For most if not all teams doing Mock Trial, you’ll be preparing a script of questions that you’re going to ask your witness – for both direct examination and cross examination.
Even if you’re a very advanced team that comes up with questions on the spot – you most likely prepared a guideline of what questions you may ask.
With that being said, if you prepared a script of questions, you should learn the techniques of Sound Scripting to help make your question flow more natural.
What is Sound Scripting?
Sound Scripting is a methodology of marking emphasis on context words in your script. For example, you can take a sentence like “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” and when you add Sound Scripting, it will look like “The QUICK brown fox JUMPED over the lazy dog.”
Why put in the effort to Sound Script?
A lot of teams who don’t sound script often sound like they’re reading off a script even though they’ve memorized their script. When do they do this, they sound un-natural and boring. When you’re boring, your listeners will tune you out and miss what you’ve said.
By adding sound scripting, you add emphasis on context words and give your script more character. It also makes it a lot easier to come up with hand movements as you talk with more emphasis.
What does Sound Scripting look like?
Cross Examination
- It is your testimony today that John Doe set the truck on fire?
- Is it true that John Doe was wielding a knife on Main street?
Direct Examination
- What did you see on Main street the night of January 13th
I saw quite a large man wearing a brown t-shirt wielding a knife on Main street that night on January 13th.