when he created the concept in 1965 and also to the later research of others, including Rupert Knight. The confusion of interpretations, definitions and opinions that exist today will hopefully be resolved by the National Oracy Commission when their work is done. Geoff Barton is a great thinker and leader. I look forward to the commission’s findings with interest. In the meantime, I am confident that the interpretation of ‘oracy’ portrayed in this book is as close to the original intention of the creator as is possible.
Besides de-mystifying the term ‘oracy’ however, the new book provides clear strategies and guidance for effective launch of oracy in a school. This includes ways to make it enjoyable and even fun whilst ensuring that all codes of speech are respected and protected. Our aim is not to change children’s daily speech, but rather to empower them to make choices about how they speak in different situations. The choices they make and the situations they choose to deploy them in are down to the children themselves. My aim is to see pupils enter the adult world of employment and enterprise as individuals with choices, and when they feel the time and situation is right – adults who are empowered to switch smoothly and naturally into powerful oratory that is passionate, persuasive, emotive, informed and detailed.
But when that birthday box is opened, and we first see the product – the fruits of our labour – aims and aspirations are forgotten. It is a moment of pure excitement that focuses solely on the product. And what a moment that was! What a cover and graphics! What simple and effective layout. I love it and I hope that all of you who have already bought it will love it too.
Thank you to you all, Ros
Talk:Write
A fun and flexible approach to improving children’s vocabulary, speech, and writing.
