1. PLAY WITH YOUR
VOICE
PUBLIC SPEAKING

2. We require oxygen.
 In order to speak, you must breathe.
 Breathing deeply
 calms your nerves.
 helps you focus.
 improves posture, which projects confidence.

3. The quality of your voice
impacts your message and
how you are perceived by the
audience.
Remember:

4. Consider your…
 VOLUME
 RATE
 PITCH
 PAUSES

5. We respond to change.
 Your audience will
react to any change.
 Make your change
purposeful by
understanding how
powerful your voice
can be.

6. VOLUME

7. Be heard.
 You want to be
comfortably
heard by
everyone in the
audience.

8. Vary your volume.
 Speaking continuously at the same volume for
any period of time can put the audience to
sleep.

9. Varying volume can…
 Emphasize words or phrases.
 Mirror emotional content.
 What volume would be appropriate for telling a
sad story?

10. RATE

11. Speak naturally.
 Aim for a comfortable rate of speech.
 Not too fast.
 Not too slow.

12. The Pros’ Rate
 One researcher analyzed a variety of 9 TED
talks to count their words per minute.
 He found the average rate to be 133 to 188
words/minute (“What Is”).
 Al Gore came in at 133 wpm.
 Jacqueline Novogratz averaged 188 wpm.
 Both speakers were comfortable and could
speak with clarity at their rates.

13. Rate is influenced by…
 Birth/culture/history
 Nervousness/stress increases rate.
 Write “SLOW DOWN” in your notes.
 Mental fatigue slows us down.
 We also tend to make more mistakes when tired.
 Complexity of words/content.
 Larger words, tougher concepts cause us to slow
up.
 Pauses
 Your own, in the audience, in the speaking
environment.

14. Fast or slow?
 Generally, slow is better than fast.
 Again, it’s most important to be comfortable
and CLEAR.
 Aim for clarity.
 Work within your vocabulary.

15. Fast or Slow?
 Change it up to add variety to your speech.
 Would you increase or decrease your rate to
convey:
 Confusion
 Excitement
 Anger
 Sadness
 Frustration
 Exhaustion

16. Solicit Feedback
 Ask for feedback.
 It’s hard to grasp our own rate of speech. Ask an
audience member how you’re doing.

17. PITCH

18. We make music when we
speak.
 Pitch is defined as the notes we use in our
speech.
 Monotone is boring. Ask Ferris Bueller.
 Use different notes to sound more interesting.
 Pitch reflects your tone, your attitude.
 Anger might lower pitch.
 Excitement may increase pitch.

19. Activity: Playing with Pitch
 You’re about to receive two cards:
 One contains a quote.
 One holds an adjective.
 You will be asked to read your quote to the
class in an attempt to communicate the
emotion/tone on your other card.
 The class will guess what emotion/tone you
are attempting to project from a list on the
board.

20. PAUSES

21. Pauses are golden. They…
 allow the audience to take in your words.
 communicate emotion. (Think back to Al
Gore.)
 control the pace of your delivery.
 replace filler words.
 allow you time to breathe.
 give your mind time to catch up to your mouth.

22. WHEN TO PAUSE

23. Before you start your speech.
 allows you to align everything physically,
mentally, and emotionally
 Oxygen calms nerves

24. The Clause Pause
 Wherever you’d see a comma in writing, use
short pause in speech.
 Wanting to impress my husband on our
anniversary [pause] I prepared eggs [pause]
bacon [pause] and pancakes for breakfast.

25. The Point Pause
 Transition through parts of your speech using
longer pauses.
 Separate points
 Set apart a story

26. The Dramatic/Emphasis Pause
 When you want to emphasize a key word (or
phrase), try pausing immediately before and
immediately that which you want to stand out.
 The before pause tells an audience to listen
up.
 The after pause signals us to remember what
was said.

27. The (Rhetorical) Question
Pause
 If you ask your audience a question, give them
time to think about an answer.
 e.g. Have you ever considered what it would be
like if you took the time to ask more questions?
 e.g. “Think for a moment about how you would
feel if…”
 Silent participation is important!
 Failure to pause will frustrate your audience.

28. The Speaker-Needs-Something
Pause
 We need to
 Think (use silence instead of filler words)
 Drink
 Check our notes
 It’s OK! Take a second to collect yourself!

29. Works Cited
 Dlugan, Andrew. "Speech Pauses: 12 Techniques to
Speak Volumes with Your Silence." Six Minutes RSS.
Six Minutes, 5 Nov. 2012. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.
<http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/pause-speech/>.
 Dlugan, Andrew. "Toastmasters Speech 6: Vocal
Variety." Six Minutes RSS. Six Minutes, 27 Aug. 2013.
Web. 18 Feb. 2015.
<http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/toastmasters-speech-6-
vocal-variety/>.
 Dlugan, Andrew. "What Is the Average Speaking
Rate?" Six Minutes RSS. Six Minutes, 12 Nov. 2012.
Web. 18 Feb. 2015.
<http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/speaking-rate/>.