Reading out in meetings

I've had to learn how to read things out in AA: whether scripts or other readings.

Some things I've learned:

  • Read the text in advance, if possible
  • Look up words I do not understand fully
  • Read out loud (or mentally read through if reading out loud is not possible)
  • Spot where stumbling happens and eliminate it
  • Keep practising until there is no further stumbling
  • It's almost impossible to read too slowly or too clearly
  • It's not a race, and there's no timer or finish line
  • Almost everyone reads way too fast and way too indistinctly
  • Almost everyone reads with too little comprehension and feeling
  • Almost no one reads with too much
  • Risk being slightly mannered if it gets the message across
  • Imagine the words are one's own and put them across as though they are one's own
  • Imagine one really wants to make the points made
  • Imagine one really wants to convince or persuade (if reading out the Big Book)
  • Imagine one really wants to paint a picture (if reading out a story)
  • Imagine one really wants to communicate and be heartily understood
  • Aim for the natural intonation one uses when communicating with feeling generally
  • Almost everyone knows how to use intonation well, when they're speaking for themselves
  • The job is to invoke this when reading in a meeting
  • Try to avoid artificiality or excessive drama: it's not an audition, either
  • But risk that if it avoids being mumbling, stuttering, incoherent, or just plain dull
  • Risk making a fool of yourself for months or years to improve over time