When You Are Reading a Speech and You Have a Comma What Is the Best Way to Pause?

A STORY FROM SPAIN

Pauses aren't easy.

I teach public speaking and presentation skills at a few Executive MBA Programmes in Switzerland and Spain. A few years ago, I was teaching a class at IESE in Barcelona.

One of my students was a fellow named Manuel. He was bright, thoughtful and fully engaged. He also spoke fast. Very fast, even for a Spaniard. Sí, Manuel habló muy rápido. And there were few pauses betwixt his sentences. At times, I wondered how he could breathe.

I kept encouraging Manuel to slow downwards and interruption, but to no avail. So I tried a different tactic. I stood upwardly and walked to the back of the course backside the other students.

"Manuel," I said, "I want to you to practise your speech again. Whenever I hold up my paw signaling 'Stop!' you must terminate talking. And you cannot brainstorm talking until I lower my hand."

So off we went. Manuel began to talk and every few sentences, I would raise my manus and silently count, "Grand and one, 1000 and ii." Manuel would finish speaking. I would then lower my paw and he would continue.

Information technology wasn't the most elegant way to speak, merely after a while nosotros adult a rhythm. When we were finished with the practise, I asked him how he felt during the pauses.

"Terrible!" he exclaimed. "It was then hard not to talk. I could feel my center chirapsia and everyone was looking at me."

I then asked his fellow students what they idea. They were unanimous in proverb that the pauses had improved the speech dramatically.

Manuel," I continued, "I sympathise that it tin can feel uncomfortable to intermission, but you lot know what? It doesn't affair. Because it's not nigh y'all; information technology'southward about the audience. If you don't pause, information technology's difficult for us to follow your thoughts and ideas. And if nosotros are struggling to keep up, information technology doesn't make you lot look good."

SILENCE IS GOLDEN … Only Not Like shooting fish in a barrel

When I work with clients to help them better their pubic speaking skills, I always tell them that one of the virtually important things that they tin learn is when to say nothing at all.

And all the same, many people have a difficult time with pausing, even for one or two seconds. The reasons are varied merely common ones that I hear include:

• Beingness afraid that the audience will think that they've forgotten something.

• Feeling their heart pounding in their chest.

• Seeing everyone looking at them.

While understandable, especially for novice speakers, when nosotros footstep back and look at these concerns objectively, we encounter that they do not stand scrutiny:

• Pauses of a few seconds will feel natural to an audition. They won't think that you lot've forgotten what to say side by side.

• The audition cannot experience or hear your heart. If they can, someone'southward too close!

• Your audience will also look at yous when you speak. That'south what audiences do.

Then what does happen when you pause?

• Your audition is able to absorb what you are saying.

• You lot reduce unnecessary fillers words like 'ah' and 'um'.

• You look thoughtful, confident and apparent.

WHEN TO PAUSE

Mark Twain said, "The right word may be constructive, but no word was always every bit effective as a rightly timed break."

I agree but that begs the question, when should you pause when speaking in public? I mean, y'all can't replace all the words with pauses. You take to say something.

There are several, powerful ways to use the suspension to maximum effect. Beneath are seven examples of when a pause will be 'rightly timed' and effective.

The pause before you start

When you take the phase, you get one chance to make a skillful beginning impression. And so don't rush things.

Walk confidently to the place where you are going to begin speaking, look at the audience and smile. Take a deep jiff and as you practise then, imagine that you lot are drawing the energy of the room in. Slowly exhale and begin speaking.

This routine should have no more than 10 to 15 seconds (including the walk) merely it will make you look confident and in command. And, if someone introduces yous, you should interruption even longer because after you accept shaken hands with your introducer, you should not start speaking until he or she has left the phase and is seated.

In his book, Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln, James Humes devotes the first chapter to pausing earlier you lot speak. He concludes by telling readers, "Stand, stare, and command your audition, and they will bend their ears to listen."

The break to point that something important is coming

Pauses can permit people know that you are almost to say something important. For example, let'southward suppose that I am giving a talk well-nigh team productivity.
I share a number of ideas nigh how teamwork tin can be improved in an organization and at present I am coming to the virtually important indicate. I might say something like this:

"Without question, there is one feature that all loftier-performance teams have that is essential to their success. Fifty-fifty if your team does the other things that I have said, if it doesn't have this characteristic, you will not achieve your total potential. [pause] That characteristic [pause] is …"

The pause lets people know that they should pay attention to what I am about to say considering it is important.

The break to allow the message sink in

Just as pauses can be used at the starting time of an important thought, so too tin they be used immediately after something important has been said. When you lot convey a message that yous want people to remember, pause later saying it.

For example:

"If we promise to turn a profit in 2019, we demand to cut costs by 10% and increase sales by 20% in the final six months of the twelvemonth. [pause]"

"If we hope to turn a profit in 2019, we need to cut costs by 10% and increase sales by twenty% in the final six months of the twelvemonth. [pause]"

The pause when moving to a new topic

Often I encounter speakers who have done a good job organizing their presentation by topic. However, when reaching the end of 1 topic, they rush headlong into the next. The presentation resembles a railroad train with the cars jammed upwardly against each other.

Far better to break betwixt the topics to allow your audience mentally shift gears equally y'all begin to talk about something new.

For case:

"We've seen the devastating impacts that plastic garbage is causing in the oceans. But creative people coming up with ways to turn the situation around. [pause] I want to share the stories of iii companies that are doing just that. [break]"

The last pause marks a articulate delineation between ii distinct parts of the presentation and allows the audience a moment to refocus. You tin can besides combine a suspension at this indicate with taking a sip of water or moving to a new location on stage.

The intermission for accent

A pause can exist used to emphasise a fundamental point or statistic. For shocking statistics, 1 can heighten the dramatic issue past combining repetition with the pauses.

For example:

"Co-ordinate to the United Nations Environment Plan, 1-third of all nutrient produced in the world is lost or wasted every year. [pause]"
"One third! [break]"

"In the The states alone, $161 billion worth of food goes to waste matter every year. [intermission]" "$161 billion! [pause]"

These statistics are shocking and it is important to allow the audience feel their full weight.

The intermission to get your audition to reflect

Sometimes yous want your audience to reflect on an issue. Yous can do this by asking a rhetorical question, or by asking them to recollect about a topic or situation.

This technique is great for engaging the audience because it allows each member to personalize the field of study for himself or herself. However, if you lot practice non leave space betwixt the rhetorical question / request to call up about something and your next statement, you will frustrate your audition. You demand to give them time to think about how they would answer earlier you lot give your response.

For example:

"I'd like you to think about a fourth dimension that yous had a hard conversation with a colleague at work. [pause]"

Note that yous can let this type of break run for 5 to x seconds and it will feel completely natural for the audition.

The intermission when answering questions

Allowing people to ask questions is a corking way to brand your presentation interactive. Simply when people ask their questions, expect at them, listen actively and then, when they are finished, pause before answering.

Too many speakers start answering immediately afterward the audience member has finished asking the question. In that location is no space between the question and the answer. Even worse, some speakers will beginning answering while the audition member is still finishing the question.

Information technology comes across as rude and simply serves to highlight that the speaker had stopped listening and formulated the answer while the audience member was notwithstanding speaking.

It is far better, and mutual courtesy, to mind to the question with an open heed and then think about it before you answer. The audience will appreciate your thoughtfulness and you volition probably requite a better answer.

HOW TO Meliorate YOUR PAUSES WHEN SPEAKING IN PUBLIC

We pause all the fourth dimension when during normal conversations that we have throughout the day, but we about certainly do it instinctively. Still, if you can interruption when speaking to your friends, you can pause on stage.

While zip can supervene upon getting up on stage and speaking over and again, here are some ideas for you to try:

one.  Watch videos of speakers and focus on the pauses (or lack thereof). In this video of Barack Obama, you lot see just how powerful pauses tin can be.

ii.  If you take speaking notes, write in large messages and a vivid colour at the elevation of every folio, PAUSE! Your notes are for you lot, non the audience. Make them as useful as possible.

3.  Before a speech or presentation, ask someone y'all trust who will attend to requite you feedback on your pauses. Request them before you speak will ensure that they pay attention to the pauses during your talk.

4.  Video yourself when speaking and play information technology back simply don't watch, just mind. Focus on the pauses that you made or should have made.

5.  If you lot are a fast talker who never pauses, try this. Take a novel from your bookshelf and read out loud for a few minutes. Every time y'all come to a comma, pause for a 2nd. When y'all come to the terminate of a sentence, pause for two seconds. When yous reach the end of a paragraph, pause for iii seconds. Yep, it will experience bogus, and no, you should not normally interruption similar this. However, it will help make y'all more aware of pausing.

6.  Practice pausing when speaking with others during your solar day. Mind to what friends and family unit and colleagues are proverb and and so wait a 2nd or two before speaking.

THE MUSIC OF YOUR SPEECH

Back in Espana, as the course progressed, Manuel (and several others) made a concerted effort to slow down and break. Past the end of the week, great progress had been made and anybody agreed that pausing at the right moment significantly improved the quality of the speeches. I now utilize the same exercise in all my trainings whenever someone is speaking also fast.

At that place is an one-time saying among musicians: Music is what happens betwixt the notes. Arthur Schnabel, a classical pianist from Austria, describes it in this way: "The notes I handle no amend than many pianists. But the pauses betwixt the notes? Ah, that is where the fine art resides!"

Information technology is the same with public speaking. A great voice communication happens between the words. Because it is during the pauses that we tin reflect on the significance of what you take said and make information technology relevant for us.
And that is how you make an impact.

This post originally appeared in Presentation Guru on six March 2019.

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Source: https://mannerofspeaking.org/2019/11/12/pauses-in-a-speech-why-when-and-how/

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