Public Speaking

Vary Your Vocal Behaviors (^193)
• Intentionally relax your throat before you speak and whenever you feel tense as you
speak.^40
• Use the lower range of your voice; higher pitches make you sound younger and more
excitable.
• Speak naturally and conversationally. Don’t force enthusiasm.
• Change vocal inflections when your audience appears to be losing interest; add pitch
variation and slightly increased volume and rate to communicate enthusiasm; vary
your volume and rate to add impact.^41

Pause for Effect

Pauses can be effective or embarrassing to both you and your listeners. Effective pauses

are intentional—ones purposely used between major ideas or to give your audience

a few seconds to contemplate a difficult concept. In a speech to corporate executives,

Judith Humphrey^42 advised:

[C]onsider this: when does the audience think? Not while you’re speaking, because

they can’t think about an idea until it’s delivered. They think during the pauses. But

if there are no pauses, they won’t think. They won’t be moved. They won’t act upon

what you say. The degree to which you want to involve the audience is reflected in the

length of your pauses.

In contrast, ineffective pauses or hesitations disrupt your fluency and signal that

you’ve lost your train of thought or you’re searching for words. Unfilled pauses are

silent; filled or vocalized pauses include uh or um, like, OK, and you know. Many pro-

fessionals, as well as beginning public speakers, use ums. However, too many can be

distracting, so work to minimize them. To use pauses effectively:

•   Find places in your manuscript or outline where your audience needs you to pause so

they can absorb what you just said. Use double slash marks // to mark these places.

Then rehearse these intentional pauses. What may seem like a very long pause to you

may be about right for your listeners.

•   During a rehearsal, ask a friend to count the number of vocalized pauses you make

and then give the speech again, and eliminate as many ums or uhs as you can.

unfilled pause silent pause

filled or vocalized pause

saying um or uh or other

sounds during a pause

In the movie Meet Joe

Black, William Parrish

addressed the board of

Parrish Communications.

Watch the clip of this movie

online. Notice how his

initial ums and nervous

mannerisms give way to

meaningful pauses, gestures,

and movements that add

emphasis to his words. (You

can access this link through

your online resources.)

Everett Collection, Inc.

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