‘I mean, it’s really amazing’ how pervasive conversational tics have become
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So, I’m reading the transcript of an interview I did for a television story, and the truth jumps out at me.
I say the word “so” way too often. Embarrassingly often, in fact.
My glaring conversational tic became evident when I looked at the printed transcript of the interview. The tedious work of manually transcribing every word of every interview has been replaced by a nifty app called Otter, which allows users to pull it up on their phone, turn it on, place the phone by the computer speaker, roll the video and go about their business. When the user returns, they’ll find that every word spoken by themselves and their interview subject has been written down in naked detail.
In this case, I was interviewing the owner of Candle Tree Farm, a family-owned business south of Washington that offers cut-your-own Christmas trees.
Here is how my first few questions appeared in the transcript:
“So, tell me about how you got into the Christmas tree business.”
“So, what have you learned about tree farming that you didn’t know when you started?”
“So, do you ever get tired of that evergreen tree fragrance?”
Until I saw my words written down, I didn’t know I could be such an inarticulate ding dong. What must my interview subjects have been thinking? I counted eight uses of “so” in one 10 minute interview.
At least I’m not alone.
On social media recently, I saw “so” listed among the most annoying conversational habits of 2020. It replaces “like” and the especially annoying and nonsensical “I mean…” as irritating but ubiquitous sentence starters. Add to that my loathing for the overuse and misuse of “amazing,” and you have a whole list of ways our shared command of the English language is being whittled of precision and cluttered with dead wood.
And then there’s “well,” the thought starter for the intellectuals. Listen to any interview on NPR, and you will hear the expert begin every answer with “well.”
And I mean every answer.
I can’t remember the last time I was interviewed, but I’m sure I made good use of “well” when I was.
If I were to offer a reason for my overuse of “so,” it would be related to work.
While conducting an interview for television, I have to think quickly. Never one to work from a prepared list of questions, I prefer an interview to be a conversation.
It makes for better, more natural sound bites.
Done correctly, I am too busy listening to the answer to think about the follow up. And when the person sitting across from me stops talking, it’s my turn. Perhaps I start up with “so” because it’s my way of keeping the back-and-forth going.
Or maybe I’m just conversationally sloppy.
Or nervous.
These Otter transcripts are like a magnifying mirror for my speech, and those “so” words are the rogue eyebrow hairs that appear in the mirror and beg to be removed. I looked at that Otter transcript and was embarrassed. What must my photographers and editors think?
The nice thing about video editors is that they can pluck out most anything that doesn’t belong. My “so” habit will show up in a transcript, but you won’t hear one in the actual video story.
“Cut that word out, please,” I’ll write in my producer’s note, and zap, it’s history.
So, if you want to see a nice holiday story, check out “A Green Christmas” on the WQED website next week. Why? Well, it’s a nice little story about a cool family farm.
I mean, it’s really amazing.