Public Speaking Lessons From A (Missing) Pregnant Pause
Posted on Wed, Dec 07, 2011 @ 09:44 AM
By Carolyn Dickson
Recently, the eyes of the world turned to YouTube, where a solemn voice declaimed, “This is the BBC World News. I’m Jonathan Charles kept hidden for almost two decades . . . .”
My imagination quickly jumped to a picture of poor Jonathan, locked up in a wood shed, waiting patiently for 20 years, only to be let loose—just for this broadcast.
While the video gave a few chuckles to the over two million viewers who have clicked on it at the time of this writing, Jonathan’s blooper points up a problem common to all broadcasters—and to many businesspeople: The urge to speed up traps speakers in a morass of words, and once they get going they don’t notice what they’re saying. At that point all meaning is lost.
Good writing is filled with punctuation marks, thoughtfully placed to signal where to start reading and where to stop. Commas are a symbol of one kind of pause, while periods are another. The exclamation point is much more emphatic! Semicolons, colons, capital letters, question marks and dashes—all provide clues to the interpretation of the paragraph.
Speaking is no different. The starting and stopping must be there. There can be no doubt about when and where the punctuation belongs. But your audience can’t see the commas, periods, and long dashes. They must hear them in your voice. This is what got Jonathan Charles in trouble. Without letting us hear the period after his name, he practically forced us to visualize that wood shed where he was to remain trapped all those many years.
Too many speakers are afraid of silence. The thought of appearing to lose their place—or not knowing what to say next—fills them with dread. These speakers fill empty spaces with “ah’s” and “uh’s,” coughs nervous giggles, and other distracting fillers. Or they race nervously ahead, overwhelming their listeners with sounds, when often they should just…stop…talking.
Pauses stimulate attention by allowing the audience time to digest what you’ve said and anticipate what’s to come. They give you recovery time, a quiet moment to relax, breathe, and gather your thoughts. During pauses, you and your audience actually have time to look at each other, which gives you a good opportunity to connect with them on a personal level. It helps to think of pauses not as breaks in momentum, but as an integral part of the music of speech. They are bridges, not caverns. Your energy level doesn’t die; it moves forward to the conclusion of an idea. Long ago, I learned as a musician: “Sing through your rests.” Let the silence ring with eloquence. Daring to pause adds drama to your speaking because it is so rare.
Here’s an easy exercise that will help you calm your racing mind and add appropriate phrasing. Remember, in a written text, your eye absorbs the punctuation marks, even though you’re not conscious of them. The spoken word must be punctuated, too. So, choose a passage from a presentation you’ve given, or from an upcoming one. Then, as you talk, speak the punctuation—out loud.
For example (comma) tell your audience (comma) whoever they may be (comma) that you hope they’re listening to you (period) You want them to hear you (comma) believe in you (comma) and act on what you say (period—and longer pause to signify the end of a paragraph)
In our workshops, fast-talking clients can often leave the rest of the group breathless. After an exceptionally speedy delivery, we will ask them to tell us just exactly what they’ve said. We’re not surprised when they can’t. Like Jonathan Charles, they just wind up and let ‘er rip, without thinking about the meaning of their words or the impact they can have on an audience.
So, think about meaning. Add the pauses that will bring life to your presentation. If you don’t, you’ll be sorry. Why? Because your audience will almost certainly send you off to the woodshed.
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Video provided by Jeremy Hillman
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