The Power of PAUSE in Public Speaking
That's because they're racing, and it's among the worst things they could do if they wanted to look professional.
If it were left up to me, I'd write 120 words per minute for every client and force them to speak at that rate. Why?
Because you can convey a lot more information while instilling more humor, passion, and other emotions into your speech by using the power of the PAUSE.
If you've ever heard a good comedian's routine, you've seen it. If you can pull off a good pause, you can UNDERLINE the last thing you said, or you can make your listeners ANTICIPATE the next thing you're going to say.
Either result is golden.
This is partly important just for the sake of comprehension -- most people don't learn well just by listening. And it's so, so easy for people to space out for just a moment and then miss an entire point you're making. A good pause can help to catch someone's attention and bring it back to what you were saying -- you can even use that moment as a pseudo-pause to REPEAT what you just said.
The pause is also important for the anticipation it builds. You can ask a question and leave a moment for people to THINK about and look forward to the answer. This gets them involved, and getting people involved not only helps with comprehension, but almost universally with enjoyment as well.
So when writing a speech, then, it's important to keep an eye out for where to drop a good pause ... and then to actually WRITE IT IN so that you practice and deliver the speech accordingly. I tend to write [PAUSE] in brackets, or even to make it smaller, to make sure clients don't accidentally say the word. It's just supposed to be a notation, so you'll want to make sure you read it that way when you come across it during delivery.
Yes, there are other techniques for improving a speech as well, but slowing yourself down with a pause is one of the easiest ways to come off as a speaking professional.
Related Tags: public speaking, presentations, speeches, speechwriting, speech writing
Steve McCardell is a professional speech writer and speaking coach with a website at http://www.yourspeechwriter.com
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