Try an experiment created by Arch Obler, a radio announcer and horror writer of the late thirties and early forties. Obler once recorded this "Experiment in Horror," which utilizes the repetition of words and phrases to create a chilling effect. If you can locate a copy of Arch Obler's "Lights Out" Recording, produced in 1970 by Capitol Records, you will find Obler's reading effective. If not, read the following excerpt taken from that recording:

          This is Arch Obler. In a horrific time, in a horrible world, I have been asked to try and horrify you---all in fun, of course. A challenge in horror so to speak. Now I know that you're not a person who is easily frightened. Monsters, ghosts, the dead. Who gets scared of that sort of thing anymore? You don't. Or do you? Do you ever think of the undead, the ghostly ones crowded under the gravestones, the restless dead, millions of them there under the ground?

          May we try something? Turn your lights out. Yes, all of them. Lights out. Everybody. Now then, sit down in a chair and turn your back to the loud speaker. Yes, turn your back. Now sit quietly, very quietly. The room, very quiet. Now whatever I say, don't turn around. Remember that. Don't turn around. (Pause)

          Do you hear that? Now don't turn around. Something is coming up behind you. No, no, don't turn around. It's coming closer and closer and closer. It's something ... Oh no. Dead. It's been dead so very long. No, don't turn around. Closer and closer. Decay. The odor of decay. Don't turn. It's putting out its hand toward your neck, skeleton hand reaching for your neck, touching your neck. [At this point a loud, piercing scream concludes the experiment, usually causing students to shiver and sometimes scream.]

          Repeat Obler's instructions, but this time ask students to identify words or phrases that repeat, words such as "Now sit quietly, very quietly. The room, very quiet."

          This minilesson works well for middle school students, but for high school students you may want to introduce this concept by playing a recording of Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Tell-Tale Heart," which illustrates the same techniques in greater number and complexity. Helping students to "hear" models of parallel structure is a first step toward helping students to write them.

(For a version of this passage with the repeated words and phrases identified, click here.)