Onceuponatimetherewasawomanwhodidn'tknowwhentostoptalking.
She talked on, and on, and only ever paused long enough to snatch a breath in order to keep on talking on, and on. She left no room for anybody to respond with a nod or a smile, let alone get a word in, even sideways.
Can you hear her?
And she complained bitterly, no one ever listened to anything she said.
For that to happen, the woman needed to learn to pause, to punctuate her speech with silence.
The function of punctuation in print on paper or in text on a screen
When we read, words are divided, thankfully, into digestible chunks by punctuation. A full stop or a period, for example, signals the end of a sentence. It's a pause - a stopping point. An idea has ended, and the space indicated by the full stop, allows us time to make sense of what has gone before another, in a new sentence, is introduced.
The same principle applies to a comma, semi colon, or colon. These all denote pauses too. Each of them plays a special role; helping us to decode and understand the words we are reading.
Punctuation in speech
Many people forget to include those signals when they speak, and their speech is a rush of words which rapidly becomes tiring to listen to. The only pauses they make are dictated by the need to breathe and if those occur in the wrong places, what they want to get across is further compromised.
Using a counting system to help
When I was teaching, many of my students were "speedsters”. Once they opened their mouths the race was on to get out everything they had to say before they ran out of breath or, lost their nerve.
To help them to pause I introduced a counting system, a sort of "oral" punctuation to be used silently in their minds. Often, I marked up their text and sometimes, if needed, called it out when they were practicing with me.
It went like this:
For a full stop or period, count 1, 2
For a comma, count 1
For a semi-colon, count 1
For a colon, count 1, 2
Between the end of one paragraph and the start of the next count 1, 2, 3.
If you have a tendency to race and only stop to gasp in a breath when you absolutely have to, do try it.
Mark your speech notes using different colored highlighters to show the varying pauses e.g. blue for 1, yellow for 1, 2 and pink for 1, 2, 3.
As you practice, either count the pauses in your mind or out loud. Use the full stop or colon (1, 2) pause to take a breath.
I promise you you'll hear a difference. Your speech and more importantly, your message will be clearer; easier for the audience to understand.
If you teach, it’s a useful way of slowing down your runaway speakers.
Exercises, extracts and examples
Click the link if you'd like more on using pauses effectively. The page has exercises and extracts to practice them with; one from Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, one from Charles Dicken's book "David Copperfield" and a Shakespearean sonnet. I’ve added some audio examples too.
That’s it for this week. Have an excellent one.
Susan
PS. As I said last week, and I’ll say next, if you have ideas for topics you’d like to see covered in this newsletter, or if you’d like to share an article on some aspect of public speaking, or a speech of your own, please get in touch. Either reply to this email or contact me through the form on my about me page on my website. I’d love to hear from you!
The phrase you used from Mark Twain is one on the wall of the public speaking lab at The Citadel. I often used the phrase "embrace the pause" in my speaking classes. You are so right about the power of a brief silence. I've never had the problem of talking too fast. My problem is in the other direction. But I smiled when I was able to read your post and see that quote. Always enjoy your posts.