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Why Vocal Variety Is So Valuable

Use this skill to bring emotion and personality to your speech..

By Bill Brown, DTM

Click play to hear author Bill Brown, DTM, give examples of how to use vocal variety to enhance your speech.

Why is vocal variety such an important tool for the speaker? Many reasons. Vocal variety is more than merely avoiding the dreaded monotone. It is, at its foundation, the life that you breathe into what you say and do onstage.

More specifically, it involves your level of expressiveness. This includes your basic energy level. While your energy level is a variable, at a minimum you must avoid sounding boring.

In addition, vocal variety is your style of expressiveness. An effective speaker allows their unique personality to shine. In a way, vocal expression is your speaking personality.

In Pathways , “Introduction to Vocal Variety and Body Language" is now a requirement in Level 1, and "Understanding Vocal Variety” is an elective project in Level 3 of all 11 paths—in some ways, a sign of how fundamental this skill is considered to any kind of communication success. It, like the other Pathways electives, is available to all members regardless of which path they are working in. (In the traditional education program, “Vocal Variety” was project 6 in the Competent Communication manual.)

It is an elective in Level 3, but my strong recommendation is that you choose it. Vocal variety is key to expressiveness, and expressiveness is essential for a speaker.

A significant component of vocal variety is how you emphasize what you say. You have various tools to affect this, including volume, pitch, pace, pause, and emotion. They can be used to build tension or add impact. Make an effort to master all of them.

You gain many benefits from using vocal variety. Those benefits boil down to three key principles.

1 Vocal variety makes you more interesting to listen to.

You have, no doubt, heard many speakers of different skill levels over the years. Some of them are just plain boring. A couple of my university professors come to mind.

Most speakers are passable. They get the job done. But from time to time, you have probably heard a speech where you said, “Wow!” and hung on to the speaker’s every word. What made you react that way? Was it because of the speaker’s vocal variety and level of expressing their personality onstage?

Strive to get to the point where your listeners truly want to hear what you have to say—and to act upon it. You can do it. You can be that speaker. The key is to learn the vocal variety techniques and then give yourself permission to give them full expression. Let loose and have fun on stage. The audience members will love it. As stated in the “Understanding Vocal Variety” project, “With time and practice, every Toastmaster can become skilled at using [their] voice to move an audience.”

Vocal variety is key to expressiveness.

Voice inflection is vital. Sales trainer David Hoffeld, in his book The Science of Selling , says, “Those who use strong inflections are always able to hold the buyer’s attention better than those who use weak inflections, even when saying the exact same words. Voice inflections convey your passion and make you seem more interesting and engaging. Moreover, they also produce in others the emotions you are conveying.”

2 Vocal variety is important because it conveys your emotion to the listener.

If you have ever taken a training course in sales, you have no doubt been challenged to tap into the emotions of the buyer. This is where the real buying decision is made.

If you are listening to a motivational speaker who is very excited, are you not also excited? The same is true for sympathy, anger, and other emotions. If strong wording is accompanied by expressive delivery, the effect of the words can be magnified.

3 Effective vocal variety can magnify the meaning and significance of your message.

It can powerfully make your point. I mentioned earlier that vocal variety involves emphasis. By effectively emphasizing the key elements of your message, you can enhance the listeners’ understanding of it. Each sentence contains key words or phrases that carry your point. Good vocal variety points to them and says, “This is what is important. Pay attention to it.”

Communication is an important component of leadership. Strong vocal variety can greatly enhance your effectiveness as a communicator. I strongly urge you to learn more about it, especially by selecting “Understanding Vocal Variety” in Level 3 of your path.

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The Danger of Vocal Intensity

Bill Brown, DTM

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10.3 Vocal Delivery

Learning objectives.

Identify elements of vocal delivery that make a speech more engaging.
Identify elements of vocal delivery that make a speech clearer.
Discuss the relationship between vocal delivery and speaker credibility.

Vocal delivery includes components of speech delivery that relate to your voice. These include rate, volume, pitch, articulation, pronunciation, and fluency. Our voice is important to consider when delivering our speech for two main reasons. First, vocal delivery can help us engage and interest the audience. Second, vocal delivery helps ensure that our ideas are communicated clearly.

Speaking for Engagement

We have all had the displeasure of listening to an unengaging speaker. Even though the person may care about his or her topic, an unengaging delivery that doesn’t communicate enthusiasm will translate into a lack of interest for most audience members. Although a speaker can be visually engaging by incorporating movement and gestures, which we will discuss more later, a flat or monotone vocal delivery can be sedating or even annoying. Incorporating vocal variety in terms of rate, volume, and pitch is key to being a successful speaker.

Rate of speaking refers to how fast or slow you speak. If you speak too fast, your audience will not be able to absorb the information you present. If you speak too slowly, the audience may lose interest. The key is to vary your rate of speaking in a middle range, staying away from either extreme, in order to keep your audience engaged. In general, a higher rate of speaking signals that a speaker is enthusiastic about his or her topic. Speaking slowly may lead the audience to infer that the speaker is uninterested, uninformed, or unprepared to present his or her own topic. These negative assumptions, whether they are true or not, are likely to hurt the credibility of the speaker. Having evaluated thousands of speeches, I can say that, in terms of rate, the issue speakers face is speaking too fast. The goal is to speak at a rate that will interest the audience and will effectively convey your information. Speaking at a slow rate throughout a speech would likely bore an audience, but that is not a common occurrence.

Some people naturally speak faster than others, which is fine, but we can all alter our rate of speaking with practice. If you find that you are a naturally fast speaker, make sure that you do not “speed talk” through your speech when practicing it. Even if you try to hold back when actually delivering your speech, you may fall back into your practice routine and speak too fast. You can also include reminders to “slow down” on your speaking outline.

Volume refers to how loud or soft your voice is. As with speaking rate, you want to avoid the extremes of being too loud or too soft, but still vary your volume within an acceptable middle range. When speaking in a typically sized classroom or office setting that seats about twenty-five people, using a volume a few steps above a typical conversational volume is usually sufficient. When speaking in larger rooms, you will need to project your voice. You may want to look for nonverbal cues from people in the back rows or corners, like leaning forward or straining to hear, to see if you need to adjust your volume more. Obviously, in some settings, a microphone will be necessary to be heard by the entire audience. Like rate, audiences use volume to make a variety of judgments about a speaker. Softer speakers are sometimes judged as meek, which may lead to lowered expectations for the speech or less perceived credibility. Loud speakers may be seen as overbearing or annoying, which can lead audience members to disengage from the speaker and message. Be aware of the volume of your voice and, when in doubt, increase your volume a notch, since beginning speakers are more likely to have an issue of speaking too softly rather than too loudly.

Speak a couple steps above your regular volume for speeches that occur in typically sized classrooms or meeting rooms that seat twenty to forty people. A microphone may be necessary for larger groups or rooms.

Speaker at Podium – CC BY 2.0.

Pitch refers to how high or low a speaker’s voice is. As with other vocal qualities, there are natural variations among people’s vocal pitch. Unlike rate and volume, there are more physiological limitations on the control we have over pitch. For example, males generally have lower pitched voices than females. Despite these limitations, each person still has the capability to intentionally change their pitch across a range large enough to engage an audience. Changing pitch is a good way to communicate enthusiasm and indicate emphasis or closure. In general, our pitch goes up when we are discussing something exciting. Our pitch goes down slightly when we emphasize a serious or important point. Lowering pitch is also an effective way to signal transitions between sections of your speech or the end of your speech, which cues your audience to applaud and avoids an awkward ending.

Of the vocal components of delivery discussed so far, pitch seems to give beginning speakers the most difficulty. There is a stark difference between the way I hear students speak before and after class and the way they speak when they get in front of the class. It’s like giving a speech temporarily numbs their ability to vary their pitch. Record yourself practicing your speech to help determine if the amount of pitch variety and enthusiasm you think you convey while speaking actually comes through. Speakers often assume that their pitch is more varied and their delivery more enthusiastic than the audience actually perceives it to be. Many of my students note this on the self-evaluations they write after viewing their recorded speech.

Vocal Variety

Overall, the lesson to take away from this section on vocal delivery is that variety is key. Vocal variety includes changes in your rate, volume, and pitch that can make you look more prepared, seem more credible, and be able to engage your audience better. Employing vocal variety is not something that takes natural ability or advanced skills training. It is something that beginning speakers can start working on immediately and everyone can accomplish. The key is to become aware of how you use your voice when you speak, and the best way to do this is to record yourself. We all use vocal variety naturally without thinking about it during our regular conversations, and many of us think that this tendency will translate over to our speaking voices. This is definitely not the case for most beginning speakers. Unlike in your regular conversations, it will take some awareness and practice to use vocal variety in speeches. I encourage students to make this a delivery priority early on. Since it’s something anyone can do, improving in this area will add to your speaking confidence, which usually translates into better speeches and better grades further on.

Speaking for Clarity

In order to be an effective speaker, your audience should be able to understand your message and digest the information you present. Audience members will make assumptions about our competence and credibility based on how we speak. As with other aspects of speech delivery, many people are not aware that they have habits of speech that interfere with their message clarity. Since most of our conversations are informal and take place with people we know, many people don’t make a concerted effort to articulate every word clearly and pronounce every word correctly, and most of the people we talk to either don’t notice our errors or don’t correct us if they do notice. Since public speaking is generally more formal than our conversations, we should be more concerned with the clarity of our speech.

Articulation

Articulation refers to the clarity of sounds and words we produce. If someone is articulate, they speak words clearly, and speakers should strive to speak clearly. Poor articulation results when speakers do not speak clearly. For example, a person may say dinnt instead of didn’t , gonna instead of going to , wanna instead of want to , or hunnerd instead of hundred . Unawareness and laziness are two common challenges to articulation. As with other aspects of our voice, many people are unaware that they regularly have errors in articulation. Recording yourself speak and then becoming a higher self-monitor are effective ways to improve your articulation. Laziness, on the other hand, requires a little more motivation to address. Some people just get in the habit of not articulating their words well. I’m sure we all know someone who mumbles when they speak or slurs their words together. From my experience, this is a problem that I’ve noticed more among men than women. Both mumbling and slurring are examples of poor articulation. In more informal settings, this type of speaking may be acceptable, but in formal settings, it will be negatively evaluated, which will hurt a speaker’s credibility. Perhaps the promise of being judged more favorably, which may help a person become more successful, is enough to motivate a mumbler to speak more clearly.

When combined with a low volume, poor articulation becomes an even greater problem. Doing vocal warm-ups like the ones listed in Section 10.1 “Managing Public Speaking Anxiety” or tongue twisters can help prime your mouth, lips, and tongue to articulate words more clearly. When you notice that you have trouble articulating a particular word, you can either choose a different word to include in your speech or you can repeat it a few times in a row in the days leading up to your speech to get used to saying it.

Pronunciation

We all commonly run into words that we are unfamiliar with and therefore may not know how to pronounce. I offer my students three suggestions when faced with this problem. The first is to look the word up in an online dictionary. Many dictionaries have a speaker icon with their definitions, and when you click on it, you can hear the correct pronunciation of a word. Some words have more than one pronunciation—for example, Caribbean —so choosing either of the accepted pronunciations is fine. Just remember to consistently use that pronunciation to avoid confusing your audience. If a word doesn’t include an audio pronunciation, you can usually find the phonetic spelling of a word, which is the word spelled out the way it sounds. There will occasionally be words that you can’t locate in a dictionary. These are typically proper nouns or foreign words. In this case, I suggest the “phone-a-friend” strategy. Call up the people you know who have large vocabularies or are generally smart when it comes to words, and ask them if they know how to pronounce it. If they do, and you find them credible, you’re probably safe to take their suggestion. The third option is to “fake it ‘til you make it” and should only be used as a last resort. If you can’t find the word in a dictionary and your smart friends don’t know how to pronounce it, it’s likely that your audience will also be unfamiliar with the word. In that case, using your knowledge of how things are typically pronounced, decide on a pronunciation that makes sense and confidently use it during your speech. Most people will not question it. In the event that someone does correct you on your pronunciation, thank him or her for correcting you and adjust your pronunciation.

Fluency refers to the flow of your speaking. To speak with fluency means that your speech flows well and that there are not many interruptions to that flow. There are two main disfluencies, or problems that affect the flow of a speech. Fluency hiccups are unintended pauses in a speech that usually result from forgetting what you were saying, being distracted, or losing your place in your speaking notes. Fluency hiccups are not the same as intended pauses, which are useful for adding emphasis or transitioning between parts of a speech. While speakers should try to minimize fluency hiccups, even experienced speakers need to take an unintended pause sometimes to get their bearings or to recover from an unexpected distraction. Fluency hiccups become a problem when they happen regularly enough to detract from the speaker’s message.

Verbal fillers are words that speakers use to fill in a gap between what they were saying and what they’re saying next. Common verbal fillers include um , uh , ah , er , you know , and like . The best way to minimize verbal fillers is to become a higher self-monitor and realize that you use them. Many students are surprised when they watch the video of their first speech and realize they said “um” thirty times in three minutes. Gaining that awareness is the first step in eliminating verbal fillers, and students make noticeable progress with this between their first and second speeches. If you do lose your train of thought, having a brief fluency hiccup is better than injecting a verbal filler, because the audience may not even notice the pause or may think it was intentional.

Common Causes of Fluency Hiccups

Lack of preparation. Effective practice sessions are the best way to prevent fluency hiccups.
Not writing for speaking. If you write your speech the way you’ve been taught to write papers, you will have fluency hiccups. You must translate the written words into something easier for you to present orally. To do this, read your speech aloud and edit as you write to make sure your speech is easy for you to speak.
A poorly prepared speaking outline. Whether it is on paper or note cards, sloppy writing, unorganized bullet points, or incomplete/insufficient information on a speaking outline leads to fluency hiccups.
Distractions. Audience members and the external environment are unpredictable. Hopefully audience members will be polite and will silence their phones, avoid talking while the speaker is presenting, and avoid moving excessively. There could also be external noise that comes through a door or window. A speaker can also be distracted by internal noise such as thinking about other things.

“Getting Plugged In”

Delivering Presentations Online

As many people and organizations are trying to do more with smaller budgets, and new software becomes available, online presentations are becoming more common. Whether using a Webinar format, a WebEx, Skype, FaceTime, Elluminate Live, or some other program, the live, face-to-face audience is now mediated through a computer screen. Despite this change in format, many of the same basic principles of public speaking apply when speaking to people virtually. Yet many business professionals seem to forget the best practices of public speaking when presenting online or don’t get that they apply in both settings. The website TheVirtualPresenter.com offers many tips for presenting online that we’ve covered in this book, including be audience focused, have engaging delivery, and use visual aids effectively (Courville, 2012). Yet speakers need to think about some of these things differently when presenting online. We have natural ways to engage an audience when presenting face-to-face, but since many online presentations are only one-way in terms of video, speakers have to rely on technology like audience polls, live chat, or options for audience members to virtually raise their hand when they have a question to get feedback while speaking. Also, in some formats, the audience can only see the presenter’s computer desktop or slide show, which pulls attention away from physical delivery and makes vocal delivery and visual aids more important. Extemporaneous delivery and vocal variety are still key when presenting online. Reading from your slides or having a monotone voice will likely not make a favorable impression on your audience. The lesson to take away is that presenting online requires the same skills as presenting in person, so don’t let the change in format lead you to make mistakes that will make you a less effective speaker.

Have you ever presented online or been an audience member for an online presentation? If so, describe your experience and compare it to face-to-face speaking.
What are some of the key differences between presenting online and presenting in person that a speaker should consider?
How might online presentations play into your future career goals? What types of presentations do you think you would give? What could you do to ensure the presentations are effective?

Key Takeaways

Speakers should use vocal variety, which is changes in rate, volume, and pitch, to make a speech more engaging.
Speakers should use proper articulation and pronunciation to make their message clear.
Interruptions to the fluency of a speech, including fluency hiccups and verbal fillers, detract from the speaker’s message and can lessen a speaker’s credibility.
Record yourself practicing your speech. How does your speech sound in terms of vocal variety? Cite specific examples.
Listen to your recorded speech again. How would you evaluate your articulation and pronunciation? Cite specific examples.
Over the course of a day, take note of verbal fillers that you tend to use. List them here so you can be a higher self-monitor and begin to notice and lessen your use of them.

Courville, R., “Delivery,” TheVirtualPresenter.com, accessed November 5, 2012, http://thevirtualpresenter.com/category/delivery .

Communication in the Real World Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Delivery Techniques →

Unlock Your Voice: How to Use Vocal Variety in Public Speaking

When you stand up to speak to a crowd, you certainly want to make sure your voice is heard. But do you want to be remembered?

A great way to ensure that your audience not only listens to what you have to say, but remembers it too, is by using vocal variety in your public speaking.

When you incorporate different aspects of your voice, such as emphasis, tone, and pace, you can help ensure that your message cuts through the noise and stays with your listeners long after the words have been spoken. In this post, you'll learn how to unlock your voice and use vocal variety to stand out from the rest and become a master of the art of public speaking .

Quick Review

One effective technique to improve vocal variety in public speaking is to practice using different tones and inflections. Additionally, try varying the speed and volume of your speech as well as making pauses for emphasis.

Benefits of Vocal Variety in Public Speaking

Using vocal variety when public speaking can be beneficial for a number of purposes. Perhaps most importantly, having a varied delivery helps to keep the attention of your audience and adds interest to the speech.

This is because having a monotonous voice throughout a presentation or speech can cause listeners to become easily bored. Vocal variety stimulates and affirms the listeners’ interest in the material you are sharing with them.

Additionally, incorporating pauses and varying the volume of your voice can also help create enthusiasm for what you are saying by building anticipation and capturing their attention span. You may also find that using vocal variety has benefits for yourself. With practice, vocal variety can be used to emphasize important points and make more impact on your audience members; therefore, giving your delivery more confidence .

When practiced properly, this method of speaking may help increase self-confidence while communicating, as well as promote clarity within the material. Additionally, it is a great way to develop professional fluency in public speaking which can help you become a more successful presenter overall. However, one must take caution not to over utilize vocal variety otherwise it could lead to opposite results than intended––causing distraction instead of keeping an audience engaged.

For those who struggle with public speaking, too much emphasis on confusing vocal inflections could end up distracting the speaker from their message, thus making it less effective in conveying ideas across to their listener base.

To ultimately get desired results from using vocal variety it should be handled carefully in avoiding both extreme underutilization as well as overuse of features such as pausing or changing your tone or pitch. In summary, there are many potential benefits that come with incorporating vocal variety into public speaking if handled correctly - providing both speaker and audience members with something positive out of the experience.

In the following section we will discuss some techniques and tools that can be used to effectively employ vocal variety into presentations and speeches - enhancing them profoundly in doing so.

Must-Know Points

Using vocal variety during public speaking can help engage the audience and build confidence in the speaker. It can be used to emphasize points and make more impact, as well as build enthusiasm for what is being said.

However, caution should be taken not to overuse vocal variety, otherwise it may distract from the message or decrease its effectiveness. With proper care and practice, vocal variety can provide benefits for both the speaker and audience members.

Tools for Utilizing Vocal Variety

In order to utilize vocal variety effectively, there are several powerful and accessible tools that can be easily integrated into public speaking settings.

One tool is vocal pacing, or the intentional changes in speed and rhythm when speaking. This method of regulating one's speech can be used to emphasize important points and heighten the impact of a presentation.

Additionally, vocal inflection can be employed to give words extra emphasis and draw an audience’s attention. Similarly, vocal tone and pitch can be used as tools for communicating a less-than-literal message.

For example, conveying certainty or authority through a deepened tone or warmth through higher tonality both signal specific emotional nuances to the listener. These three tools—vocal pacing, inflection, and tone/pitch—are extremely conducive for creating dynamic discourse. Vocal variety can create greater engagement between speaker and listener by fortifying the communication process.

Though these methods may take some trial and error to master, their capacity for generating interest during public speaking engagements should not be underestimated. Having discussed tools necessary for successful vocal variety use in public speaking settings, the next section will look at another factor necessary for effective presentations: volume.

Volume is an important part of using vocal variety in public speaking. It not only increases the clarity and impact of a speaker’s words but also can create an unexpected effect that commands attention.

Adjusting the volume of one’s voice can elicit strong emotions, rouse enthusiasm, or even hint at suspense and mystery. On one hand, speakers should use loud volume to increase the power and clarity of their message. Increasing the volume will make sure your audience captures all the points you are making while emphasizing key ideas.

Additionally, louder volume can signify surprise or shock as well as draw attention away from distracting noises in the atmosphere.

For example, if you're delivering a presentation and there's ambient noise such as a faulty air conditioner or someone snoring, then raising your voice slightly can be enough to drown out the unwanted noise and make sure you are able to hold your audience's attention. On the other hand, softer volumes have their place too. Lower tone volumes can be used to add drama or emphasis on important statements. Creating moments of quiet before these statements adds to the tension so that when you do speak again, it really catches their attention.

Reducing volume during certain moments in your speech also gives your voice a chance to rest and prepares you for introducing a new section or another point. Furthermore, whispers carry a level of intrigue that normal speaking cannot fully achieve. When used appropriately, both soft and loud volumes can be incredibly effective tools in engaging with your audience and drawing them into what you're saying.

Knowing how to control volume is an essential part of honing one's public speaking skills . With that said, the next section will introduce how to use pitch variation when speaking publicly.

Pitch refers to the highness or lowness of a speaker's voice, which is determined by the frequency of the sound waves. Most people's vocal pitch stays within a normal range and is largely based on genetics.

However, speakers can be trained to alter their pitch when delivering their public speech. The key to using vocal variety is to use a full range of pitches in order to keep the audience engaged and interested. Reaching the upper and lower end of the pitch spectrum can help emphasize certain words or ideas that are important for the audience to pay attention to. It can also convey emotion without needing to rely on raw volume.

In contrast, too wide of a range of a pitches within a speech can have an adverse effect on its delivery, appearing overly theatrical and taking away from its content. The proper usage of pitch varies per individual speaker and must be monitored carefully in order that it does not detract from their performance. Strike the right balance between utilizing pitches to their fullest potential while avoiding exaggeration.

An interesting tool that many speakers use is the "siren exercise" wherein they methodically move up and down the scale several times in order to get comfortable with variations in pitch.

Studies have shown that using vocal variety when engaging in public speaking can increase listener engagement by up to 50%.
Vocal variety also has been found to reduce listener fatigue, increasing overall audience retention by up to 25%.
Research has demonstrated that when speakers use vocal variety, they are perceived as more enthusiastic and believable by their listeners.

Pace is an important factor in vocal variety and can be managed to effectively improve a speaker’s delivery. A speaker can choose to speak relatively slow or relatively fast when delivering a speech , and each has its own benefits.

Speaking slowly can help the audience concentrate on what is being said and understand it clearly. On the other hand, speaking faster can add a sense of urgency to the speech and signify importance. It can be argued that a slower pace leads to greater audience engagement and allows for pauses in between points which increase audience retention. This is especially true if certain points are backed up with varying evidence.

Therefore, speakers may opt to slow down at certain moments in order to give the audience time to take it all in and stay engaged. Furthermore, pacing slowly also gives speakers more opportunities to express emotion through their voice and body language. However, speaking too slowly can make the speaker sound tired or bored. Therefore, seasoned speakers may chose to increase their pace during certain sections of the speech in order to regain the attention of their audience and keep them actively engaged in what they’re saying.

Varying the pace has been reported by experienced public speakers as being beneficial for allowing having the audience focus on what is being said at any given point in time, increasing their chances of grasping the main idea. Managing pace correctly is vital for conveying different meanings or tones within a speech, adding credibility to the spoken words.

When practiced diligently, it allows for great variation of pitch and thus, creates vocal variety in public speaking. With that in mind, let us now move on to discussing some practices for achieving vocal variety in public speaking.

Now that we have explored how speakers use pacing as part of their vocal variety, let us move on to examine how intonation comes into play with public speaking.

Intonation is an essential part of using vocal variety in public speaking, as it allows people to emphasize words and direct the audience’s attention to the most important parts of the message.

Intonation can also be used to tire out or lighten up the mood depending on how high or low speakers pitch their voices while they’re speaking.

Speaking with an appropriate intonation can ensure that a meaning or emotion is conveyed to an audience and can enhance descriptions, making them more vivid, if done correctly. At the same time, intonation can be difficult to master in public speaking due to the tendency of some people to speak too monotonously and slowly.

If a speaker drags out his words for too long and speaks without paying attention to vocal range, the audience may become bored and distracted. Therefore, using intonation effectively necessitates entrusting listeners’ attention to its link between ideas, emotions and emphasis. While many would argue that intonation should be used sparingly as too much emphasis can reduce its effect on an audience, others take the counterview that careful use of pitch is crucial for conveying complex ideas.

Ultimately, it is up to the public speaker to maintain a delicate balance between these two sides of the argument and apply thoughtful intonations into their speech. Having discussed intonation and its importance in enhancing public speaking, let's now turn our attention to another key tool in achieving effective vocal variety: emphasis.

When it comes to public speaking, emphasis can be a powerful tool when used in the right way.

Emphasizing specific words or phrases in your speech can be a great way to ensure that your audience pays attention and follows along with the points you are making. It also helps you emphasize or recharge certain ideas or remind the audience of a point that had been made earlier. However, there is the danger of over-emphasizing which can lead to confusion for listeners who are not expecting an emphatic delivery style. This means that too much emphasis can take away from the credibility of speakers.

As well, if not done correctly, it can simply become distracting especially when done randomly. This can make your speech choppy and work against you as you are trying to make a sound argument. The key is striking the right balance between emphasizing important points and allowing for fluidity of speech. When done correctly, emphasizing certain words or phrases will help liven up your presentation and engage the audience.

But you should do this in a way that does not distract them from what you are trying to say and keep their attention on the main focus of your talk. Finally, it is important to remember that emphasis should be tailored to the tone and message of each individual presentation - no two speeches will be alike, so any form of emphasis should be delivered in such a way that properly conveys what you want to communicate effectively with the right audience.

With this in mind, it is now time to move onto exploring ways to develop good vocal variety in your presentations.

Developing Good Vocal Variety

Developing good vocal variety is the key to dynamic and impactful public speaking. It enables speakers to enliven their speeches, captivate their audience, and deliver a powerful message. By using vocal variety, speakers can make their presentations more interesting and memorable. Developing good vocal variety involves both verbal and nonverbal communication skills . Verbally, good vocal variety incorporates intentional changes in pitch, rate, tone, volume, accent , and other verbal qualities throughout a presentation.

Nonverbally, it involves body language such as making eye contact with the audience, facial expressions that communicate emotions, and other physical cues that add emphasis to spoken words. When using vocal variety for effective public speaking, it is important for the speaker to practice--not only their speech--but also the emotional delivery of their words.

Engaging emotionally with an audience means making them feel what you want them to feel; if you are talking about something exciting or inspiring, your audience should be excited too! Vocal variety helps you achieve this connection through dynamic changes in volume, tone and pace. It is also important to use vocal variety while maintaining control over one’s voice. When a speaker goes from low highs to loud lows without any pauses or transitions between them , it has the effect of distracting from the message rather than enhancing it.

The volume should stay constant in order for the speaker to connect better with the audience - this will prevent them from needing to shout or scream in certain sections of the speech. To ensure optimum vocal delivery when speaking publicly, it is best to practice your speech beforehand in order to get a feel for how different vocally rich elements can be used effectively. In summary, developing good vocal variety requires intentionality and practice. It involves both verbal and nonverbal aspects that help engage an audience with a compelling story and powerful message.

By understanding how to apply these elements while maintaining control over one’s voice, speakers can deliver an effective and engaging talk filled with vocal variety every time they speak before a crowd! The power of vocal variety can shape an audience's impression of a presentation by adding an element of engagement that goes beyond relying on just words alone. In the next section we will discuss the impact that different types of vocal variety have on an audience's overall experience.

Practices for Achieving Vocal Variety in Public Speaking

Having a variety of vocal techniques is an important part of successful public speaking, allowing the speaker to connect with the audience on a deeper level. To improve vocal variety when speaking, there are some simple methods that anyone can implement. The first practice is to vary volume . Speakers should work from softer to louder and back again within the same speech or segment, as this allows for natural peaks and valleys that make it easier for the listener to stay engaged throughout.

When using volume variation, be sure to also experiment with other concepts such as breath and pace; this will add insight and create opportunities for more variety in delivery. Additionally, speakers should train themselves to become aware of their own change in volume, so they can adjust accordingly while speaking. Another practice is being aware of pace. A wide range of speed can help emphasize particular parts of a presentation or story.

For instance, a slower speed creates an opportunity to convey an idea in greater detail while a faster speed helps capture the most important elements of a topic quickly and efficiently. Also, varying the rhythm can give each sentence an interesting edge which captures the attention of the audience and adds to their overall understanding. Finally, explore different vocal qualities like articulation and emphasis. This helps avoid monotony in delivery and allows you to drive home your main points with clarity.

Good articulation means taking care with pronouncing each word accurately without running them together or making them too sharp or flat; emphasizing certain words can allow lingering emotion and unique intonation that helps stress key phrases for better impact on the listener.

Employ these practices during rehearsal so they become second nature when presenting publicly.

Responses to Common Questions

What techniques can i use to add vocal variety to my public speaking.

One of the most effective techniques for adding vocal variety to your public speaking is to vary your tone and volume. By speaking in a low, soft tone then gradually increasing the volume, you are able to add emphasis to particular points while also making sure that your audience is paying attention.

Additionally, using pitch changes throughout your speech can help break up long sections and emphasize important points. Pronouncing certain words louder or softer than others can also help draw attention to specific ideas or ideas that have just been discussed.

Finally, varying the speed at which you are speaking will help keep people engaged in what you're saying, as this keeps them on their toes and allows for both pondering time and comprehending time of your message.

How can I use vocal variety to make my public speeches more engaging?

One of the best ways to use vocal variety in public speaking is to vary your pace, volume, pitch, and intonation. Varying the speed of your talk can emphasize certain points, draw attention to pronouns and help you slow down during important sections.

Increasing or decreasing the volume can affect how audience members engage with your presentation. Similarly, raising or lowering your pitch is a great way to communicate emphasis and add more emotion to your speech.

Finally, adjusting intonation when asking questions, providing information or introducing exciting ideas will help animate your content and keep listeners on their toes. Using these techniques together creates a more engaging experience for both you and the audience.

What are the most common mistakes to avoid when using vocal variety in public speaking?

The most common mistakes to avoid when using vocal variety in public speaking are talking too quickly, speaking monotonously, mismatching speech rate with content, and not projecting your voice . Talking too quickly can result in the audience not being able to follow along and understand what is being said. It is important to slow down and speak at a pace that allows the audience time to process what is being said. Speaking monotonously causes the audience to become disengaged with the material. This can be avoided by varying your tone and pitch throughout your presentation. Try emphasizing certain points with higher or lower tones of voice to keep the audience attentive. Mismatching speech rate with content can lead to a presentation feeling rigid or disjointed. Use slower speeds when introducing complex concepts or stories, while speeding up your speech rate during more actionable parts of the presentation. Lastly, it is essential when using vocal variety that you project your voice so that everyone in the room can clearly hear what you are saying. Making sure your voice carries will help ensure that all key points are heard by the audience members.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Learning Objectives

Identify elements of vocal delivery that make a speech more engaging.
Identify elements of vocal delivery that make a speech clearer.
Discuss the relationship between vocal delivery and speaker credibility.

Speaking for Engagement

Speaker at Podium – CC BY 2.0.

Vocal Variety

Common Causes of Fluency Hiccups

Lack of preparation. Effective practice sessions are the best way to prevent fluency hiccups.
Not writing for speaking. If you write your speech the way you’ve been taught to write papers, you will have fluency hiccups. You must translate the written words into something easier for you to present orally. To do this, read your speech aloud and edit as you write to make sure your speech is easy for you to speak.
A poorly prepared speaking outline. Whether it is on paper or note cards, sloppy writing, unorganized bullet points, or incomplete/insufficient information on a speaking outline leads to fluency hiccups.
Distractions. Audience members and the external environment are unpredictable. Hopefully audience members will be polite and will silence their phones, avoid talking while the speaker is presenting, and avoid moving excessively. There could also be external noise that comes through a door or window. A speaker can also be distracted by internal noise such as thinking about other things.

“Getting Plugged In”

Delivering Presentations Online

Have you ever presented online or been an audience member for an online presentation? If so, describe your experience and compare it to face-to-face speaking.
What are some of the key differences between presenting online and presenting in person that a speaker should consider?
How might online presentations play into your future career goals? What types of presentations do you think you would give? What could you do to ensure the presentations are effective?

Key Takeaways

Speakers should use vocal variety, which is changes in rate, volume, and pitch, to make a speech more engaging.
Interruptions to the fluency of a speech, including fluency hiccups and verbal fillers, detract from the speaker’s message and can lessen a speaker’s credibility.
Record yourself practicing your speech. How does your speech sound in terms of vocal variety? Cite specific examples.
Over the course of a day, take note of verbal fillers that you tend to use. List them here so you can be a higher self-monitor and begin to notice and lessen your use of them.

Courville, R., “Delivery,” TheVirtualPresenter.com, accessed November 5, 2012, http://thevirtualpresenter.com/category/delivery .

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Speech Preparation #7: Choreograph Your Speech with Staging, Gestures, and Vocal Variety

Wrong. You only have words on paper, and your audience doesn’t want to read your speech .

Your audience wants to see and hear your presentation. You will dazzle them by complementing your speech with staging, gestures, and vocal variety .

This article shows you how.

How to Prepare Your Presentation
Select Your Speech Topic
Plan Your Speech Outline
Writing Your First Draft
Editing Your Speech
Add Speech Impact with Rhetorical Devices
Staging, Gestures, and Vocal Variety
Practicing Your Presentation
Self-Critique: Preparation for Next Time
Winning a Toastmasters Speech Contest

Vocal Variety: The Four P’s

Monotone delivery puts your audience to sleep , no matter how riveting your content. On the other hand, an energetic and varied voice will be music to their ears.

Vocal variety covers the 4 P’s:

Power (or volume)

Power refers to the volume you project. At a minimum, be sure that your entire audience can easily hear you without straining.

Turning your voice volume up or down adds interest. Use both variations when they match the emotion you want to convey. For example, speaking loud might be used to convey excitement. Speaking soft might convey sadness.
Use a microphone to amplify your voice in large rooms.
Eliminate outside noises, if you can. If you can’t, consider moving the audience closer to you, or moving into the audience.

“ Monotone delivery puts your audience to sleep, no matter how riveting your content. ”

Pitch is the frequency of the sound you emit. To some extent, you are born with your voice pitch , whether it be soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, or baritone. However, if your speech contains dialogue for several characters , varying your pitch is an excellent way to distinguish between them.

Pace is your speaking rate, and varying it throughout the speech adds great interest. There are many effects that a variable pace can generate, but the most basic are:

Speed up to heighten the emotion in a dramatic story.
Slow down when delivering key phrases.

The most common pace problem is speaking too fast for the audience to absorb the material . There are two underlying reasons for this:

Lack of editing leaves too much content and too little time. The resulting pace is far too fast for the audience to absorb.
Nervousness also contributes to a rapid speaking rate.

For an example of rapid speaking rate, see Majora Carter in Greening the Ghetto .

“ Failure to use gestures will lead your audience to watch the inside of their eyeballs. ”

Pauses are magical. On the lips of master speakers, pauses can be used for a multitude of purposes.

Short pauses can signal the end of a clause or sentence . Your audience needs these because they can’t read the punctuation in your text.
Longer pauses signal the transition between major points or stories. Experienced speakers will often take a drink of water, ready a prop, or consult notes at these times.
Pauses before and after key points are wonderful buffers. The preceding pause signals to the audience that you are about to say something important. The following pause gives the audience time to reflect on what you just said and internalize it.
Pauses can also be used to enhance audience interaction (e.g. ask a rhetorical question, and then wait).

Example: Steve Jobs demonstrates a powerful pause in his Stanford Commencement speech.

Gestures / Body Language

Hundreds of gestures are available to help complement your words . Gestures throughout your speech make you interesting to watch. If you are interesting to watch, then your audience will be more attentive to your message. Failure to use gestures will lead your audience to watch the inside of their eyeballs.

Rather than attempting to itemize hundreds of different gestures, I’ll highlight a few general principles :

Your body will naturally want to move as you speak. Don’t inhibit these natural gestures as they convey a sense that you are comfortable and confident in your message.
Mix in deliberate gestures to coincide with key points . Mimic the actions of your speech (e.g. throwing a ball), or convey concepts through recognizable symbols (e.g. convey “censorship” by covering your mouth).
Use a variety of gestures. Don’t use the same one over and over and over again.
Increase the size of your gestures to match the size of the room. When presenting to three of your co-workers at a table, your gestures can be small (e.g. hand gestures that start at the wrist). When presenting to a packed auditorium, your gestures should be large (e.g. full-body gestures originating from the shoulders)
Don’t neglect the power of facial gestures . Your audience will feed off the facial gestures you make.

For an outstanding demonstration of gestures which complement a speech, see J.A. Gamache deliver Being a Mr. G .

“ Great speakers move around the speaking area with purpose . ”

Staging your speech means utilizing the 3-dimensional space around you in the most effective way possible.

Novice speakers will chain themselves to the lectern or stand in one spot on the middle of the stage.
Intermediate speakers will meander randomly around the speaking area. Body movement appeals to the audience and keeps attention.
Great speakers move around the speaking area with purpose. Every time they take a few steps, they are doing so with a distinct purpose in mind.

Like gestures, there are innumerable ways to stage your speech, but here are a few general principles :

The simplest act of staging is to prepare the speaking area before you begin . Move the lectern to the side. Move obstacles away, or at least be aware of them. Make sure every person in the audience has a clear sight line to you (or your slides). Simple acts like this show the audience that you’ve thought of everything, and that you want no barriers between you and them.
If you are using props or other visual aids , plan where they will be before and after you use them. When they are not being used, you want them out of sight.
Just as long pauses can signal the transition between major points , so can considerable movement within the speaking area.
You can map specific locations in the speaking area to be virtual locations for certain stories of your speech. Then, when you refer back to these stories, a simple gesture back to that area of the speaking area is valuable to help the audience make the connection.
In very large rooms, be sure to balance your position on the left, center, and right of the speaking area.
Not every speech allows for it, but don’t forget about the forward/backward direction as well as up/down . If you can meaningfully bring in these directions, it will make a powerful statement. For example, consider what climbing on a chair might allow you to do within your speech.

Example of Staging, Gestures, and Vocal Variety — Face the Wind

As I have done with previous articles in this series, I will use my 2007 contest speech Face the Wind to illustrate the use of staging, gestures, and vocal variety.

Below is an annotated summary of key staging, gestures, and vocal variety — the choreography of the speaking performance. The summary is time-indexed e.g. [1:15] according to the video.

Staging: Throughout the speech, note how most of the humor “punch lines” are delivered looking right or left. Similarly, many of the serious lines are delivered front and center. This is a technique that I was exploring in this speech for the first time.
Gesture: Arm gesture to left, then right to match the trading of house keys for condo keys. [0:27]
Vocal variety: “ escaped … loud vacuous whoosh “. Also complemented by arm gestures to the right [0:42]
Gesture: Facial expressions on “ yard work ” [0:56]
Gesture: Arm gesture referring to audience on “ a Toastmasters club officer ” because many in the audience were (or have been) officers. [1:00]
Staging: The walk around my yard looking at numerous bushes and trees [1:26]
Gesture / Staging: Introduction of the Japanese maple tree is with arms up to indicate the height of the tree. Notice how this stage position is mapped to the tree location. [1:34]
Vocal variety: Vocal variety: “ no, not wide enough ” [2:10]
Gesture / Staging: Difficult to see this on the video, but the hole-digging sequence involves stage movement from front to back, diagonally. [2:13]
Gesture: Arms open wide to indicate the breadth of the “ moat ” [2:21]
Staging: Drop to the floor to wrestle the tree. [2:30] This position was also the setup for the “ roots like tentacles, as expansive as its branches ” gesture [2:50]
Gesture: Triumphant gesture [2:34]
Staging: Note the location of the neighbour’s monster tree is off to the right (actually above the audience). This position is mapped for future reference to the monster tree. [3:12]. For example, notice reference to monster tree at [3:51] and again at [4:12].
Gesture: Forceful gestures to mimic the gas BBQ being lifted up [4:05]
Gesture: Double hand gesture for “ force combined with direction ” [4:30]
Gesture / Staging: Full body gestures for wind blowing and tree resisting. Notice that for these gestures, I am facing to the side so that the majority of the audience will see these gestures in profile. This is more effective than facing the audience. Note also how the contrasting wind directions are indicated [4:39 to 4:55].
Vocal variety: Voice is quieter at the start of the miscarriage story, then gets louder with “ when that wind came for them, not once but twice ” [5:05]
Gesture: holding infant Maximus [6:22]
Gesture: incubator [6:30]
Gesture: Notice the gestures in the “ yesterday-today-tomorrow ” segment [6:45] It starts on the audience’s left, then middle, then right… just as if they were viewing a standard timeline from left to right.
Vocal variety: Lengthy pause before “ We are not trees ” [7:04]
Gesture: Emphatic gestures to indicate we are not trees [7:12] and roots going through the seat [7:13]. Energy here is amplified.

Next in the Speech Preparation Series

Your speech is finally ready. No… wait… you haven’t practiced it yet. The next article in the Speech Preparation Series discusses techniques to get maximum benefit from your rehearsal sessions .

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This example of video is too much for me, it make me tired to look at his hands gesticulating to much and do not feel the spontaneity of it, somehow it seems faked or artificial.

If we stage all our moves, does it not become just that?

First-time commentor on your site. I’m preparing for my CC2, which will be tomorrow night and your site is helping me sooooo much.

Many thanks and I loved your speech. I agree that there were too many hand gestures but the content and nearly all of the delivery were perfect.

I love this article! Very great! I have to give a speech in church and I was coming to this site seeking advice. I’m so sad now because I’ll be in the pulpit behind a podium and I can’t use any of these tips:(

Yes, speaking in church reduces your options, but you can still deliver a great speech. You may find this article helpful: Speaking in Church: Lectern or No Lectern?

I really love this article,very educative and informative too. I recommend this site to anyone who want to do public speaking. Thanks a lot

Excellent article…this is used as my blueprint for writting presentations….thank you for such a great article.

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#286: Improve Your English Speaking Skills with Emphasis and Vocal Variety

Sep 6, 2023 | Communication Skills , How To Develop Skills , Most Popular , Public Speaking & Presentations

In English we have an expression, “It’s not what you say but how you say it.”

In other words, not only are the words you choose important – along with accurate grammatical structures – but also the way you use your voice to express yourself is important.

Your voice can carry meaning. It can express emotion and depth. Doing so requires vocal variety – the ability to volume, pitch, and tone, for example, to add variation to your voice.

When you use vocal variety in your communication

Your message has improved clarity
Your audience is more engaged
Your words are more memorable

One way to improve vocal variety is through emphasis.

In today’s Confident English lesson, you’ll learn 3 ways to add emphasis when speaking English for improved vocal variety.

Improve Your English Speaking Skills with Emphasis and Vocal Variety

What is emphasis and why is it important.

Emphasis is the way we use our voice to stress or add intensity to specific words, indicating significance or importance.

Without emphasis in our speech, every word sounds exactly the same — flat and monotone.

Have you ever been at a lecture, conference, meeting, or even listened to an interview where the speaker sounded flat? Did it cause you to lose focus after a few moments?

She said the dog is sick.
She SAID the dog is sick .

By adding emphasis to ‘said’ and ‘sick,’ I drew your attention to those details.

As you’ll learn in this lesson, with emphasis you can change the meaning of a sentence, bring attention to particular details, and grab the listener’s attention.

Strategy #1: Stressed Words Within a Sentence

English speakers naturally add stress to particular words in a sentence such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

This natural speech pattern is called Sentence Stress; it’s the music of the language.

Yesterday I started watching a new TV show on Netflix .

You should notice that the pronoun ‘I,’ the article ‘a’, and the preposition ‘on’ are not pronounced as clearly or as loudly.

This is natural Sentence Stress in English and when used accurately, it communicates the primary message.

For example, if I sent you a text message I could say:

Yesterday started new TV show Netflix.

Sure, it sounds a little strange. It’s obvious some words are missing. But the main message is there. The meaning is clear.

In addition to following natural Sentence Stress, we can also CHOOSE to add increased emphasis to particular words in a sentence.

This especially happens when we’re surprised, excited, frustrated, or simply being funny.

We can emphasize particular details and even shift the entire meaning of a sentence.

Ex . For instance, take a look at the following sentence: “I spoke to Julia yesterday. ”

When I add stress, to different words in this sentence, the meaning changes:

“ I spoke to Julia yesterday. ” (myself and no one else)
“ I spoke to Julia yesterday. ” (Julia and not another person)
“ I spoke to Julia yesterday . ” (this happened yesterday)

👉Check-in : Following the rules of basic Sentence Stress, which words should naturally receive stress in this sentence?

Ex . “ My mother owns the largest collection of roses in the neighborhood. ”

Answer: “My mother owns the largest collection of roses in the neighborhood .”

And now, if I CHOSE to add emphasis to the word ‘my’ in the sentence, how does that change its meaning?

“ MY mother owns the largest collection of roses in the neighborhood .”

That’s right. I want it to be clear that it is MY mom — not your mom or someone else’s mom — who has the largest collection.

When you utilize natural sentence stress patterns or choose to emphasize a particular word, you increase the overall vocal variety and make the most important words of your message clear.

Strategy #2: Volume

Secondly, playing with volume is one way you can add more energy and variety to your speech.

Just like in the first strategy, you can draw attention to particular details by raising your voice or speaking more softly.

Raising your voice can help to grab the listener’s attention once again AND put dramatic emphasis on a detail/word. It’s also one way you can emphasize the emotion associated with a particular point.

Ex . For example, when talking about climate change, you might passionately say, “ We must act soon if we hope to save the Earth. ”

Alternatively, softening your voice can also lead to more dynamic speaking. This can force the listener to lean in and further focus their attention on what you’re saying. In fact, you may notice speakers do this when they want to convey a so-called “secret.” Comedians employ this strategy often.

Ex . For instance, imagine you’re telling a story and you say, “Bob said the dog was a stray.” Then, you may quietly/softly add, “But, we all knew he stole the neighbor’s dog.”

Overall, by increasing your volume a powerful statement or an emotional moment, it helps convey intensity, conviction, and passion.

A sudden increase or decrease in volume can instantly grab your audience’s attention.

And a deliberate decrease in volume can create intrigue, causing people to lean in and listen more attentively.

By incorporating variations in volume, you introduce dynamics and variety into your speech. This keeps your audience interested and prevents them from tuning out due to a lack of stimulation.

Strategy #3: Pauses

Last, but not least, the power of pauses.

Pauses help us to slow down our speech, especially when we feel nervous, and give the listener enough time to process the details we’re emphasizing.

Even better, they add emphasis and variety when speaking.

There are three ways we can use pauses:

Between syllables
Before and after a keyword
After an introductory phrase

Let’s practice using pauses in the following sentence:

“We need to meet this deadline or the contract will be canceled.”

If I wanted to stress and further emphasize the word ‘canceled’ I could say, “ We need to meet this deadline or the contract will be can // celed .”

However, I could add even more urgency and weight to this statement by choosing to add a pause before and after ‘need.’

“ We // need // to meet this deadline/ or the contract will be canceled.”

I could also add an introductory phrase to this sentence and say,

“ Most importantly, // we need // to meet this deadline/ or the contract will be canceled ”

👉 Related Lesson: 4 Steps to Control Your Voice and Sound Confident in English | Voice Training

How to Practice

Keep in mind that learning to recognize patterns and opportunities for emphasis and adding them naturally can take some time.

To practice, try recording a daily speaking journal .

A speaking journal is a series of audio/video recordings of yourself speaking about a particular topic and practicing a particular skill.
In this case, you would be practicing ways to add emphasis.
When integrating these strategies into your speaking skill set, start with one strategy at a time. Only move to the next strategy once you feel confident with the one you’ve practiced.

~ Annemarie

Get the Confidence to Say What You Want in English

Follow my 3-step solution to speak English with clarity, fluency, and freedom so you can say what you want with confidence.

You'll also get my Confident English lessons delivered by email every Wednesday and occasional information about available courses. You can unsubscribe any time.

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Did you know it’s common in daily conversation & in job interviews to hear this question: “So, how would you describe yourself?” — How would you answer the question? Use this lesson to learn real-life English vocabulary for describing personalities in English.

#306: Friendly Ways to Invite Someone in English

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#305: Discover Effective Ways to Talk about Hope in English

Dive deep into the heart of English tenses—past, present, and future—highlighting how ‘hope’ evolves with each so you can talk about your hope in English.

#304: Vocabulary for Deadlines and Time Management [+ FREE Worksheet]

What does ‘warm, brown sweater’ sound correct but ‘brown, warm sweater’ doesn’t? It’s all about the adjective word order in English.

#303: The Right Adjective Order | English Grammar Focus [+ FREE Worksheet]

#302: Master Spontaneous Speaking: Proven Strategies to Boost Your English Fluency

Three proven strategies that help you respond quickly and feel more comfortable in the moment so you can enjoy fluent English conversations.

Thanks for everything in your course, Annemarie, I definitely am paying more attention now to conversations, TV shows, and even the newspaper, to identify patterns and opportunities to detect emphasis and vocal variety; to learn and practice more, even in conversations, debates, and to all type of communicators. You re so professional Annemarie, I appreciate your dedication, content, and order, there s none like you to teach these complex topics. I appreciate your contributions endlessly. You master the topic and delight us, With your amazing explanations, style, and continuous contributions you always satisfy your students and followers`s expectations

Antonio Loa

Dear Annemarie, I love your lesson. Love the way you speak, you teach, you communicate! I learn so much with you!! You’re the best teacher I’ve had. Thank you for everything you do for us. Thank you!!!!!!! Elaine Assirati XOXO

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30 Vocal Aspects of Delivery

Learning Objectives

Practice elements of effective vocal delivery.

Extemporaneous speaking sounds conversational and natural. This conversational style sounds the way you normally express yourself in a much smaller group than your classroom audience. While you are well prepared, you still sound natural and even spontaneous. No one wants to hear a speech that is so well rehearsed that it sounds fake or robotic. One of the hardest parts of public speaking is rehearsing to the point where it can appear to your audience that the thoughts are magically coming to you while you’re speaking, but in reality you’ve spent a great deal of time thinking through each idea. When you can sound conversational, people pay attention. When we are having a conversation with a friend or small group, we tend to use a vocal variety or changes in our tone, pitch, volume, and other vocal aspects.

Vocal Variety

Vocal variety has to do with changes in our vocals. No one wants to hear the same volume, pitch, rate, or use of pauses over and over again in a speech. Your audience should never be able to detect that you’re about to slow down or your voice is going to get deeper because you’re making an important point. When you think about how you sound in a normal conversation, your use of volume, pitch, rate, and pauses are all done spontaneously. If you try to over rehearse your vocals, your speech will end up sounding artificial. Vocal variety should flow naturally from your wish to speak with expression. In that way, it will animate your speech and invite your listeners to understand your topic the way you do.

The following video provides examples of what vocal variety sounds like.

Vocalics, also known as paralanguage, is the subfield of nonverbal communication that examines how we use our voices to communicate orally. This means that you speak loudly enough for all audience members (even those in the back of the room) to hear you clearly and that you enunciate clearly enough to be understood by all audience members (even those who may have a hearing impairment or who may be English-language learners). If you tend to be soft-spoken, you will need to practice using a louder volume level that may feel unnatural to you at first. For all speakers, good vocalic technique is best achieved by facing the audience with your chin up and your eyes away from your notecards and by setting your voice at a moderate speed. Effective use of vocalics also means that you make use of appropriate pitch, pauses, vocal variety, and correct pronunciation.

Just like some of us are more expressive nonverbally, some of us are also more expressive vocally. Even if you are not expressive, vocal delivery skills can be learned and practiced to engage your audience and maintain their attention. Below we will discuss several aspects of vocal delivery you should consider and practice while rehearsing your speech.

Articulation

We are often judged by how well we speak in general. A measure of perceived intellect or education is how well we articulate . That is: how well and correctly we form our vowels and consonants using our lips, jaw, tongue, and palate to form the sounds that are identified as speech.

Enunciation refers to how clearly and distinctly sounds are formed. For instance, saying “going to” instead of “gonna” or “did not” instead of “dint” are examples of good versus poor articulation.

Pronunciation refers to how a particular word should sound. At times this may be challenging because it’s not always possible to tell how a word should sound by the way it is spelled.

Look up the pronunciation of words you do not know. This is your speech – you should be able to pronounce words.
Substitute words that you have difficulty pronouncing if possible.
Practice enunciation while rehearsing.
Use your speaking notes to provide reminders about words that you tend to articulate incorrectly.

Your ability to articulate your speech content accurately will influence your credibility as a speaker.

Pitch and Inflection

Pitch refers to the highness or lowness of a speaker’s voice. Some speakers have deep voices and others have high voices. As with one’s singing voice range, the pitch of one’s speaking voice is determined to a large extent by physiology (specifically, the length of one’s vocal folds, or cords, and the size of one’s vocal tract). We all have a normal speaking pitch where our voice is naturally settled, the pitch where we are most comfortable speaking, and most teachers advise speaking at the pitch that feels natural to you.

While our voices may be generally comfortable at a specific pitch level, we all have the ability to modulate, or move, our pitch up or down. In fact, we do this all the time. When we change the pitch of our voices, we are using inflection. Just as you can use volume strategically, you can also use pitch inflections to make your delivery more interesting and emphatic. If you ordinarily speak with a soprano voice, you may want to drop your voice to a slightly lower range to call attention to a particular point. How we use inflections can even change the entire meaning of what we are saying. For example, try saying the sentence “I love public speaking” with a higher pitch on one of the words—first raise the pitch on “I,” then say it again with the pitch raised on “love,” and so on. “ I love public speaking” conveys a different meaning from “I love public speaking,” doesn’t it?

There are some speakers who don’t change their pitch at all while speaking, which is called monotone. While very few people are completely monotone, some speakers slip into monotone patterns because of nerves. One way to ascertain whether you sound monotone is to record your voice and see how you sound. If you notice that your voice doesn’t fluctuate very much, you will need to be intentional in altering your pitch to ensure that the emphasis of your speech isn’t completely lost on your audience.

Resist the habit of pitching your voice “up” at the ends of sentences. It makes them sound like questions instead of statements. This habit can be disorienting and distracting, interfering with the audience’s ability to focus entirely on the message. The speaker sounds uncertain or sounds as though he or she is seeking the understanding or approval of the listener.
Practice reading children’s books to adjust pitch (and other vocals) and see how they feel different.
Inflection and varied pitch must be “organic,” that is to say, natural for the speaker. You cannot fake it, or it sounds artificial and disingenuous. It is a skill that needs to develop over a period of time.
Practice saying sentences with different intonation patterns to change the meaning. For example, if you make a statement with falling intonation at the end, you can turn it into a question by raising the intonation at the end. Try for example, “See what I mean,” and “See what I mean?”

The effective use of pitch is one of the keys to an interesting delivery that will hold your audience’s attention.

Rate is how fast or slow a person speaks. You can vary the rate depending on the emotions you are feeling or the type of message you are communicating. For example, if you are experiencing joy, you will speak at a fast rate compared to a speaker who is expressing surprise who will speak at a much faster rate. Normally, you speak about 125 words per minute. But you may speak much slower at about 100 wpm if you are giving a slide presentation.

In order to retain clarity of the speech with articulation and inflection, the speaker must be aware that there is a range of appropriate tempo for speaking. If the tempo is too slow, the speech might resemble a monotonous peal. If it is too fast, the articulation could suffer if consonants or vowels are dropped or rushed to keep up the speed. An audience could become frustrated with either extreme. The tempo needs to be appropriate to the speaker’s style while maintaining a comfortable and clear pace is. An ideal speaking rate will allow you to comfortably increase your pace to create a sense of excitement or slow down to emphasize the seriousness of a topic.

When speaking you want to speak at a varied rate so that you can emphasize important parts of your message.
You also want to change the rate for the mood or emotion of the message and the occasion. If you want to show excitement at a pep rally you will naturally speak at a faster rate than if you were speaking at a funeral where you would speak slower because you are sad or contemplative.
You might also speak slower if you are making choices and thinking carefully about what you are saying; a slower pace may convey your thoughtfulness to the audience.
Use a recorder to record your speech so you can clock your actual speaking rate.
Finally, ask yourself if you are speaking too fast because you are nervous!

Pauses Versus Vocalized Pauses

Pauses can enhance delivery or be filled needlessly and distract the audience.

A pause may refer to a rest, hesitation, or temporary stop. It is an interval of silence and may vary in length. The speaker may use pauses to enhance the message delivery or fill the pauses needlessly and distract the audience from the message. You may use a pause to emphasize that the information coming next is important, or to give the audience time to process what you have just said. Consider some of the ways that you might use pauses effectively in your delivery.

Effective Pauses

Pause enables the speaker to gather thoughts before delivering the final appeal: pause just before the utterance, think about what you want to say, and then deliver your final appeal with renewed strength.
Pause prepares the listener to receive your message: pause and give the attention powers of your audience a rest. The thought that follows a pause is much more dynamic than if no pause had occurred.
Pause creates effective suspense: suspense can create interest. The audience will want to find out the conclusion or what happened if you pause before the punch line or conclusion.
Pause after an important idea: pausing gives the audience time to process what you have just said before you continue with your delivery.
Pause at the end of a unit: you may pause to signal the close of a unit of thought, such as a sentence or main point.

Different types of pauses that could present problems for the speaker:

Ineffective Pauses

Speech Disfluencies are breaks, irregularities, or non-lexical vocables that occur within the flow of otherwise fluent speech, including false starts (words and sentences that are cut off in the middle), phrases that are restarted and repeated, grunts, or fillers like uh, erm, and well.
Filled Pauses are repetitions of syllables and words; reformulations; or false starts, where the speaker rephrases to fit the representation of grammatical repairs, partial repeats, or searching for words to carry the meaning.
y’know
I’m tellin’ ya
you know what I mean.
Placeholder Names are filler words like thingamajig, which refer to objects or people whose names are temporarily forgotten, irrelevant, or unknown.
Record a conversation and count the use of unnecessary pauses and filler words in relation to the other words in the speech. See if you can reduce the ratio over time.
Remember that as you become more confident and familiar with speaking it will be easier to reduce the frequency of many of the unnecessary filler words and pauses.
Read aloud a text using purposeful pauses.

Volume is the loudness of the speaker. The volume produced by the vocal instrument is projection . Supporting the voice volume with good breathing and energy can be practiced, and helping a speaker develop the correct volume is the main task of a vocal trainer, teacher, or coach. Good vocal support with good posture, breathing, and energy should be practiced regularly, long before a speech is delivered.

When speaking naturally without any amplification you need to keep in mind the distance to be covered by your voice. You might compare speaking with the act of throwing a ball. Consider how much more muscular effort is needed to throw the ball a long distance than is required to throw it a short one. As you speak, think of your words as balls and mentally watch them covering the space between you and your audience. Notice how you unconsciously lengthen the voice. If speaking in a face-to-face group without a microphone ask yourself if you are loud enough to be heard by audience members in the last row. Speaking to a large group will require more energy to breathe and control your sound production.

While there is no need to shout, a speaker should project to be easily heard from the furthest part of the audience. Even if the speech is amplified with a microphone/sound system, one must speak with projection and energy. As with your rate of speech, you should speak at a volume that comfortably allows you to increase the volume of your voice without seeming to shout or decrease the volume of your voice and still be heard by all audience members.

Practice speaking in a large room with a friend who moves farther and farther away from you until the friend reaches the rear of the room and can still hear you.
Make sure that you are standing straight and not cramped so you have the maximum capacity for breathing and forcing air out of the lungs for sound production.
Practice speaking by thinking of people at different distances from you such as at your elbow, across the room, or in the back of a large hall.

Practice vocal variation!

Find a listening partner. Using only the sounds of “la” ha,” and “oh,” covey the meaning of the following:

1. It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen!

2. I’ve fallen and can’t get up!

3. I’ve got a crush on him/her.

4. That soup is disgusting and spoiled.

5. I got an “A” in my Speech Final!

If you cannot relay the meaning with just sounds, try a second time (each) with gestures and facial expressions until the listener understands. Then say the lines with the expressive inflections you have developed using only the sounds.

Key Takeaways

Vocal variety adds interest to your speech.
We can use changes in our vocals to emphasize points, lead the audience in a direction, transfer emotions, and build credibility.
For some of us, vocal variety is more natural and some of us need to practice vocal variety.

CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY Chapter 12 Vocal Aspects of Delivery. Authored by : Victor Capecce, M.F.A.. Provided by : Millersville University, Millersville, PA. Located at : http://publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html . Project : The Public Speaking Project. License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Crying baby. Authored by : Brazzouk. Provided by : MorgueFile. Located at : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crying_baby.jpg . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Ice-T. Authored by : Tino Jacobs. Located at : http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ice-T_(2).jpg . License : CC BY: Attribution PUBLIC DOMAIN CONTENT Iraqi Speaker. Authored by : Office of United States Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D – California). Located at : http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iraqi_Speaker.jpg . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright

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Toastmasters Speech 6: Vocal Variety

Read the following emphasizing on the highlighted words only.

I hate cats. (but i like dogs)

I hate cats. (I insist on my dogs)

I hate cats. (but my brother likes them)

By now you have probably got the hint of power of vocal variety. If a simple sentence can have so many different meaning only by changing the word to be emphasized upon, it is impossible to ignore the effect it could have on an entire speech.

Project 6 of Toastmaster encourages you to use vocal variety to sound rich and attractive to the audience.

Table of Contents

Evaluation Criteria

Tips and techniques, what will you benefit, sample speeches.

The main aim of this project is to use voice variances to reflect your thought. You need to balance the four Ps-

Pitch
Pace
Power
Pauses

a) Topic Selection and Organization

The select topic must be appropriate to use plenty of vocal variety. Organize your speech in a manner to meet the purpose.

Were you too loud or too soft? Were you screeching? Did you use pitches to convey feeling? Were you rushing with the speech? Were you boringly slow? Did you try to finish the speech in a breath? Were the pauses appropriate?

There are the scales along which you will be evaluated for the speech.

c) Your oratory skills

Your speech should be expressive, not merely by body movements and facial expressions, but vocally. The more feelings and emotions you are able to associate to the speech with the use of vocal variety, the more you will be appreciated for your speech.

d) Body language

Your body language must vary along with your voice. The body language should support the emotion of the speech.

a) Breathing practice

Breathing fast is not helpful in getting control over your voice. You will miss out on important pauses. You will also rush with the speech and you will be screeching. Practice breathing all the way into the abdomen rather than just chest. Control breathing will help you gain steadiness of voice.

b) Prepare your speech

Deliberately design your speech with pauses and stresses. Use words whose pronunciations can be played with. Break-free of the notes. Look up straight to the crowd and confidently communicate.

c) Rehearse your speech

You cannot expect to walk up to the stage and give perfect pauses, stresses and pace in the first trial. Rehearse your speech. Find out where it is necessary and where it is not.

d) Places to use pause

“(p)” signifies “pause”

After a word when we leave a gap before uttering another word or at the end of a short sentence.
Henry,(P) what are you doing? (p)
After a subordinate clause and after a main clause
If you get the first rank (p) I’ll give you a prize. (p)
Before a conjunction
Do it now (p) or you will regret later. (p)
Before a question tag
She writes beautifully, (p) doesn’t she? (p)
At the end of quotation marks
“Joe!” (p) she shouted at her husband. (p) “the truck is on fire!” (p)

http://www.weblearn.in/stress_pause/

This project will be beneficial in understanding the importance of vocal variety. You will learn how to:

Maintain the pace of the speed
Recognize the sections that need to be emphasized on
Use pitches to convey various emotions
Use appropriate pauses
http://www.speeches.io/kenny-kadar-toastmasters-speech-6-the-little-things/
http://lifeinoleg.com/public-speaking/6-vocal-variety-%E2%80%9Ci-killed-my-gurus%E2%80%9D
http://surangakf.blogspot.com/2013/06/toastmasters-speech-project-6-vocal.html

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9 Delivering a Speech

Introduction

9.1 Managing Public Speaking Anxiety

Sources of speaking anxiety.

Aside from the self-reported data in national surveys that rank the fear of public speaking high for Americans, decades of research conducted by communication scholars shows that communication apprehension is common among college students (Priem & Solomon, 2009). Communication apprehension (CA) is fear or anxiety experienced by a person due to real or perceived communication with another person or persons. CA is a more general term that includes multiple forms of communication, not just public speaking. Seventy percent of college students experience some CA, which means that addressing communication anxiety in a class like the one you are taking now stands to benefit the majority of students (Priem & Solomon, 2009). Think about the jitters you get before a first date, a job interview, or the first day of school. The novelty or uncertainty of some situations is a common trigger for communication anxiety, and public speaking is a situation that is novel and uncertain for many.

Public speaking anxiety is a type of CA that produces physiological, cognitive, and behavioral reactions in people when faced with a real or imagined presentation (Bodie, 2010). Physiological responses to public speaking anxiety include increased heart rate, flushing of the skin or face, and sweaty palms, among other things. These reactions are the result of natural chemical processes in the human body. The fight or flight instinct helped early humans survive threatening situations. When faced with a ferocious saber-toothed tiger, for example, the body released adrenaline, cortisol, and other hormones that increased heart rate and blood pressure to get more energy to the brain, organs, and muscles in order to respond to the threat. We can be thankful for this evolutionary advantage, but our physiology has not caught up with our new ways of life. Our body does not distinguish between the causes of stressful situations, so facing down an audience releases the same hormones as facing down a wild beast.

Cognitive reactions to public speaking anxiety often include intrusive thoughts that can increase anxiety: “People are judging me,” “I’m not going to do well,” and “I’m going to forget what to say.” These thoughts are reactions to the physiological changes in the body but also bring in the social/public aspect of public speaking in which speakers fear being negatively judged or evaluated because of their anxiety. The physiological and cognitive responses to anxiety lead to behavioral changes. All these thoughts may lead someone to stop their speech and return to their seat or leave the classroom. Anticipating these reactions can also lead to avoidance behavior where people intentionally avoid situations where they will have to speak in public.

Addressing Public Speaking Anxiety

Photograph from stage view of a woman tucking her hair behind her ear. There's people in the audience.

While we cannot stop the innate physiological reactions related to anxiety from occurring, we do have some control over how we cognitively process them and the behaviors that result. Research on public speaking anxiety has focused on three key ways to address this common issue: systematic desensitization, cognitive restructuring, and skills training (Bodie,2010).

Although systematic desensitization may sound like something done to you while strapped down in the basement of a scary hospital, it actually refers to the fact that we become less anxious about something when we are exposed to it more often (Bodie, 2010). As was mentioned earlier, the novelty and uncertainty of public speaking is a source for many people’s anxiety. So becoming more familiar with public speaking by speaking more often can logically reduce the novelty and uncertainty of it.

Systematic desensitization can result from imagined or real exposure to anxiety-inducing scenarios. In some cases, an instructor leads a person through a series of relaxation techniques. Once relaxed, the person is asked to imagine a series of scenarios including speech preparation and speech delivery. This is something you could also try to do on your own before giving a speech. Imagine yourself going through the process of preparing and practicing a speech, then delivering the speech, then returning to your seat, which concludes the scenario. Aside from this imagined exposure to speaking situations, taking a communication course like this one is a great way to engage directly in systematic desensitization. Almost all students report that they have less speaking anxiety at the end of a semester than when they started, which is at least partially due to the fact they engaged with speaking more than they would have done if they were not taking the class.

Cognitive Restructuring

Cognitive restructuring entails changing the way we think about something. A first step in restructuring how we deal with public speaking anxiety is to cognitively process through our fears to realize that many of the thoughts associated with public speaking anxiety are irrational (Allen, Hunter & Donohue, 2009). For example, people report a fear of public speaking over a fear of snakes, heights, financial ruin, or even death. It’s irrational to think that the consequences of giving a speech in public are more dire than getting bit by a rattlesnake, falling off a building, or dying. People also fear being embarrassed because they mess up. Well, you cannot literally die from embarrassment, and in reality, audiences are very forgiving and overlook or do not even notice many errors that we, as speakers, may dwell on. Once we realize that the potential negative consequences of giving a speech are not as dire as we think they are, we can move on to other cognitive restructuring strategies.

Communication-orientation modification therapy (COM therapy) is a type of cognitive restructuring that encourages people to think of public speaking as a conversation rather than a performance (Motley, 2009). Many people have a performance-based view of public speaking. This can easily be seen in the language that some students use to discuss public speaking. They say that they “rehearse” their speech, deal with “stage fright,” then “perform” their speech on a “stage.” There is no stage at the front of the classroom; it is a normal floor. To get away from a performance orientation, we can reword the previous statements to say that they “practice” their speech, deal with “public speaking anxiety,” then “deliver” their speech from the front of the room. Viewing public speaking as a conversation also helps with confidence. After all, you obviously have some conversation skills, or you would not have made it to college. We engage in conversations every day. We do not have to write everything we are going to say out on a note card, we do not usually get nervous or anxious in regular conversations, and we are usually successful when we try. Even though we do not engage in public speaking as much, we speak to others in public all the time. Thinking of public speaking as a type of conversation helps you realize that you already have accumulated experiences and skills that you can draw from, so you are not starting from scratch.

Last, positive visualization is another way to engage in cognitive restructuring. Speaking anxiety often leads people to view public speaking negatively. They are more likely to judge a speech they gave negatively, even if it was good. They are also likely to set up negative self-fulfilling prophecies that will hinder their performance in future speeches. To use positive visualization, it is best to engage first in some relaxation exercises such as deep breathing or stretching, and then play through vivid images in your mind of giving a successful speech. Do this a few times before giving the actual speech. Students sometimes question the power of positive visualization, thinking that it sounds corny. Ask an Olympic diver what his or her coach says to do before jumping off the diving board and the answer will probably be “Coach says to image completing a perfect 10 dive.” Likewise a Marine sharpshooter would likely say his commanding officer says to imagine hitting the target before pulling the trigger. In both instances, positive visualization is being used in high-stakes situations. If it is good enough for Olympic athletes and snipers, it is good enough for public speakers.

Skills training is a strategy for managing public speaking anxiety that focuses on learning skills that will improve specific speaking behaviors. These skills may relate to any part of the speech-making process, including topic selection, research and organization, delivery, and self-evaluation. Skills training, like systematic desensitization, makes the public speaking process more familiar for a speaker, which lessens uncertainty. In addition, targeting specific areas and then improving on them builds more confidence, which can in turn lead to more improvement. Feedback is important to initiate and maintain this positive cycle of improvement. You can use the constructive criticism that you get from your instructor and peers in this class to target specific areas of improvement.

Self-evaluation is also an important part of skills training. Make sure to evaluate yourself within the context of your assignment or job and the expectations for the speech. Do not get sidetracked by a small delivery error if the expectations for content far outweigh the expectations for delivery. Combine your self-evaluation with the feedback from your instructor, boss, and/or peers to set specific and measurable goals and then assess whether or not you meet them in subsequent speeches. Once you achieve a goal, mark it off your list and use it as a confidence booster. If you do not achieve a goal, figure out why and adjust your strategies to try to meet it in the future.

Physical Relaxation Exercises

Suggestions for managing speaking anxiety typically address its cognitive and behavioral components, while the physical components are left unattended. While we cannot block these natural and instinctual responses, we can engage in physical relaxation exercises to counteract the general physical signs of anxiety caused by cortisol and adrenaline release, which include increased heart rate, trembling, flushing, high blood pressure, and speech disfluency.

Some breathing and stretching exercises release endorphins, which are your body’s natural antidote to stress hormones. Deep breathing is a proven way to release endorphins. It also provides a general sense of relaxation and can be done discretely, even while waiting to speak. In order to get the benefits of deep breathing, you must breathe into your diaphragm. The diaphragm is the muscle below your lungs that helps you breathe and stand up straight, which makes it a good muscle for a speaker to exercise. To start, breathe in slowly through your nose, filling the bottom parts of your lungs up with air. While doing this, your belly should pooch out. Hold the breath for three to five full seconds and then let it out slowly through your mouth. After doing this only a few times, many students report that they can actually feel a flooding of endorphins, which creates a brief “light-headed” feeling. Once you practice and are comfortable with the technique, you can do this before you start your speech, and no one sitting around you will even notice. You might also want to try this technique during other stressful situations. Deep breathing before dealing with an angry customer or loved one, or before taking a test, can help you relax and focus.

Stretching is another way to release endorphins. Very old exercise traditions like yoga, tai chi, and Pilates teach the idea that stretching is a key component of having a healthy mind and spirit. Exercise in general is a good stress reliever, but many of us do not have the time or willpower to do it. However, we can take time to do some stretching. Obviously, it would be distracting for the surrounding audience if a speaker broke into some planking or Pilates just before his or her speech. Simple and discrete stretches can help get the body’s energy moving around, which can make a speaker feel more balanced and relaxed. Our blood and our energy/ stress have a tendency to pool in our legs, especially when we are sitting.

Vocal Warm-Up Exercises

Photograph of a man with raised eyebrows, open mouth, and a half smile.

Vocal warm-up exercises are a good way to warm up your face and mouth muscles, which can help prevent some of the fluency issues that occur when speaking. Newscasters, singers, and other professional speakers use vocal warm-ups. I lead my students in vocal exercises before speeches, which also helps lighten the mood. We all stand in a circle and look at each other while we go through our warm-up list. For the first warm-up, we all make a motorboat sound, which makes everybody laugh. The full list of warm-ups follows and contains specific words and exercises designed to warm up different muscles and different aspects of your voice. After going through just a few, you should be able to feel the blood circulating in your face muscles more. It is a surprisingly good workout!

Top Ten Ways to Reduce Speaking Anxiety

Many factors contribute to speaking anxiety. There are also many ways to address it. The following is a list of the top ten ways to reduce speaking anxiety that I developed with my colleagues, which helps review what we have learned.

Remember, you are not alone. Public speaking anxiety is common, so do not ignore it—confront it.
Remember, you cannot literally “die of embarrassment.” Audiences are forgiving and understanding.
Remember, it always feels worse than it looks.
Take deep breaths. It releases endorphins, which naturally fight the adrenaline that causes anxiety.
Look the part. Dress professionally to enhance confidence.
Channel your nervousness into positive energy and motivation.
Start your outline and research early. Better information = higher confidence.
Practice and get feedback from a trusted source. (Do not just practice for your cat.)
Visualize success through positive thinking.
Prepare, prepare, prepare! Practice is a speaker’s best friend.

9.2 Delivery Methods and Practice Sessions

There are many decisions to make during the speech-making process. Making informed decisions about delivery can help boost your confidence and manage speaking anxiety. In this section, we will learn about the strengths and weaknesses of various delivery methods. We will also learn how to make the most of your practice sessions.

Delivery Methods

Different speaking occasions call for different delivery methods. While it may be acceptable to speak from memory in some situations, lengthy notes may be required in others. The four most common delivery methods are impromptu, manuscript, memorized, and extemporaneous.

Impromptu Delivery

When using impromptu delivery , a speaker has little to no time to prepare for a speech (LibreTexts, 2021). This means there is little time for research, audience analysis, organizing, and practice. For this reason, impromptu speaking often evokes higher degrees of speaking anxiety than other delivery types. Although impromptu speaking arouses anxiety, it is also a good way to build public speaking skills. Using some of the exercises for managing speaking anxiety discussed earlier in this chapter can help a speaker manage the challenges of impromptu speaking (LibreTexts, 2021). Only skilled public speakers with much experience are usually able to “pull off” an impromptu delivery without looking unprepared. Otherwise, a speaker who is very familiar with the subject matter can sometimes be a competent impromptu speaker, because their expertise can compensate for the lack of research and organizing time.

When Mark Twain famously said, “It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech,” he was jokingly pointing out the difficulties of giving a good impromptu speech, essentially saying that there is no such thing as a good impromptu speech, as good speeches take time to prepare. We do not always have the luxury of preparation, though. So when speaking impromptu, be brief, stick to what you know, and avoid rambling. Quickly organize your thoughts into an introduction, body, and conclusion. Try to determine three key ideas that will serve as the basis of your main points.

When would impromptu speaking be used? Since we have already started thinking of the similarities between public speaking and conversations, we can clearly see that most of our day-to-day interactions involve impromptu speaking. When your roommate asks you what your plans for the weekend are, you do not pull a few note cards out of your back pocket to prompt your response. This type of conversational impromptu speaking is not anxiety inducing because we are talking about our lives, experiences, or something with which we are familiar. This is also usually the case when we are asked to speak publicly with little to no advance warning.

For example, if you are at a meeting for work and you are representing the public relations department, a colleague may ask you to say a few words about a recent news story involving a public relations misstep of a competing company. In this case, you are being asked to speak on the spot because of your expertise. A competent communicator should anticipate instances like this when they might be asked to speak. Of course, being caught completely off guard or being asked to comment on something unfamiliar to you creates more anxiety. In such cases, do not pretend to know something you do not, as that may come back to hurt you later. You can usually mention that you do not have the necessary background information at that time but will follow up later with your comments.

Manuscript Delivery

Speaking from a written or printed document that contains the entirety of a speech is known as manuscript delivery . Manuscript delivery can be the best choice when a speech has complicated information and/or the contents of the speech are going to be quoted or published (LibreTexts, 2021). Despite the fact that most novice speakers are not going to find themselves in that situation, many are drawn to this delivery method because of the security they feel with having everything they are going to say in front of them. Unfortunately, the security of having every word you want to say at your disposal translates to a poorly delivered and unengaging speech (LibreTexts, 2021). Even with every word written out, speakers can still have fluency hiccups and verbal fillers as they lose their place in the manuscript or trip over their words. The alternative, of course, is that a speaker reads the manuscript the whole time, effectively cutting himself or herself off from the audience. One way to make a manuscript delivery more engaging is to use a teleprompter. Almost all politicians who give televised addresses use them.

To make the delivery seem more natural, print the speech out in a larger-than-typical font, triple-space between lines so you can easily find your place, use heavier-than-normal paper so it is easy to pick up and turn the pages as needed, and use a portfolio so you can carry the manuscript securely.

Memorized Delivery

Completely memorizing a speech and delivering it without notes is known as memorized delivery (LibreTexts, 2021). Some students attempt to memorize their speech because they think it will make them feel more confident if they do not have to look at their notes; however, when their anxiety level spikes at the beginning of their speech and their mind goes blank for a minute, many admit they should have chosen a different delivery method. When using any of the other delivery methods, speakers still need to rely on their memory. An impromptu speaker must recall facts or experiences related to their topic, and speakers using a manuscript want to have some of their content memorized so they do not read their entire speech to their audience. The problem with memorized delivery overall is that it puts too much responsibility on our memory, which we all know from experience is fallible (LibreTexts, 2021).

Even with much practice, our memories can fail. If you do opt to use memorized delivery, make sure you have several “entry points” determined, so you can pick up at spots other than the very beginning of a speech if you lose your place and have to start again. Memorized delivery is very useful for speakers who are going to be moving around during a speech when carrying notes would be burdensome. I only recommend memorized delivery in cases where the speech is short (only one to two minutes), the speech is personal (like a brief toast), or the speech will be repeated numerous times (like a tour guide’s story), and even in these cases, it may be perfectly fine to have notes. Many students think that their anxiety and/or delivery challenges will vanish if they just memorize their speech only to find that they are more anxious and have more problems.

Extemporaneous Delivery

Extemporaneous delivery entails memorizing the overall structure and main points of a speech and then speaking from keyword/key-phrase notes (LibreTexts, 2021). This delivery mode brings together many of the strengths of the previous three methods. Since you only internalize and memorize the main structure of a speech, you do not have to worry as much about the content and delivery seeming stale. Extemporaneous delivery brings in some of the spontaneity of impromptu delivery but still allows a speaker to carefully plan the overall structure of a speech and incorporate supporting materials that include key facts, quotations, and paraphrased information (LibreTexts, 2021). You can also more freely adapt your speech to fit various audiences and occasions, since not every word and sentence is predetermined. This can be especially beneficial when you deliver a speech multiple times.

When preparing a speech that you will deliver extemporaneously, you will want to start practicing your speech early and then continue to practice as you revise your content. Investing quality time and effort into the speech-outlining process helps with extemporaneous delivery. As you put together your outline, you are already doing the work of internalizing the key structure of your speech. Read parts of your outline aloud as you draft them to help ensure they are written in a way that makes sense and is easy for you to deliver.

By the time you complete the formal, full-sentence outline, you should have already internalized much of the key information in your speech. Now, you can begin practicing with the full outline. As you become more comfortable with the content of your full outline, start to convert it into your speaking outline. Take out information that you know well and replace it with a keyword or key phrase that prompts your memory. You will probably want to leave key quotes, facts, and other paraphrased information, including your verbal source citation information, on your delivery outline so you make sure to include it in your speech. Once you’ve converted your full outline into your speaking outline, practice it a few more times, making sure to take some time between each practice session so you don’t inadvertently start to memorize the speech word for word. The final product should be a confident delivery of a well-organized and structured speech that is conversational and adaptable to various audiences and occasions.

Practicing Your Speech

1: Practice as you are working through your ideas and drafting your outline. 2: Practice for someone and get feedback. 3: Put the final changes on the speech.

Practicing a speech is essential, and practice sessions can be more or less useful depending on how you approach them (Dlugan, 2008). There are three primary phases to the practice process. In the first phase, you practice as you are working through your ideas and drafting your outline. In the second, you practice for someone and get feedback (Dlugan, 2008). In the third, you put the final changes on the speech.

Start practicing your speech early, as you are working through your ideas, by reading sections aloud as you draft them into your working outline. This will help ensure your speech is fluent and sounds good for the audience. Start to envision the audience while you practice and continue to think about them throughout the practicing process. This will help minimize anxiety when you actually have them sitting in front of you. Once you have completed your research and finished a draft of your outline, you will have already practiced your speech several times, as you were putting it together. Now, you can get feedback on the speech as a whole.

You begin to solicit feedback from a trusted source in the second phase of practicing your speech (Dlugan, 2008). This is the most important phase of practicing, and the one that most speakers do not complete. Beginning speakers may be nervous to practice in front of someone. That is normal. However, review the strategies for managing anxiety discussed earlier in this chapter and try to face that anxiety. After all, you will have to face a full audience when you deliver the speech, so getting used to speaking in front of someone can only help you at this point. Choose someone who will give you constructive feedback on your speech. Before you practice for them, explain the assignment or purpose of the speech. When practicing for a classroom speech, you may even want to give the person the assignment guidelines or a feedback sheet that has some key things for them to look for. Ask them for feedback on content and delivery. Almost anyone is good at evaluating delivery, but it is more difficult to evaluate content. In addition, in most cases, the content of your speech will be account for more of your grade. Also, begin to time your speech at this point, so you can determine if it meets any time limits that you have.

In addition to practicing for a trusted source for feedback, you may want to audio or video record your speech (Dlugan, 2008). This can be useful because it provides an objective record that you can then compare with the feedback you got from your friend and to your own evaluation of your speech. The most important part of this phase is incorporating the feedback you receive into your speech. If you practice for someone, get feedback, and then do not do anything with the feedback, then you have wasted your time and theirs. Use the feedback to assess whether or not you met your speaking goals. Was your thesis supported? Was your specific purpose met? Did your speech conform to any time limits that were set? Based on your answers to these questions, you may need to make some changes to your content or delivery, so do not put this part of practicing off to the last minute. Once the content has been revised as needed, draft your speaking outline and move on to the next phase of practice.

During the third and final phase of practice, you are putting the final changes on your speech. You should be familiar with the content based on your early practice sessions. You have also gotten feedback and incorporated that feedback into the speech. Your practice sessions at this point should pre-create, as much as possible, the conditions in which you will be giving your speech. You should have your speaking outline completed so you can practice with it. It is important to be familiar with the content on your note cards or speaking outline so you will not need to rely on it so much during the actual delivery. You may also want to practice in the type of clothing you will be wearing on speech day. This can be useful if you are wearing something you do not typically wear—a suit for example—so you can see how it might affect your posture, gestures, and overall comfort level.

If possible, at least one practice session in the place you will be giving the speech can be very helpful; especially if it is a room you are not familiar with. Make sure you are practicing with any visual aids or technology you will use so you can be familiar with it and it does not affect your speech fluency. (Dlugan, 2008).Continue to time each practice round. If you are too short or too long, you will need to go back and adjust your content some more. Always adjust your content to fit the time limit; do not try to adjust your delivery. Trying to speed talk or stretch things out to make a speech faster or longer is a mistake that will ultimately hurt your delivery, which will hurt your credibility. The overall purpose of this phase of practicing is to minimize surprises that might throw you off on speech day.

Vocal Delivery

Speaking for Engagement

We have all had the displeasure of listening to an unengaging speaker. Even though the person may care about his or her topic, an unengaging delivery that does not communicate enthusiasm will translate into a lack of interest for most audience members (Davis, 2021). Although a speaker can be visually engaging by incorporating movement and gestures, a flat or monotone vocal delivery can be sedating or even annoying. Incorporating vocal variety in terms of rate, volume, and pitch is key to being a successful speaker.

Rate of speaking refers to how fast or slow you speak (Barnard, 2018). If you speak too fast, your audience will not be able to absorb the information you present. If you speak too slowly, the audience may lose interest. The key is to vary your rate of speaking in a middle range, staying away from either extreme, in order to keep your audience engaged. In general, a higher rate of speaking signals that a speaker is enthusiastic about his or her topic. Speaking slowly may lead the audience to infer that the speaker is uninterested, uninformed, or unprepared to present his or her own topic. These negative assumptions, whether they are true or not, are likely to hurt the credibility of the speaker (Barnard, 2018). The goal is to speak at a rate that will interest the audience and will effectively convey your information. Speaking at a slow rate throughout a speech would likely bore an audience, but that is not a common occurrence.

Volume refers to how loud or soft your voice is. As with speaking rate, you want to avoid the extremes of being too loud or too soft, but still vary your volume within an acceptable middle range (Packard, 2020). When speaking in a typically sized classroom or office setting that seats about twenty-five people, using a volume a few steps above a typical conversational volume is usually sufficient. When speaking in larger rooms, you will need to project your voice. You may want to look for nonverbal cues from people in the back rows or corners, like leaning forward or straining to hear, to see if you need to adjust your volume more. Obviously, in some settings, a microphone will be necessary so the entire audience can hear you. Like rate, audiences use volume to make a variety of judgments about a speaker. Sometimes, softer speakers are judged as meek (Packard, 2020). This may lead to lowered expectations for the speech or less perceived credibility. Loud speakers may be seen as overbearing or annoying, which can lead audience members to disengage from the speaker and message. Be aware of the volume of your voice and, when in doubt, increase your volume a notch, since beginning speakers are more likely to have an issue of speaking too softly rather than too loudly.

Pitch refers to how high or low a speaker’s voice is. As with other vocal qualities, there are natural variations among people’s vocal pitch. Unlike rate and volume, we have less control over pitch. For example, males generally have lower pitched voices than females. Despite these limitations, each person still has the capability to change their pitch across a range large enough to engage an audience. Changing pitch is a good way to communicate enthusiasm and indicate emphasis or closure (Scotti, 2015). In general, our pitch goes up when we are discussing something exciting. Our pitch goes down slightly when we emphasize a serious or important point. Lowering pitch is also an effective way to signal transitions between sections of your speech or the end of your speech, which cues your audience to applaud and avoids an awkward ending.

Of the vocal components of delivery discussed so far, pitch seems to give beginning speakers the most difficulty. It is as if giving a speech temporarily numbs their ability to vary their pitch. Record yourself practicing your speech to help determine if the amount of pitch variety and enthusiasm you think you convey while speaking actually comes through. Speakers often assume that their pitch is more varied and their delivery more enthusiastic than the audience actually perceives it to be (Scotti, 2015). Many students note this on the self-evaluations they write after viewing their recorded speech.

Vocal Variety

Overall, the lesson to take away from this section on vocal delivery is that variety is key. Vocal variety includes changes in your rate, volume, and pitch that can make you look more prepared, seem more credible, and be able to engage your audience better (Moore, 2015). Employing vocal variety is not something that takes natural ability or advanced skills training. It is something that beginning speakers can start working on immediately and everyone can accomplish. The key is to become aware of how you use your voice when you speak, and the best way to do this is to record yourself (Moore, 2015). We all use vocal variety naturally without thinking about it during our regular conversations, and many of us think that this tendency will translate over to our speaking voices. This is definitely not the case for most beginning speakers. Unlike in your regular conversations, it will take some awareness and practice to use vocal variety in speeches. I encourage students to make this a delivery priority early on. Since it is something anyone can do, improving in this area will add to your speaking confidence, which usually translates into better speeches and better grades further on.

Speaking for Clarity

In order to be an effective speaker, your audience should be able to understand your message and digest the information you present (Rampton, 2021). Audience members will make assumptions about our competence and credibility based on how we speak. As with other aspects of speech delivery, many people are not aware that they have habits of speech that interfere with their message clarity. Since most of our conversations are informal and take place with people we know, many people do not make a concerted effort to articulate every word clearly and pronounce every word correctly (Rampton, 2021). Most of the people we talk to either do not notice our errors or do not correct us if they do notice. Since public speaking is generally more formal than our conversations, we should be more concerned with the clarity of our speech.

Articulation

Articulation refers to the clarity of sounds and words we produce. If someone is articulate, they speak words clearly, and speakers should strive to speak clearly. Poor articulation results when speakers do not speak clearly (Ward, 2020). For example, a person may say dinnt instead of didn’t , gonna instead of going to , wanna instead of want to , or hunnerd instead of hundred . Unawareness and laziness are two common challenges to articulation. As with other aspects of our voice, many people are unaware that they regularly have errors in articulation. Recording yourself speak and then becoming a higher self-monitor are effective ways to improve your articulation. Laziness, on the other hand, requires a little more motivation to address. Some people just get in the habit of not articulating their words well. Both mumbling and slurring are examples of poor articulation. In informal settings, this type of speaking may be acceptable, but in formal settings, it will be evaluated negatively. It will hurt a speaker’s credibility. Perhaps the promise of being judged more favorably is enough to motivate a mumbler to speak more clearly.

Pronunciation

Unlike articulation, which focuses on the clarity of words, pronunciation refers to speaking words correctly, including the proper sounds of the letters and the proper emphasis (Shtern, 2017). Mispronouncing words can damage a speaker’s credibility, especially when the correct pronunciation of a word is commonly known. We all commonly run into words that we are unfamiliar with and therefore may not know how to pronounce. Here are three suggestions when faced with this problem. First, look the word up in an online dictionary. Many dictionaries have a speaker icon with their definitions, and when you click on it, you can hear the correct pronunciation of a word. Some words have more than one pronunciation—for example, Caribbean —so choosing either of the accepted pronunciations is fine. Just remember to use consistently that pronunciation to avoid confusing your audience. If a word does not include an audio pronunciation, you can usually find the phonetic spelling of a word, which is the word spelled out the way it sounds.

Second, there will occasionally be words that you cannot locate in a dictionary. These are typically proper nouns or foreign words. In this case, use the “phone-a-friend” strategy. Call up the people you know who have large vocabularies or are generally smart when it comes to words, and ask them if they know how to pronounce it. If they do, and you find them credible, you are probably safe to take their suggestion.

Third, “fake it ‘til you make it” should only be used as a last resort. If you cannot find the word in a dictionary and your smart friends do not know how to pronounce it, it is likely that your audience will also be unfamiliar with the word. In that case, using your knowledge of how things are typically pronounced, decide on a pronunciation that makes sense and confidently use it during your speech. Most people will not question it. In the event that someone does correct you on your pronunciation, thank him or her for correcting you and adjust your pronunciation.

Fluency refers to the flow of your speaking. To speak with fluency means that your speech flows well and that there are not many interruptions to that flow. Two main disfluencies or problems affect the flow of a speech. Fluency hiccups are unintended pauses in a speech that usually result from forgetting what you were saying, being distracted, or losing your place in your speaking notes. Fluency hiccups are not the same as intended pauses, which are useful for adding emphasis or transitioning between parts of a speech. While speakers should try to minimize fluency hiccups, even experienced speakers need to take an unintended pause sometimes to get their bearings or to recover from an unexpected distraction. Fluency hiccups become a problem when they happen regularly enough to detract from the speaker’s message.

Verbal fillers are words that speakers use to fill in a gap between what they were saying and what they are saying next (Hennessy, 2019). Common verbal fillers include um , uh , ah , er , you know , and like . The best way to minimize verbal fillers is to become a higher self-monitor and realize that you use them. Many students are surprised when they watch the video of their first speech and realize they said “um” thirty times in three minutes. Gaining that awareness is the first step in eliminating verbal fillers, and students make noticeable progress with this between their first and second speeches (Hennessy, 2019). If you do lose your train of thought, having a brief fluency hiccup is better than injecting a verbal filler, because the audience may not even notice the pause or may think it was intentional.

9.3 Physical Delivery

Physical delivery.

Many speakers are more nervous about physical delivery than vocal delivery. Putting our bodies on the line in front of an audience often makes us feel more vulnerable than putting our voice out there. Yet most audiences are not as fixated on our physical delivery as we think they are. Knowing this can help relieve some anxiety, but it does not give us a free pass when it comes to physical delivery. We should still practice for physical delivery that enhances our verbal message. Physical delivery of a speech involves nonverbal communication through the face and eyes, gestures, and body movements.

Physical Delivery and the Face

We tend to look at a person’s face when we are listening to them (Hoffler, 2016). Again, this often makes people feel uncomfortable and contributes to their overall speaking anxiety. Many speakers do not like the feeling of having “all eyes” on them, even though having a room full of people avoiding making eye contact with you would be much more awkward. Remember, it is a good thing for audience members to look at you, because it means they are paying attention and interested. Audiences look toward the face of the speaker for cues about the tone and content of the speech.

Facial Expressions

Man with hands in the air expressing a surprised "what?!" gesture. His eyebrows are raised, mouth open, eyes looking to the side.

Facial expressions can help bring a speech to life when used by a speaker to communicate emotions and demonstrate enthusiasm for the speech (Hoffler, 2016). As with vocal variety, we tend to use facial expressions naturally and without conscious effort when engaging in day-to-day conversations. Yet many speakers’ expressive faces turn “deadpan” when they stand in front of an audience. Some people naturally have more expressive faces than others do have—think about the actor Jim Carey’s ability to contort his face as an example. However, we can also consciously control and improve on our facial expressions to be speakers that are more effective. As with other components of speech delivery, becoming a higher self-monitor and increasing your awareness of your typical delivery habits can help you understand, control, and improve your delivery. Although you should not only practice your speech in front of a mirror, doing so can help you get an idea of how expressive or unexpressive your face is while delivering your speech.

Facial expressions help set the emotional tone for a speech, and it is important that your facial expressions stay consistent with your message (Hoffler, 2016). In order to set a positive tone before you start speaking, briefly look at the audience and smile. A smile is a simple but powerful facial expression that can communicate friendliness, openness, and confidence. Facial expressions communicate a range of emotions and are associated with various moods or personality traits.

For example, combinations of facial expressions can communicate that a speaker is tired, excited, angry, confused, frustrated, sad, confident, smug, shy, or bored, among other things. Even if you are not bored, for example, a slack face with little animation may lead an audience to think that you are bored with your own speech, which is not likely to motivate them to be interested. So make sure your facial expressions are communicating an emotion, mood, or personality trait that you think your audience will view favorably. Also, make sure your facial expressions match with the content of your speech. When delivering something lighthearted or humorous, a smile, bright eyes, and slightly raised eyebrows will nonverbally enhance your verbal message. When delivering something serious or somber, a furrowed brow, a tighter mouth, and even a slight head nod can enhance that message. If your facial expressions and speech content are not consistent, your audience could become confused by the conflicting messages, which could lead them to question your honesty and credibility.

Eye Contact

Eye contact is an important element of nonverbal communication in all communication settings. Eye contact can also be used to establish credibility and hold your audience’s attention (Barnard, 2017). We often interpret a lack of eye contact to mean that someone is not credible or not competent, and as a public speaker, you do not want your audience thinking either of those things. Eye contact holds attention because an audience member who knows the speaker is making regular eye contact will want to reciprocate that eye contact to show that they are paying attention. This will also help your audience remember the content of your speech better, because acting as if we are paying attention actually leads us to pay attention and better retain information.

Norms for eye contact vary among cultures (Barnard, 2017). Therefore, it may be difficult for speakers from countries that have higher power distances or are more collectivistic to get used to the idea of making direct and sustained eye contact during a speech. In these cases, it is important for the speaker to challenge himself or herself to integrate some of the host culture’s expectations and for the audience to be accommodating and understanding of the cultural differences.

Physical Delivery and the Body

Have you ever gotten dizzy as an audience member because the speaker paced back and forth? Anxiety can lead us to do some strange things with our bodies, like pacing, that we do not normally do, so it is important to consider the important role that your body plays during your speech. We call extra movements caused by anxiety nonverbal adaptors . Most of them manifest as distracting movements or gestures. These nonverbal adaptors, like tapping a foot, wringing hands, playing with a paper clip, twirling hair, jingling change in a pocket, scratching, and many more, can definitely detract from a speaker’s message and credibility. Conversely, a confident posture and purposeful gestures and movement can enhance both.

Posture is the position we assume with our bodies, either intentionally or out of habit. Although people, especially young women, used to be trained in posture, often by having them walk around with books stacked on their heads, you should use a posture that is appropriate for the occasion while still positioning yourself in a way that feels natural. In a formal speaking situation, it is important to have an erect posture that communicates professionalism and credibility (Clayton, 2018). However, a military posture of standing at attention may feel and look unnatural in a typical school or business speech. In informal settings, it may be appropriate to lean on a table or lectern, or even sit among your audience members (Clayton, 2018). Head position is also part of posture. In most speaking situations, it is best to keep your head up, facing your audience. A droopy head does not communicate confidence. Consider the occasion important, as an inappropriate posture can hurt your credibility.

Gestures include arm and hand movements. We all go through a process of internalizing our native culture from childhood. An obvious part of this process is becoming fluent in a language. Perhaps less obvious is the fact that we also become fluent in nonverbal communication, gestures in particular. We all use hand gestures while we speak, but we didn’t ever take a class in matching verbal communication with the appropriate gestures; we just internalized these norms over time based on observation and put them into practice. By this point in your life, you have a whole vocabulary of hand movements and gestures that spontaneously come out while you are speaking. Some of these gestures are emphatic and some are descriptive (Koch, 2007).

Emphatic gestures are the most common hand gestures we use, and they function to emphasize our verbal communication and often relate to the emotions we verbally communicate (Toastmasters International, 2011). Pointing with one finger or all the fingers straight out is an emphatic gesture. We can even bounce that gesture up and down to provide more emphasis. Moving the hand in a circular motion in front of our chest with the fingers spread apart is a common emphatic gesture that shows excitement and often accompanies an increased rate of verbal speaking. We make this gesture more emphatic by using both hands. Descriptive gestures function to illustrate or refer to objects rather than emotions (Toastmasters International, 2011). We use descriptive gestures to indicate the number of something by counting with our fingers or the size, shape, or speed of something. Our hands and arms are often the most reliable and easy-to-use visual aids a speaker can have.

While the best beginning strategy is to gesture naturally, you also want to remain a high self-monitor and take note of your typical patterns of gesturing. If you notice that you naturally gravitate toward one particular gesture, make an effort to vary your gestures more. You also want your gestures to be purposeful, not limp or lifeless.

Man on stage with a powerpoint clicker in one hand, standing away from the podium with his legs bent a little, as if almost ready to walk.

Sometimes movement of the whole body, instead of just gesturing with hands, is appropriate in a speech. When students are given the freedom to move around, it often ends up becoming floating or pacing, which are both movements that comfort a speaker by expending nervous energy but only serve to distract the audience (Toastmasters International, 2011). Floating refers to speakers who wander aimlessly around, and pacing refers to speakers who walk back and forth in the same path. To prevent floating or pacing, make sure that your movements are purposeful. Many speakers employ the triangle method of body movement where they start in the middle, take a couple steps forward and to the right, then take a couple steps to the left, then return to the center. Obviously, you do not need to do this multiple times in a five- to ten-minute speech, as doing so, just like floating or pacing, tends to make an audience dizzy.

To make your movements appear more natural, time them to coincide with a key point you want to emphasize or a transition between key points. Minimize other movements from the waist down when you are not purposefully moving for emphasis. Speakers sometimes tap or shuffle their feet, rock, or shift their weight back and forth from one leg to the other. Keeping both feet flat on the floor, and still, will help avoid these distracting movements (Toastmasters International, 2011).

Credibility and Physical Delivery

Audience members primarily take in information through visual and auditory channels. Just as the information you present verbally in your speech can add to or subtract from your credibility, nonverbal communication that accompanies your verbal messages affects your credibility.

Professional Dress and Appearance

No matter what professional field you go into, you will need to consider the importance of personal appearance (Caffrey, 2020). Although it may seem petty or shallow to put so much emphasis on dress and appearance, impressions matter, and people make judgments about our personality, competence, and credibility based on how we look. In some cases, you may work somewhere with a clearly laid out policy for personal dress and appearance. In many cases, the suggestion is to follow guidelines for “business casual.”

Despite the increasing popularity of this notion over the past twenty years, people’s understanding of what business casual means is not consistent (Caffrey, 2020). The formal dress codes of the mid-1900s, which required employees to wear suits and dresses, gave way to the trend of business casual dress, which seeks to allow employees to work comfortably while still appearing professional. While most people still dress more formally for job interviews or high-stakes presentations, the day-to-day dress of working professionals varies.

Visual Aids and Delivery

Visual aids play an important role in conveying supporting material to your audience. They also tie to delivery, since using visual aids during a speech usually requires some physical movements. It is important not to let your use of visual aids detract from your credibility (Beqiri, 2018). Many good speeches are derailed by posters that fall over, videos with no sound, and uncooperative PowerPoint presentations.

Figure 9.1: Systematic desensitization can include giving more public speeches, taking communication courses, or imagining public speaking scenarios. William Moreland. 2019. Unsplash license . https://unsplash.com/photos/GkWP64truqg

Figure 9.2: Vocal warm-up exercises. Andrea Piacquadio. 2020. Pexels license . https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-red-polo-shirt-3779453/

Figure 9.3: Primary phases to the practice process. Kindred Grey. 2022. CC BY 4.0 .

Figure 9.4: Three facets of speaking for clarity. Kindred Grey. 2022. CC BY 4.0 .

Figure 9.5: Facial expressions set the tone for a speech, and should be consistent with your message. Afif Kusuma. 2021. Unsplash license . https://unsplash.com/photos/F3dFVKj6q8I

Figure 9.6: To make your movements appear natural, time them to coincide with a key point. Product School. 2019. Unsplash license . https://unsplash.com/photos/S3hhrqLrgYM

Section 9.1

Allen, M., Hunter, J. E., & Donohue, W. A. (1989). Meta-analysis of self-report data on the effectiveness of public speaking anxiety treatment techniques. Communication Education, 38 (1), 54–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634528909378740

Bodie, G. D. (2010). A racing heart, rattling knees, and ruminative thoughts: Defining, explaining, and treating public speaking anxiety. Communication Education, 59 (1), 70–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634520903443849

Motley, M. T. (2009). COM therapy. In J. A. Daly, J. C. McCroskey, J. Ayres, T. Hopf, and D. M. Ayers Sonandré (Eds.), Avoiding communication: Shyness, reticence, and communication apprehension (pp. 379-400) (3rd ed.). Hampton Press.

Priem, J. S., & Haunani Solomon, D. (2009). Comforting apprehensive communicators: The effects of reappraisal and distraction on cortisol levels among students in a public speaking class. Communication Quarterly, 57 (3), 259-281.

Section 9.2

Barnard, D. (2018, January 20). Average speaking rate and words per minute . https://virtualspeech.com/blog/average-speaking-rate-words-per-minute

Davis, B. (2021, June 1). Why is audience engagement important? https://www.mvorganizing.org/why-is-audience-engagement-important/

Hennessy, C. (2019, March 27). Verbal filler: How to slow the flow . https://www.throughlinegroup.com/2019/03/27/verbal-filler-how-to-slow-the-flow/

LibreTexts. (2021, February 20). Methods of speech delivery . https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Communication/Public_Speaking/Exploring_Public_Speaking_(Barton_and_Tucker)/11%3A_Delivery/11.02%3A_Methods_of_Speech_Delivery

Moore, K. (2015, January 13). Public speaking tips: Use vocal variety like a pro! https://coachkiomi.com/best-public-speaking-tips-use-vocal-variety/

Packard, D. (2020, July 13). Speaking up: How to increase the volume of your voice . https://packardcommunications.com/speaking-up-how-to-increase-the-volume-of-your-voice/

Rampton, J. (2021, July 27). Learning to speak with clarity . https://www.calendar.com/blog/learning-to-speak-with-clarity/

Scotti, S. (2015, December 1). Vocal delivery: Take command of your voice . https://professionallyspeaking.net/vocal-delivery-take-command-of-your-voice-part-one/

Shtern, A. (2017, April 17). The importance of good pronunciation . https://shaneschools.com/en/the-importance-of-good-pronunciation/

Section 9.3

Barnard, D. (2017, October 24). The importance of eye contact during a presentation . https://virtualspeech.com/blog/importance-of-eye-contact-during-a-presentation

Beqiri, G. (2018, June 21). Using visual aids during a presentation or training session . https://virtualspeech.com/blog/visual-aids-presentation

Caffrey, A. (2020, February 25). The importance of personal appearance . http://www.publicspeakingexpert.co.uk/importanceofpersonalappearance.html

Clayton, D. (2018, October 31). The importance of good posture in public speaking . https://simplyamazingtraining.co.uk/blog/good-posture-public-speaking

Hoffler, A. (2016, June 7). Why facial expressions are important in public speaking . https://www.millswyck.com/2016/06/07/the-importance-of-facial-expression/

Koch, A. (2007). Speaking with a purpose (7th ed.). Pearson, 2007.

Toastmasters International. (2011). Gestures: Your body speaks . https://web.mst.edu/~toast/docs/Gestures.pdf

Fear or anxiety experience by a person due to real or perceived communication with another person or persons. This is a fear or anxiety that involves several types of communication not limited to public speaking.

Type of communication apprehension that produces physiological, cognitive, and behavioral reactions in people when faced with a real or imagined presentation

A type of cognitive restructuring that encourages people to think of public speaking as conversation rather than a performance

When a speaker has little or no time to prepare a speech

Speaking from a well written or printed document that contains the entirety of a speech

Completely memorizing a speech and delivering it without notes

Memorizing the overall structure and main points of a speech and then speaking from keyword/key-phrase notes

Refers to how fast or slow you speak

Refers to how loud or soft you speak

Refers to how high or low a speaker’s voice is

Changes in your rate, volume, and pitch that make you sound more prepared and credible

Refers to the clarity of sounds and words you pronounce

Whether you say the words correctly

Refers to the flow of your speaking

Unintended pauses in a speech that usually result from forgetting what you were saying, being distracted, or losing your place in speaking

The umms, uhhs, and other linguistic pauses of conversation

The feelings expressed on a person’s face

The act of looking directly into one another’s eyes

Extra movements caused by anxiety (i.e., tapping your foot, wringing your hands, playing with a paperclip, twirling hair, or scratching)

The position in which someone holds their body when standing or sitting

A movement of part of the body, especially a hand or the head, to express an idea or meaning

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Vocal Variety: Elevating Your Speech Delivery With Voice Modulation

Do you ever feel like your speeches or presentations lack that certain spark? Like you’re just going through the motions, saying the words but not truly captivating your audience?

Well, my friend, it’s time to shake things up and take your speech delivery to the next level with the power of vocal variety. In this article, we will explore how voice modulation can elevate your speaking skills and make a lasting impact on your listeners.

By understanding the art of voice modulation, practicing proper breathing techniques, mastering pacing and pausing, utilizing inflection to convey emotions, and incorporating vocal variety in different speaking situations, you can transform your presentations from ordinary to extraordinary.

Imagine capturing your audience’s attention effortlessly as you engage them with a powerful and dynamic voice.

So get ready to unlock the secrets of vocal variety and learn how to deliver impactful speeches that leave a lasting impression. It’s time to take center stage and command attention with every word you speak. Let’s dive in!

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

Vocal variety enhances audience engagement, adds depth and interest to the message, conveys emotions effectively, and increases the overall impact of a speech.
Techniques for vocal variety include varying pitch and intonation, adjusting volume and projection, using pauses and silences strategically, emphasizing certain words or phrases, and incorporating vocal inflections and accents.
Practicing vocal variety builds confidence in public speaking, enhances communication skills, increases credibility and authority, allows for effective storytelling, and creates a memorable and engaging presentation.
To master vocal variety, one can record and listen to their own voice, practice reading aloud with different emotions, experiment with different vocal techniques, seek feedback from trusted individuals, and attend workshops or classes on voice modulation.

Understand the Power of Voice Modulation

Get ready to unleash the incredible power of voice modulation and captivate your audience like never before.

Voice modulation exercises are an essential tool for enhancing your speech delivery. By mastering the art of vocal variety, you can effectively convey emotions, emphasize key points, and maintain your audience’s interest throughout your speech.

The importance of vocal tone cannot be overstated. It plays a crucial role in engaging your listeners and conveying the intended message. A monotonous voice can quickly bore an audience, causing them to lose interest in what you have to say. On the other hand, a voice that varies in pitch, volume, and pace can bring life to your words and keep your audience engaged.

Voice modulation exercises allow you to explore different aspects of your voice and expand its range. Practicing techniques such as varying pitch, using pauses strategically, emphasizing certain words or phrases with increased volume or intensity can help you deliver a more impactful speech.

Additionally, by incorporating vocal variety into your delivery, you can effectively convey different emotions. Whether it’s excitement, sadness, or urgency, adapting your tone accordingly adds depth and authenticity to your speech.

In conclusion, understanding the power of voice modulation is vital for elevating your speech delivery. By incorporating vocal variety through exercises and recognizing the significance of vocal tone in captivating an audience’s attention, you will take your speaking skills to new heights.

Practice Proper Breathing Techniques

Mastering proper breathing techniques is crucial for enhancing the depth and complexity of your speech, allowing you to effortlessly captivate your audience. One effective way to improve your breath control is by practicing breathing exercises.

These exercises help strengthen your diaphragm, which is a key muscle involved in controlling your breath.

One popular breathing exercise is diaphragmatic breathing. This technique involves taking deep breaths, where you focus on filling up your lungs fully by expanding your diaphragm rather than shallow chest breathing.

Start by finding a comfortable position, either sitting or standing upright. Place one hand on your belly and the other on your chest. As you inhale deeply through your nose, feel your belly expand as it fills with air while keeping the hand on your chest relatively still. Exhale slowly through slightly pursed lips, feeling the release of tension in your body.

By regularly practicing diaphragmatic breathing exercises, you can improve not only the volume but also the tone and resonance of your voice. It allows for better control over pitch variations and helps prevent vocal strain during long speeches or presentations.

Remember that proper breathing relates directly to better vocal variety in speaking engagements. So take some time each day to practice these techniques and harness the power of breath to elevate your speech delivery!

Master the Art of Pacing and Pausing

Embracing the art of pacing and pausing adds a melodic cadence to your spoken words, allowing for moments of reflection and emphasis. Mastering effective pausing techniques can greatly enhance your speech delivery.

Utilizing strategic pauses throughout your presentation can create suspense, grab attention, and emphasize key points. These brief moments of silence give your audience time to process information and absorb the impact of your words.

Pacing, on the other hand, refers to the speed at which you speak. It is crucial to strike a balance between speaking too fast or too slow. A moderate pace helps maintain audience engagement by giving them enough time to comprehend what you are saying without losing interest. Speaking at a consistent pace also allows for smoother transitions between ideas.

The impact of pacing on audience engagement cannot be underestimated. Speaking too quickly may cause listeners to become overwhelmed or miss important details, while speaking too slowly might lead to boredom or disinterest. By varying your pace appropriately, you can captivate your audience’s attention and keep them engaged throughout your presentation.

Incorporating effective pausing techniques and mastering the art of pacing will elevate your speech delivery to new heights. This combination creates an engaging rhythm that holds the listener’s attention while emphasizing key points through well-placed pauses. Practice these techniques diligently, and watch as they transform your speeches into captivating performances that leave a lasting impression on your audience.

Use Inflection to Convey Emotion

Enhancing your speech with inflection allows you to effectively convey emotions and captivate your audience. Using intonation effectively is a powerful tool in speech delivery. By varying the pitch, volume, and rhythm of your voice, you can add depth and meaning to your words.

One way to use inflection is by adjusting the tone of your voice to emphasize key points. For example, when expressing excitement or enthusiasm, you can raise the pitch of your voice and increase its volume. This will not only convey the emotion but also grab the attention of your listeners.

On the other hand, when conveying sadness or seriousness in your speech, lowering the pitch and speaking softly can create a more somber atmosphere. This change in tone will help evoke empathy from your audience.

Inflection also allows you to add emphasis to specific words or phrases that are crucial for understanding or making a point. By stressing certain words through changes in pitch or volume, you can highlight their significance and ensure they are remembered by your listeners.

In conclusion, using inflection through intonation and tone enhances your speech by effectively conveying emotions and emphasizing key points. It adds depth to your delivery and keeps your audience engaged throughout your presentation. So remember to practice using vocal variety in order to elevate your speech delivery with voice modulation.

Incorporate Vocal Variety in Different Speaking Situations

Immerse yourself in the art of using different tones and styles of speaking to captivate your audience, like a skilled musician playing a symphony that stirs the deepest emotions within them. Vocal variety is crucial in public speaking as it adds depth and dimension to your message, making it more engaging and memorable for your listeners.

To incorporate vocal variety effectively, you can start by varying your pitch. Experiment with higher and lower pitches to convey different emotions or emphasize certain points. Additionally, adjusting the speed of your speech can create anticipation or highlight important information. Speaking slowly can add weight and gravitas, while speaking quickly can create excitement and energy.

Another technique is to use pauses strategically. Pausing before or after an important point allows the listener to absorb the information. It also creates suspense and draws attention to key ideas.

Furthermore, consider using volume changes to emphasize specific words or phrases. Speaking softly can create intimacy or mystery, while projecting your voice loudly can command attention and convey passion.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to incorporate vocal inflections such as laughter, sighs, or even whispers when appropriate. These elements add texture to your speech and help connect with your audience on a deeper level.

Incorporating these techniques will elevate your presentations by adding richness and variety to your delivery style. Remember that practice is key in mastering vocal variety – so go ahead, experiment with different techniques and watch as you captivate audiences with every word you speak!

Frequently Asked Questions

How can voice modulation affect the overall impact of a speech.

Voice modulation plays a crucial role in the overall impact of a speech. By engaging in vocal exercises, you can improve your voice modulation skills, leading to increased audience engagement and retention.

What are some common mistakes to avoid when practicing breathing techniques for speech delivery?

Common mistakes to avoid when practicing breathing techniques for speech delivery include shallow breaths, gasping for air, and holding your breath. These errors can hinder your vocal control and limit the power of your voice.

How can pacing and pausing enhance the delivery of a speech?

Pacing and pausing techniques are essential for impactful speech delivery. They create rhythm, allow listeners to absorb information, and emphasize key points. Vocal variety is crucial in public speaking as it captivates the audience and adds depth to your message.

What are some tips for effectively conveying emotions through inflection in speech?

To convey emotions effectively through inflection in speech, use vocal expression techniques. Vary your pitch, volume, and tone to match the emotion you want to convey. This will captivate your audience and make your speech more impactful.

Are there any specific speaking situations where incorporating vocal variety is particularly important or beneficial?

In speaking situations such as presentations, public speaking events, and job interviews, incorporating vocal variety is crucial. It captivates your audience, enhances message clarity, and ensures effective communication by conveying emotions and emphasizing key points.

In conclusion, mastering the art of vocal variety is essential for delivering an engaging and impactful speech. By using voice modulation techniques such as proper breathing, pacing, pausing, and inflection, you can captivate your audience and convey emotions effectively.

Just like a skilled conductor leading a symphony orchestra, your voice becomes an instrument that creates a rhythm and flow in your delivery.

So remember to embrace the power of vocal variety in different speaking situations to truly elevate your speech and leave a lasting impression on your listeners.

Six Elements of Vocal Variety and How to Master Them Part 1- Volume

What is vocal variety.

Vocal variety is just one of nine key components of effective speaking, but it is often ignored or misunderstood. In this series of posts, I’d like to look at this important topic in greater detail and show you how you can improve your impact and engagement by learning how to harness the full power of your voice.

While the words you choose to deliver are undoubtedly important, they way you say them plays a significant role in your ability to engage and influence your audience to influence your audience. A carefully crafted speech can be

“A carefully crafted speech can be ruined by a dull vocal delivery.”

As its name suggests, the term vocal variety relates to the way you speak and can be broken down into several elements including:

Volume (Loudness)
Pitch (Rise and Fall)
Pace (Rate)
Pause (Silence)
Resonance (Timbre)

Vary your volume

Common speaking volume errors.

Speaking too quietly If your audience has to strain to hear you they will miss vital information if the problem continues, they will inevitably stop listening and do something less tiring – like thinking about lunch!
Speaking too loudly If the average speaking volume is too high, your audience will feel as though you are shouting at them and you will almost certainly put them off, no matter how compelling your messages.
Speaking at a constant volume Listen carefully to a natural conversation, and you will hear plenty of variation in volume as we emphasise certain points in our tale, yet put somebody on a platform in front of a group of colleagues and that natural variation in loudness will often disappear. The physical tension when we feel when under pressure restricts our vocal range.
Allowing your volume to drop off at the end of each sentence Some speakers develop the bad habit of letting their volume to drop off as they approach the end of each sentence. This practice means that their audience will miss critical information and will feel that the speaker lacks energy and conviction.

How to develop your vocal variety in this area

Having worked with thousands of clients like you, I have noticed that speech volume problems usually come down to two main causes. The first is physical tension caused by fear. Thankfully there are lots of tools available to help you overcome your fear of public speaking. The second is something that I call a limited vocal comfort zone . What this means is that people often develop the habit of using a fraction of their full vocal range but are not aware of it. This, in turn, leads to limiting self-beliefs like “I am just a quiet speaker” or “I don’t do loud.”

“The human voice is capable of producing a broad range of intensity from a faint whisper to an ear-splitting scream, but most people only use a small part of that range.”

Let’s say we measured this vocal range on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is a whisper, and 10 is the loudest roar you could produce. I find that most people tend to speak between level 1 and level 5, and some rarely get above a level 3. When they do this, they are only using less than half of their capacity, and so their message is unlikely to be heard. What stops them raising their voice any further is a feeling that speaking any louder would be unnatural. Break through this self-imposed barrier, and the world is your vocal oyster!

“Tip for reluctant presenters – if you do not feel as if you are unnaturally loud, then you are almost certainly speaking too quietly.”

How to expand your vocal comfort zone

Tips for softly spoken speakers:.

Give yourself permission to speak louder I know this may sound a bit “woo-woo” to some people, but before you dismiss it, think about it. Many physical conditions are underpinned by a psychological component. Our beliefs are immensely powerful and can the first step may be to challenge or question them. Go “inside” and ask yourself “Am I OK with speaking louder when I want to?” then pay attention to the feeling you get. If you get a positive response that’s great. If you don’t, then there is probably something deeper holding you back, and you may benefit from visiting an NLP or CBT therapist to help you dissolve that blockage before proceeding.

Consider engaging a voice coach or singing teacher If neither of the above solutions is helping, it may be worth investing in some professional voice work.

“You may find it helpful to remember that your voice is powered by a column of air and that the deeper you breathe, the longer that column of air and the better you will be able to project when you breathe out.”

Tips for overly loud speakers:

If you have a naturally loud voice, then you face a different challenge, and you still have work to do. An overly loud voice, particularly if used continually, can have damaging effects on the way you are perceived. Take a lesson from professional communicators and storytellers and learn to modulate your speech volume to give much-needed contrast. Being able to tone down your volume can create a much more intimate atmosphere that draws in your audience, as well as giving their ears a much-needed respite.

“A good speech needs light and shade”

Look out for the next post in this series which will focus on how to vary your pitch.

P, S, Please help me to reach as many people as possible by sharing this post with your friends and colleagues

10 Comments

This is one of my best reading regarding voice learning. Though it contains most things we used to do to improve the speaking in a proper tone, which is well audible by the audience. Please keep on uploading such courses. Thank you so much.

It is really an informative content , thanks a lot .

Hey Gavin, there are two points I would like to thank you for informing me about. 1) It was helpful to learn not to decrease the volume of my voice at the end of the sentence, whereby I can ruin my vocal delivery. 2) I’m noticing within my body the physical tension. When I feel under pressure it definitely restricts my vocal range.

It was interesting to read your article. Specially I like Tips for softly spoken speakers as I can apply myself. Thanks for useful information.

Thanks for your feedback. I am delighted that you found the tips in my article useful. If you have any other challenges relating to public speaking please feel free to post them here and I’ll do my best to answer them. Gavin Meikle

Hello Gavin, It was interesting to read your article. While there is much that you mention that can be of help in some way, as with many members of ToastMasters you make the mistake of approaching the components of speaking, of which volume is one, as an ‘effect’ that needs and should be manipulated externally. Your comments about the diaphragm whilst being important and partially relevant exclude one important factor that is rarely if ever addressed in communication and presentation courses. If a person learns to place and land their information (terms that are quite often used in acting and singing classes) the issue of volume will often be addressed organically – ie from the inside out. It’s just not possible for a person to place or land their information without the body and voice doing what they do naturally. What a speaker actually needs to learn is to get out of the way and let the body and voice do their thing. When a person learns to place and land their information 5 of the 6 components of communication that you mention (Volume, Pitch, Tempo, Intonation and Silence) will take care of themselves.

Thanks for sharing your observations and experience Scott. I agree that there are other ways to help people develop their vocal flexibility, and your inside” out approach is definitely one that I am familiar with. I have found that many people want to come across and interesting and engaging, but they often struggle to understand the part played by vocal flexibility. How would you respond to someone who has a tendency to speak very quietly and timidly and finds it hard to increase their vocal flexibility?

how can I as law enforcement assist a witness in their statement in describing a voice heard, pitch stutter etc.

Great content Gavin – thanks for sharing these insights…

Thanks, Mark, Glad to hear that you found it useful. I’ll be posting the next article in the next few days. Please let me know if you have any particular topics you’d like me to blog about.

Find a Club

Public speaking basics: adding vocal variety.

Do you like jigsaw puzzles? So far, we’ve looked at several pieces, volume, articulation, timing, pitch, and vocal quality. They’re all important, but how do we integrate them into one winning composition? That’s the focus of this video. If you add the right touches, your speeches will shine.

Let’s begin with the most common problem. Most people know that the fastest way to put an audience to sleep is to use a monotonous tone and pace. Despite this, they drone on and on anyway. Sometimes, it’s the content that’s really boring, but, without vocal variety, it just makes matters worse.

The first place to start is to remember that change is good. Metaphorically speaking, change-ups are good. Major league pitchers throw lots of fastballs, but they also know how to throw curves, knuckle balls, sliders, and change-ups. Pitchers who jump from the minor leagues to the majors within a short time discipline themselves in becoming less and less predictable. If you want to improve as a speaker, you should, too.

The first aspect of vocal variety to consider is changing how loudly or softly you speak. You have to use judgment, of course. You can crescendo to emphasize part of your speech. By the same token, a well-timed decrescendo can add just the right touch.

Another consideration is variation in timing. Speed up when you want to add a sense of excitement, and please slow down when you want the audience to drink in the heaviest part of your content. This is especially true at the end of a story or presentation. Leave a lasting impression by allowing the audience time to fully appreciate your final words.

In addition, if your speech is fairly long, consider the length of your pauses. Some pauses should be short, but others need to be longer. Complex ideas and deep messages require long pauses. Are you giving people enough time to consider your main ideas, or are you distracting them by racing through your speech? You are in control of the moment. If you run off the edge of a verbal cliff at 160 words per minute, the audience’s attention level will dive bomb with you. Practice staying in the moment and focus on the needs of the audience.

Another variation you can try is changing your vocal quality. Start by listening to your daily conversational tone, and, whenever it’s appropriate, add touches of pizzazz here and there. One technique you can use is accenting the first syllable of an important word. “This spirited race horse can run like the wind.” Here, the first part of the word “spirit” gives us a pop of energy to wake up listeners.

What else can we change? Try quirky voice. “Did you remember to do your paperwork?” Practice the ones that your audiences tend to like.

There you have it, the basics of vocal variety. Are you ready to put the pieces together and create a masterpiece? Good luck!

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60 body language speech topics

Toastmasters body language speech topics

60 vocal variety and body language suggestions.

By: Susan Dugdale | Last modified: 08-25-2023

The fifth of the seven Level Two: Learning Your Style projects in Toastmasters International is "Effective Body Language". Its main goal is to help a speaker become more aware of, and to effectively use, the power of body language.

Obviously some speech topics have more potential than others when it comes to deciding what you’ll talk about to fulfil the project’s purpose. What are they? And how do you choose the right one?

What's on this page

What makes a good body language topic
Choose a personal story
Once upon a time: 20 topics from our youth
20 grown up body language speech topic suggestions
Lessons from life: 20 slices of truth topic ideas
About Toastmasters vocal variety and body language speech projects
Further vocal variety and body language resources

Label: Your body speaks - 60 vocal variety and body language speech topics

What makes a good body language topic?

Body language is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as the conscious and unconscious movements and postures by which attitudes and feelings are communicated.

Therefore the very best speech topic you could choose is one that you are genuinely and sincerely interested in, even passionately so. The more feeling you have, the easier it will be to work on drawing out, refining, and amplifying your body language to enhance the delivery of your speech.

(Please note: These topics also suit the third project of Level One: Mastering Fundamentals: An Introduction to Vocal Variety and Body Language. Body language and vocal variety work side by side. To be effective, each must complement the other.)

Return to Top

Choose a personal story for the project

Personal stories work well. We can all recall events that are indelibly etched in our minds. We will always remember the sight, the sounds, maybe a smell, the feelings wrapping them around, who was there, the words that were spoken... The before and, the after.

Because what we’re sharing is meaningful to us, the gestures, the body language, we use as we retell the story will be natural: without conscious orchestration. This makes the delivery authentic and effective. Our words and our actions are in harmony.

Once upon a time time...

The majority of these story ideas belong to our youth.

How I learned to ride a bike
My first day at school
Family celebrations: birthdays, Christmas or its equivalent...
The arrival of a baby sister or brother and what it meant
Sibling rivalry: the good, the bad and the ugly
My favorite childhood foods
Things I learned I could get away with as a child
The object (toy, book, piece of clothing or sports gear...) I most valued and why
My idol or hero as a child or young person
How I first learned about death
My first friendship
My favorite childhood fantasy
The imaginary monsters that waited in the shadows to get me
Who, and what, I wanted to become when I grew up
My favorite hobby or sport as a young person
The place I felt safest as a child
My favorite places to visit as a young person
The rooms, streets... I remember most clearly
When I was a child I always wondered about..., or was puzzled by...?
My earliest memories

Story suggestions from our grown up adult lives

Firsts are often frequently and vividly remembered experiences that could be become the basis of a speech.

My first job interview
My first job
My first date
The first car I owned
My first driving lesson
My first Toastmaster’s speech – the story of getting ready to give, and giving, my Ice Breaker
My first international travel
The first time I realized I was completely out of my depth
The first time I felt really proud of myself
The first time I knew I was liked/loved for being exactly who I was
The first time I saw my new-born child
My first real home
The first time I realized I was different in some way from the people around me
The first time I went to hospital
The first time I heard...{name of band playing, name of person speaking, singing, laughing, crying, shouting, or name of instrument: guitar, piano, drums, saxophone... etc.} I knew that...
The first time I was completely lost for words
The first time I questioned the rights and wrongs of a situation
The first time I felt betrayed by someone I had looked up to
The first time I was publicly acknowledged for doing something well
The first time I realized how fortunate or lucky I was to be me

Lessons from life

Slices of personal truth served with a side of humor and grace on a bed of well seasoned story telling skills! ☺

Use your own experiences to show as well as tell what you have learned.

How I recovered from knowing I was not the most physically beautiful person in the room
What I’ve learned through years of people watching
How the body language for friendliness is universal – eg. a smile goes a long way
The truth behind power posing: how to, why to and when to
How I learned to recognize fear in myself, and challenge it
Body language gestures that do not translate well across cultures and cause misunderstandings
How to tell when your child is lying and what to do about it
How becoming aware of our habitual unconscious gestures and what they convey is empowering
The most powerful words I know: Yes, no, mother, father, love, money...
My most embarrassing experience
How to tell who is the most well-regarded or influential person in a group
The top tell-tale signs of anger that would be helpful for people to recognize before it was too late
What does a feeling look like? Learning to read and communicate with non-verbal people
Does fake it until you make it really work?
How I learned I was not good at pretending to be someone I’m not
How I learned I was going to recover from having my heart broken despite the pain
How our habitual body language, (how we walk, stand, sit, use our faces...), impacts on our mental and physical health
How seeing yourself giving a presentation on video is challenging but really helpful
That the best things in life truly are free
The one that got away: the job, relationship, fish...

Toastmasters vocal variety and body language projects

* In 2021 Toastmasters altered several Pathway p rojects. An introduction to vocal variety and body language became the third project of four in Level One: Mastering Fundamentals.

In Level Two: Learning Your Style, the project ' Effective Body Language' deepens the foundation work done in Level One, while vocal variety is revisited in Level Three: Increasing Knowledge.

Prior to the introduction of Pathways working with body language was the fifth project of ten required for the Competent Communicator award. It was called: Your Body Speaks.

Further body language and vocal variety resources

Onsite resources.

125 examples of narrative speech topics - more great prompts to help you find the perfect personal story to share
The vocal aspects of speech delivery - 9 features of effective speech delivery (which includes vocal variety)
Why is eye contact important? Information about eye contact with activities for teaching and practicing it
Characterization techniques for effective storytelling in speeches : exercises to develop compelling body language and voice
Teach yourself body language : becoming aware of and working with our habitual unconscious body language and gestures to increase the effectiveness of our speech delivery

Offsite Toastmaster resources

An Introduction to Vocal Variety and Body Language : Level One: Mastering Fundamentals, Toastmasters International, pdf
Effective Body Language : Level Two: Learning Your Style, Toastmasters International, pdf

Other onsite resources for Toastmasters

Four themed sets of 20 table topic questions : Christmas, music, life-lessons and thought-provoking topic ideas. There's a printable for each set, plus an overview of table topics: its benefit, how a Toastmasters table topics session is run, what makes a good topic, the value of feedback, and more.

Image: graphic of 4 people each with their own speech bubble. Text: Table topics toastmasters. What, how, why who and 80 plus topic ideas.

Master your icebreaker for Toastmasters : a thorough step by guide, with examples, going from selecting a topic, writing and rehearsing, through to delivery. With an example icebreaker speech.

Image: paper boat sailing through ice floe Text: Master your Toastmaster Icebreaker speech. 5 ways to choose a topic & prepare your speech

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Published: 12 March 2024

Speaking without vocal folds using a machine-learning-assisted wearable sensing-actuation system

Ziyuan Che 1 na1 ,
Xiao Wan 1 na1 ,
Jing Xu ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3157-6902 1 ,
Chrystal Duan 1 ,
Tianqi Zheng 1 &
Jun Chen ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3439-0495 1

Nature Communications volume 15 , Article number: 1873 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Biomedical engineering
Devices for energy harvesting
Electronic devices
Rehabilitation

Voice disorders resulting from various pathological vocal fold conditions or postoperative recovery of laryngeal cancer surgeries, are common causes of dysphonia. Here, we present a self-powered wearable sensing-actuation system based on soft magnetoelasticity that enables assisted speaking without relying on the vocal folds. It holds a lightweighted mass of approximately 7.2 g, skin-alike modulus of 7.83 × 10 5 Pa, stability against skin perspiration, and a maximum stretchability of 164%. The wearable sensing component can effectively capture extrinsic laryngeal muscle movement and convert them into high-fidelity and analyzable electrical signals, which can be translated into speech signals with the assistance of machine learning algorithms with an accuracy of 94.68%. Then, with the wearable actuation component, the speech could be expressed as voice signals while circumventing vocal fold vibration. We expect this approach could facilitate the restoration of normal voice function and significantly enhance the quality of life for patients with dysfunctional vocal folds.

High-speed and large-scale intrinsically stretchable integrated circuits

Donglai Zhong, Can Wu, … Zhenan Bao

Sleep quality, duration, and consistency are associated with better academic performance in college students

Kana Okano, Jakub R. Kaczmarzyk, … Jeffrey C. Grossman

A fully integrated wearable ultrasound system to monitor deep tissues in moving subjects

Muyang Lin, Ziyang Zhang, … Sheng Xu

Introduction

Voice, as the carrier wave of speech signals in human communication, is a vital component that underpins social interaction and artistic propagation. It serves as the melody of our speech and infuses our daily-articulated thoughts with expression, emotion, intent, and mood. Due to its significance in fostering integration between individuals and their communities, disorders with vocal folds, the essential voice-generating organ of humans, have a pronounced and objectionable impact. Voice disorders are generally defined as the condition where the malfunction of the laryngeal mechanism causes a person’s voice quality, pitch, and loudness to differ from those of a population with similar demographic characteristics 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 . Under clinical circumstances, voice disorders result from assorted pathological conditions, including vocal fold polyps 5 , keratosis 6 , 7 , vocal fold paralysis 8 , 9 , vocal fold nodules 10 , 11 , and adductor spasmodic dysphonia 12 , 13 . Moreover, artificial medical interventions like laryngeal cancer surgeries may also cause temporary dysphonia due to the loss of control of vocal fold-related muscles 14 , 15 , 16 . Specifically, 29.9% of the general population had at least one voice disorder during their lifetime, 7% are currently undergoing voice problems, and 7.2% of employed participants reported missing work days due to voice disorder 17 . Despite the prevalence of voice disorders across all ages and demographic groups and the effectiveness of therapeutic approaches such as voice therapy and surgical interventions, the recovery time can be burdensome 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 . Patients often require a recovery phase of three months to a year, with a postoperative period of absolute voice rest 10 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 . Existing solutions, such as handheld electrolarynx devices or alternatives like the “talk box” device and tracheoesophageal puncture procedures, can be inconvenient, uncomfortable, or invasive 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 . Therefore, there is a pressing need to develop a wearable, noninvasive medical device capable of assisting patients in communicating during the pre- and post-treatment recovery of voice disorders.

Existing research on medical devices using flexible loudspeakers and wearable throat sensors made from materials like polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , gold nanowires 39 , or graphene 40 , 41 , has shown potential for aiding communication during recovery from vocal fold disorders. PVDF emerges as a pristine thermoplastic fluoropolymer, notable for its exceptional non-reactivity 42 . A distinguishing feature of PVDF is its piezoelectric property, adeptly converting mechanical oscillations into precise voltage signals 43 , 44 . While this piezoelectric property offers certain advantages, the material selection for piezoelectric sensors remains limited, often constraining the design and functionality of devices tailored for specific applications. Also, even though piezoelectric materials present actuation abilities, the driving voltage would induce safety concerns for wearable bioelectronics. In parallel, gold nanowires and graphene have gained recognition for their superior conductivity and inherent flexibility. These characteristics make them ideal candidates for crafting resistive sensors, which can swiftly measure the resistance changes in response to mechanical stresses. However, these resistive sensors, including those made from gold nanowires, typically require an external power source for sensing, adding to the complexity and potential bulkiness of the wearable system. Furthermore, despite their impressive attributes, the inherent non-stretchable nature of these materials poses a significant limitation. They predominantly detect vertical throat movements, often neglecting the parallel deformation that occurs during phonation, which involves a complex interplay of various laryngeal muscle groups. These muscles, including extrinsic 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 and platysma 50 , 51 muscles, contribute to throat movement during phonation and are particularly important for patients with voice disorders who cannot use their vocal folds 45 , 46 , 52 . Additionally, non-stretchable materials can affect comfort and adhesiveness. And other issues of those materials such as lack of water (perspiration) resistance and temperature rise, can lead to operational problems.

Here, we present a wearable and self-powered sensing-actuation system based on soft magnetoelasticity as a fundamentally new platform technology for assisted speaking without vocal folds. The system allows patients to articulate sentences solely through muscle movements associated with regular speech or lip-synching. The sensing component of the system detects the extrinsic laryngeal muscle movements without the vibration of vocal folds. To enhance the sensitivity, we designed the kirigami structure of the sensor with enlarged unit horizontal and vertical deformation, thus generating high-quality electrical signals for downstream processing. These electrical signals are fed to a pre-trained machine-learning model that converts throat movement into voice signals. The system exhibits high sensitivity, a quick response time of 40 ms, a lightweight mass of 7.2 g, and possesses a skin-alike modulus of 7.83 × 10 5 Pa, ensuring accuracy and wearing comfort. Furthermore, a stretchability of 164% for horizontal deformation detection enhances adhesive attachment of the device to the throat, contributing to precise movement detection, tackling the crucial issue of capturing omnidirectional mechanical deformation. The magnetoelastic property of the material enables both sensing and actuation in one soft and stretchable system. The system is intrinsically waterproof since the magnetic field is not attenuated by water, ensuring durability and functionality even in the presence of heavy perspiration. Towards practical application, we have demonstrated that the wearable sensing-actuation system is able to perform daily language transmissions and clear output of voice with an accuracy of 94.68%. These results establish the foundation for a potential solution to voice disorders by facilitating voice usage in patients with voice disorders during their recovery period, offering opportunities to enhance their overall quality of life.

Design of the wearable sensing-actuation system

A thin, flexible, and adhesive wearable sensing-actuation system was attached to the throat surface, as shown in Fig. 1a , for speaking without vocal folds. This system comprises two symmetrical components: a sensing component (located at the bottom part of the device) converting the biomechanical muscle activities into high-fidelity electrical signals and an actuation component using the electrical signals to produce sound (located at the upper part of the device), as shown in Fig. 1b . Both components consist of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer (~200 μm thick) and a magnetic induction (MI) layer made of serpentine copper coil (with 20 turns and a diameter of ~67 μm). The serpentine configuration of the coil ensures the flexibility of the device while maintaining its performance, as discussed in Supplementary Note 1 . The symmetrical design of the device enhances its user-friendliness. The middle layer of the device is the shared magnetomechanical coupling (MC) layer, made of magnetoelastic materials consisting of mixed PDMS and micromagnets. The MC layer, with a thickness of approximately 1 mm, is fabricated with a kirigami structure to enhance the device’s sensitivity and stretchability (see Fig. S1 ). The entire system is small, thin (~1.35 cm 3 , with a width and length of ~30 mm and a thickness of ~1.5 mm), and lightweight (~7.2268 g) (see Fig. S2 and Supplementary Table S1 ).

a Illustration of the wearable sensing and phonation system attached to the throat. b Explosion diagram exhibiting each layer of the device design. c Two modes of muscle movement, expansion induces the elongation in the x- and y -axis, while contraction induces the elongation in the z -axis. Kirigami-structured device response to muscle movement patterns in the x, y ( d ), and z direction ( e ): expansion results in x- and y -axis expansion and less deformation in the z -axis, contraction results in less deformation in x and y direction and expansion of the z -axis. f Detailed illustration of the magnetic field change caused by magnetic particles. For one part, the angle change between each single unit of the kirigami structure is represented by φ . For the other part, the magnetic particle itself undergoes torque caused by the deformation applied onto the polymer ( g ), thus, generating a change of magnetic flux and, subsequently, current in the coil. The photo of the device in muscle expansion state is shown in h ( x -, y -axis), i ( z -axis), and in muscle contraction state is shown in j ( x- , y -axis), k ( z -axis). Scale bars, 1 cm.

Multidirectional movement of laryngeal muscles sets the significance of capturing laryngeal muscle movement signals in a three-dimensional manner. Moreover, the learning process of phonation may be heterogeneous across populations: different people may adopt a variety of muscle patterns to achieve identical vocal movements 45 , 53 . Such complexity of muscle movement requires the device to be able to capture the deformation of muscles not horizontally or vertically alone, but rather in a three-dimensional way. Figure 1c illustrates the movement of the muscle fiber during two stages, i.e., expansion and contraction. During the expansion phase, the muscle relaxes and elongates in the x - and y -axis. On the other hand, during the contraction phase, the muscle shortens in the x - and y -axis while thickening in the z -axis through the increase in muscle fiber bundle diameters. Figure 1d, e demonstrates the device’s response in the x -, y -axis, and z -axis, respectively. During the expansion phase, the kirigami-structured device expands in surface area with slight deformation in the z -axis. Conversely, during the contraction phase, the device opposes deformation in the x - and y -axis and undergoes deformation in the z -axis. Thus, the device captures the muscle movement across all three dimensions by measuring the corresponding deformation, which generates the change of magnetic flux density followed by the induction of an electrical signal in the MI layer. Supplementary Note 2 further demonstrates the response of the device to the omnidirectional laryngeal movements and how the kirigami structure ensures the sensing performance.

The key defining characteristic of this system (MC layer) is based on the magnetoelastic effect, which refers to a change in the magnetic flux density of a ferromagnetic material in response to an externally applied mechanical stress, which was discovered in the mid-19th century 54 . It has been observed in rigid metals and metal alloys such as Fe 1− x Co x 54 , Tb x Dy 1− x Fe 2 (Terfenol-D) 55 , and Ga x Fe 1− x (Galfenol) 56 . Historically, these materials received limited attention within the bioelectronics domain for several reasons: the magnetization variation of magnetic alloys within biomechanical stress ranges is limited; the necessity for an external magnetic field introduces structural intricacies; and a significant mechanical modulus mismatch exists between magnetic alloys and human tissue, differing by six orders of magnitude. However, a breakthrough occurred in 2021 when the pronounced magnetoelastic effect was observed in a soft matter system 57 . This system exhibited a peak magnetomechanical coupling factor of 7.17 × 10 −8 T Pa −1 , representing an enhancement up to fourfold compared to traditional rigid metal alloys, underscoring its potential in soft bioelectronics. Functionally, the MC layer converts the mechanical movement of extrinsic laryngeal muscle into magnetic field variation, and the copper coils transfer the magnetic change into electrical signals based on electromagnetic induction, operating in a self-powered manner. While additional power management circuits are essential for processing and filtering the signals, the initial sensing phase is autonomous and does not rely on an external power supply. After recognition through the machine learning model, the voice signal is output through the actuation system (Fig. 1a ).

The signal conversion through the giant magnetoelastic effect in soft elastomers can be explained at both the micro and atomic scales. At the microscale, compressive stress applied to the soft polymer composite causes a corresponding shape deformation, leading to magnetic particle-particle interactions (MPPI), including changes in the distance and orientation of the inter-particle connections. The horizontal rotation of each subunit in the kirigami structure (Fig. 1d ) and vertical bending deformation (Fig. 1e ) create a micro change of magnetic density. In detail, as shown in Fig. 1f , in a subunit of the kirigami structure, deformation-induced angle shift φ generates a concentration of stress and MPPI in between each single unit of the kirigami structure. At the atomic scale, mechanical stress also induces magnetic dipole-dipole interactions (MDDI), which results in the rotation and movement of magnetic domains within the particles. As shown in Fig. 1g , a torque was made on each magnetic nanoparticle, and the shift of angle θ generates the change in magnetic flux density. The photo of the device design is presented in Fig. 1h, i as the x -, y -axis, and z -axis response in the expansion phase; and in Fig. 1j, k as in the contraction phase. Fig. 1h, j describes the expansion and contraction in the x-y plane, and Fig. 1i, j describes the corresponding z-axis contraction and expansion. Such structural design also displays a series of appealing features, including high current generation, low inner impedance, and intrinsic waterproofness, which will be presented in the following sections.

Standard characterization

Our present work compares previous approaches based on PVDF and graphene for flexible voice monitoring and emitting, as shown in Fig. 2a and Supplementary Table S3 35 , 36 , 37 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 . The device developed in this work has a similar acoustic performance, with a frequency range covering the entire human hearing range. However, it has a much lower driving voltage (1.95 V) and a Young’s modulus of 7.83 × 10 5 Pa. As shown in Fig. S3 , it exhibits the stress-strain curve and testing photo of the material with and without the kirigami structure, which lowered Young’s modulus from 2.59 × 10 7 Pa to 7.83 × 10 5 Pa. This result ensures a higher comfort level while wearing as the modulus of the device is very close to that of the human skin. Notably, the device we developed has two unique features of stretchability and water resistance, which ensure the detection of horizontal movements, wearing comfort and resistance to respiration. Additionally, the device does not have the issue of temperature rising during use, preventing unexpected low-temperature scalding of users. Subsequently, several standard tests establish the sensing features of the device and its efficacy in outputting voice signals. To enhance the stretchability of the device, a kirigami structure was fabricated onto the MC layer of the device. The unit design of the structure is shown in Fig. S4 , and the stretchability with regards to the parameters of the kirigami unit design is exhibited in Fig. S5 . Such an approach not only enhances the stretchability of the device to a maximum of 164% with Young’s modulus at the level of 100 kPa but also realizes isotropy. Furthermore, the structure enlarges the horizontal deformation of the device under unit pressure, generating a higher current output and enhanced detectable signals of extrinsic muscle contraction and relaxation, as shown in Figs. S6 S7 . The change in sensitivity brought by the structure on the vertical axis was also tested, and an elevation can be observed, as shown in Figs. S8 S9 . Moreover, isotropy prevents the device from being disturbed by random and uneven body movements in use. Thus, there are no requirements on wearing orientation which elevates user-friendliness as revealed in Figs. S10 S11 .

a Performance comparison of different flexible throat sensors in terms of Young’s modulus, stretchability, underwater sound pressure level, temperature rise, driving voltage, and working frequency range. b Pressure–sensitivity response of the device at varied degrees of stretching under different amplification levels. (arb. units) referring to arbitrary units. c Response time and signal-to-noise ratio of the device. d Variation of sound pressure level with distance from the device at different amplification levels. e Sound pressure level of the device with resonance point highlighted in human hearing frequency range compared to SPL normal human speaking threshold. f The right shift of the first resonance point towards high frequency with regards to increasing strains. The test of performance is repeated 3 times at each condition. Data are presented as mean values ± SD. g Relationship between Kirigami structure parameters and actuating (first resonance point and sound pressure level)/sensing properties (response time and signal-to-noise ratio). The test of performance is repeated three times at each condition. Data are presented as mean values ± SD. Waveform ( h ) and spectrum ( i ) comparison of commercial loudspeaker (Red) and the device (Yellow) sound output at 900 Hz and maximum strain (164%).

The stretchable structure of the device was leveraged to examine its sensitivity with respect to deformation degrees, as depicted in Fig. 2b . The sensitivity curve demonstrated consistency under varying strains, with a minor change observed under maximum strain (164%). This change could be attributed to the reduction in the MC layer’s thickness due to deformation, which in turn decreases the magnetic flux density under the same pressure level, resulting in lower current generation. The device’s response curve under different frequencies and forces of the shaker was tested, as shown in Fig. S12 . We have also validated that the electric output of the device is not due to the triboelectricity in Supplementary Note 3 63 . The device’s inherent flexibility and stretchability facilitate tight adherence to the throat, yielding a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and swift response time (Fig. 2c ). In addition to the kirigami structure design parameters, other factors influencing the device’s sensitivity, response time, and SNR were also evaluated. Fig. S13 illustrates that an increase in coil turns results in longer response times and lower SNR due to the increased total thickness of the copper coils. This thickness impedes the membrane’s deformation during vibrations, leading to longer response times and lower signal quality. We have further investigated the increase of thickness with the coil turn ratios in Supplementary Table S2 . As the number of coil turns escalates, there’s a direct correlation with the likelihood of copper wires stacking. Consequently, a significant number of samples exhibit thicknesses approximating 2 or 3 layers of copper (134 μm and 201 μm, respectively). This stacking effect amplifies the average coil thickness as the number of turns increases. However, this augmentation isn’t strictly linear. For instance, the propensity for overlapping is less pronounced for turn ratios of 20 and 40. In contrast, for turn ratios exceeding 60, a clear trend emerges where the likelihood of overlapping increases with the number of turns. The relationship between the sensing performance and nanomagnetic powder concentrations of the MC Layer is presented in Fig. S14 . A semi-linear relationship was observed, with higher magnetic nanoparticle concentration generating a stronger magnetic field and, consequently, higher current output. The influence of varying PDMS ratios in the sensing membrane on the performance of the sensor is delineated in Fig. S15 . An increase in the PDMS ratios was found to extend the response times and decrease the SNR while having a negligible effect on the sensitivity curve. The augmentation in PDMS ratios leads to a softer membrane, which is prone to deformation at a slower rate. Consequently, devices with higher PDMS ratios exhibit heightened sensitivity to noise-generating deformations, albeit at a reduced response time. The influence of thickness on sensing performance was tested in Fig. S16 , with thicker membranes resulting in quicker response times and a fluctuating SNR. Lastly, the impact of the MC layer’s thickness was tested in Fig. S17 . A thicker MC layer had no influence on response time but reduced SNR. We’ve consolidated the results of each optimization factor in Fig. S18 , providing a clear overview of the primary variables influencing each performance metric. After considering the sensing performance, weight, and flexibility of the device, the current parameters were determined. The device’s durability with these parameters was evaluated in Fig. S19 , where the device underwent continuous working for 24,000 cycles with a shaker under a frequency of 5 Hz, with no observable degradation in the current generation.

The acoustic performance of the actuation system of the device is examined firstly with a focus on its sound pressure level (SPL) at different distances. The results, presented in Fig. 2d , show that larger output magnification led to a higher SPL at all tested positions. Even at a distance of 1 meter, the typical distance during normal conversations, the device provided an SPL of over 40 dB, which is above the lower limit of normal speaking SPL (40–60 dB) 64 . We also tested the device’s SPL at different angles and compared its performance with those of previous works on acoustic devices (Fig. S20 , Supplementary Table S3 ). The device’s performance across various frequencies was tested and presented in Fig. 2e , which indicates that it could provide sound with SPL louder than normal speaking loudness across the entire human hearing range 64 . The resonance point in the figure indicates the frequency at which the device has relatively the largest loudness output under the same signal strength as other adjacent frequencies. Further investigation into the SPL regarding frequency under different strains revealed that the first few resonance points tended to have the largest acoustic output across the frequency range (Fig. S21 ). Since the device under one strain has multiple resonance points that change non-linearly with deformation, investigating the change of every resonance point is complicated. Therefore, we only investigated the first resonance point (FRP) in Fig. 2f because of its complexity and our interest in the highest output. According to Fig. 2e and Fig. S22 , the voice output at each strain was above the normal talking threshold across the whole human hearing range. Figure 2f revealed a right shift of FRP of the device as the deformation gets larger, enabling the device to adjust its best output performance under different usage scenarios. Our device can adjust its best output performance by simply changing the deformation degree, thus creating a unique output setting for each individual and realizing user adaptability. More details about the right shift of FRP are shown in Fig. S23 .

We also tested the influence of introducing the kirigami design into the device, as presented in Fig. 2g . The results show that the parameter of the kirigami design had a negligible impact on the sensing and acoustic performance, further supporting the decision to use this design due to its impact on flexibility (Fig. S5 ). Additional factors influencing the acoustic performance of the actuation system were evaluated, and the final parameters were determined based on both performance and the device’s mass/flexibility. Fig. S24 explores the impact of coil turn ratios on the SPL produced by the device. It was observed that an increase in coil turns led to a decrease in SPL, likely due to the weight of the additional coil impeding membrane vibration and subsequently reducing SPL. The relationship between SPL and the PDMS ratio of the actuator membrane was examined in Fig. S25 . As the ratio increased, the membrane softened, leading to a decrease in the generated SPL. The dampening effect of a softer membrane hindered vibration and sound generation, resulting in a semi-linear decrease. Fig. S26 presents the relationship between SPL and magnetic powder concentrations. The device’s SPL increased with the addition of higher amounts of magnetic powder in the MC layer, plateauing after a ratio of 4:1. The effect of varying MC layer thickness on SPL is shown in Fig. S27 . A sharp increase in the device’s SPL was observed as the MC layer’s thickness increased from 0.5 mm to 1 mm. However, the increase slowed and eventually plateaued as the MC layer became thicker. Finally, the SPL under different actuator membrane thicknesses was tested in Fig. S28 . The device’s SPL increased as the PDMS membrane (vibrating membrane) thickness increased from 100 to 200 μm but decreased when the membrane became thicker. The weight of thicker membranes may dampen the vibration and reduce the loudness produced by the device. Regarding the acoustic output quality of the device, Fig. 2h displays the waveform of the commercial loudspeaker and our device at the maximum (164%) strain at the frequency of 1100 Hz. The device reproduced the voice signal accurately, even under maximum deformation, with only slight distortion. The distortion was further explained in the spectrogram of Fig. 2i , which shows that a noise of around 1400 Hz was generated in the output of our device but not strong enough to significantly distort the signal. Output of other strains was tested in Fig. S29 , a similar distortion of less extent can be observed with less strain. In the final phase of our study, we evaluated the water resistance of our device. The waveform of the device outputting an identical voice signal segment under water and in air is depicted in Fig. S30 . The waveforms are notably similar, with no significant signal distortion observed. A slight loss of the high-frequency component, without major signal attenuation, is evident in the frequency domain (Fig. S31 ). The device demonstrated consistent performance even after being submerged in water for an accelerated aging test with a duration of 7 days (Fig. S32 ). The sound pressure level (SPL) in relation to distance underwater is presented in Fig. S33 . A correlation was observed between the depth of the device underwater and the sound output, with deeper submersion resulting in lower output. However, the device could produce an output exceeding 60 dB when placed 2 cm underwater at a distance of 20 cm. The SPL of the device in relation to frequency underwater is illustrated in Fig. S34 . Despite the attenuation of high-frequency components underwater, the device consistently delivered an SPL above the normal speaking range (60 dB) across the entire human hearing range. These results suggest that our device, as a wearable, can effectively withstand conditions of perspiration, damp environments, and rain exposure.

Laryngeal muscle movement signal acquisition

After obtaining the preliminary standard test results, we focused on collecting laryngeal muscle movement signals using our wearable sensing component. The experiment is schematically illustrated in Fig. 3a . The analog signal generated by the vibration of the extrinsic laryngeal muscles (Sternothyroid muscle, as shown in Fig. 3a ) was collected by the sensor and then passed through an amplifier and a low-pass filter exhibited in Fig. 3b . The digital signal of the laryngeal muscle movements was output and collected for further analysis. The sensitivity and repeatability of the device were tested in Fig. 3c with two successive different throat movements. The device was able to generate distinguishable and unique signals for each different throat movement, indicating its feasibility to detect and analyze different laryngeal movement properties. Furthermore, the device responded consistently to one throat movement, as demonstrated by the participant’s continuous two throat movements. In addition, larger throat muscle movements, such as coughing or yawning, generated larger peaks, while longer movements, such as swallowing, generated longer signals. We also conducted experiments to test the device’s functionality under different conditions. In Fig. 3d , we asked the participant to voicelessly pronounce the same word (“UCLA”) under different conditions, including standing still, walking, running, and jumping. The device was able to discern the unique and repeatable feature syllable wave shape of each word, with only slight differences made by the participants with different pronouncing paces each time. Thus, the wearable device was able to function without being influenced by the user’s body movements, even during strenuous exercise. Finally, to test the signal quality and accuracy acquired by purely the laryngeal muscle movement, we performed examinations to compare normal speaking and voiceless speaking, as shown in Fig. 3e . The five successive signals of participant saying “Go Bruins” with and without vocal fold vibration were compared in Fig. 3 f and g, respectively. Both tests generated consistent signals, and the syllables of each word were represented with distinguishable waveforms. Comparing the test results of normal speaking and speaking voicelessly, we observed only a slight loss of maximum amplitude in the signal of speaking voicelessly. This could be explained by the fact that the vibration of vocal folds requires more and stronger muscle movements, thus generating stronger signals. Furthermore, a clear loss of high-frequency components in voiceless signals compared to the signals with vocal fold vibration was observed in Fig. 3h, i after the Fourier transform of both signals across frequencies. This finding was consistent with our hypothesis that the high-frequency part of the vibration generated by intrinsic muscles and vocal folds is absent in voiceless signals, leaving a smoother yet distinguishable waveform. Hence, the device was proven to capture recognizable and unique signals with laryngeal muscle movements for further analysis.

a Schematic illustration of the extrinsic muscle and vibration. Created with BioRender.com. b Circuit diagram of the system for collecting extrinsic muscle movement signal. c Sensor output for different throat movements—Coughing, Humming, Nodding, Swallowing, and Yawning. d Device signal output for participant pronouncing “UCLA” under different body movements. e Sensor output for participant pronouncing “Go Bruins!” with vocal fold vibration (upper, gray) and voiceless (lower, red). Enlarged waveform of participant pronouncing “Go Bruins!” with vocal fold vibration ( f ) and voiceless ( g ). Amplitude-frequency spectrum of the signal with vocal fold vibration ( h ) and voiceless ( i ).

Assisted speaking without vocal folds

With generated data of laryngeal muscle movement, a machine-learning algorithm was employed to classify the semantical meaning of the signal and select a corresponding voice signal for outputting through the actuation component of the system. A schematic flow chart of the machine-learning algorithm is presented in Fig. 4a . The algorithm consists of two steps: training and classifying a set of n sentences for which assisted speaking is required. Firstly, the filtered training data was fed to the algorithm for model training. The electrical signal of each of the n sentences was compacted into an N th-order matrix for feature extraction with principal component analysis (PCA) (Fig. 4b ). N is determined by the sampling window, which is the length of the longest sentence’s signal. PCA is applied to remove redundancy and prepare the signal for classification. Multi-class support vector classification (SVC) was chosen as the classification algorithm with the decision function shape of “one vs. rest”. For each sentence to be classified, the rest of the n-1 sentences were considered as a whole to generate a binary classification boundary to discriminate the target sentence. A brief illustration of the support vector machine (SVM) process is depicted in Fig. 4c . The margin of the linear boundary between two target data groups undergoes a series of optimizing processes and was set to the largest with support vectors. Details of PCA and multi-class SVC are discussed in Methods. After the classifier was trained with pre-fed training data, it was used for classifying newly collected laryngeal muscle movement signals. The real-time data were fed to the classifier, and the class (which sentence) of the signal was output for voice signal selection. Subsequently, the corresponding pre-recorded voice signal was played by the actuation component, realizing assisted speaking.

a Flow chart of the machine-learning-assisted wearable sensing-actuation system. b Illustration depicting the process of data segmentation and principal components analysis (PCA) applied to the muscle movement signal captured by the sensor. Yellow indicates one sentence, and red indicates another one. c Optimizing process of data classification after PCA with support vector machine (SVM) algorithm. d Contour plot of the classification results with SVM, class “1,” indicating 100% possibility of the target sentence, dotted lines are the possibility boundaries between the target sentence and the others. e Bar chart exhibiting 7 participants’ accuracy of both validation set and testing set. f Confusion matrix of the 8th participant’s validation set with an overall accuracy of 98%. g Confusion matrix of the 8th participant’s testing set with an overall accuracy of 96.5%. h Demonstration of the machine-learning-assisted wearable sensing-actuation system in assisted speaking. The left panel shows the muscle movement signal captured by the sensor as the participant pronounces the sentence voicelessly, while the right panel shows the corresponding output waveform produced by the system’s actuation component. i The SPL and temperature trends over time while the device is worn by participants; no notable temperature increase or SPL decrease was seen for up to 40 min. j The device’s SPL outputs participant-specific sound signals, both with and without sweat presence. Each participant was asked to repeat testing of N = 3 times for both scenarios. Data are presented as mean values ± SD. The p -value between dry and sweaty state is calculated to be 0.818, indicating no significant difference in the device’s performance under the two cases. k The device’s SPL across various conversation angles while done by the participant. Created with BioRender.com.

A brief demonstration was made with five sentences that we had selected for training the algorithm (S1: “Hi Rachel, how you are doing today?”, S2: “Hope your experiments are going well!”, S3: “Merry Christmas!”, S4: “I love you!”, S5: “I don’t trust you.”). Each participant repeated each sentence 100 times for data collection. The resulting contour plot in Fig. 4d shows an example of the classification result, with the red dots indicating the target sentence and the yellow dots indicating the others. A probability contour was drawn to classify whether a newly input sentence point belonged to the target sentence or not. With the trained classifier, the laryngeal movement signal was recognized for the corresponding sentence that the participant wished to express. To test the robustness and user-adaptability of the algorithm, the device was tested with eight participants, each repeating the sentence 120 times in total, with 100 repeats selected for the training set and 20 separated as the testing set. Of the 100 repeats, 20 were selected as the validation set. Figure 4e shows the validation and testing results of seven out of the eight participants, while Fig. 4f , g presents a detailed illustration of the confusion matrix of the 8th participant for the validation and testing sets, respectively. Even slightly lower than the validation set, each participant’s testing set achieved more than 93% accuracy. Figure S35 shows the detailed confusion matrix of both the validation and testing set and the accuracy of every other participant. The overall prediction accuracy of the model was 94.68%, and it worked well with different participants. Each participant’s voice signal was played by the actuation component, realizing the demonstration in Fig. 4h . The left panel shows the muscle movement signal transferred into the correct voice signal, with the waveform shown in the right panel. Further, we extended our analysis to validate the practical usability of the device for vocal output after the selection of the accurate voice signal by the algorithm. As demonstrated in Fig. 4i , an evaluation of the SPL and temperature of the device during use by the participant revealed no significant drop in SPL or rise in temperature, even after an extended working period of 40 min. This suggests the device’s durability in voice output and safe usage. In Fig. 4j , we display the SPL of the device as it produces voice signals for seven participants, both with and without sweat. We noted consistent performance by the device across different participants, with no evident signal attenuation despite the presence of perspiration. Finally, Fig. 4k illustrates the device’s SPL during voice output at various normal conversation angles while worn by the participant. The device demonstrated reliable sound performance across all angles, thereby enabling assisted speaking in multiple real-life scenarios. In conclusion, the device can convert laryngeal muscle movement into voice signals, providing patients with voice disorders with a feasible method to communicate during the recovery process.

In this work, we have developed a wearable sensing-actuation system for assisted speaking without the need for vocal folds based on magnetoelastic effects in a soft matter system. The device could translate the laryngeal muscle movement into voice signals, enabling speech without using the vocal fold. We have tested and confirmed several attractive features of the device, including a light weight of 7.2 g, high stretchability of 164%, skin-alike modulus of 7.83 × 10 5 Pa, a high SNR of 17.5, quick response time of 40 μs, excellent sound producing quality, and water resistance. In addition, the device has been proven to detect unique, distinguishable signals of each syllabus from the laryngeal muscle movement without losing any essential waveform characteristics for downstream analysis. With the assistance of a machine learning algorithm, the device can classify the semantic content of the movement signal and select the corresponding voice signal for outputting through the actuation component. Our device offers a compelling solution for patients with voice disorders to communicate.

Human subject study

In total of 8 participants were recruited in the experiment testing device performance through a questionnaire among UCLA students. Among these, 4 participants are female and 4 are male, and the average age is 21 years old. The gender information is obtained based on the self-reporting method of the participant. Gender and other biographical information are not relevant to the human study conducted in our experiment. Each participant is compensated with a gift card of $25. All participating subjects of this research are informed, and written consent of all participants was obtained before the study. The speaking without vocal folds using a machine-learning-assisted wearable sensing-actuation system was conducted in compliance with all the ethical regulations under a protocol (ID: 20-001882) that was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Fabrication of the MC Layer and the kirigami structure

The neodymium–iron–boron (NdFeB, Magnequench) magnetic powder with the following properties is used in the study: Particle Size (D50), 5 μm; Residual Induction (Br): 898–908 mT, 8.98–9.08 kG; Energy Product (BH) max: 120–128 kJ/m 3 , 15.0–16.0 MGOe; Intrinsic Coercivity (Hci): 700–740 kA/m, 8.8–9.3 kOe; Magnetizing Field to >95% Saturation (Min.): Hs ≥ 1600 kA/m, ≥20.0 kOe; Coercive Force (Hc): 515 kA/m, 6.5 kOe. The magnetic powder is evenly mixed with polydimethylsiloxane substrate (PDMS, Sylgard 184). The PDMS is fabricated with its elastomer base and its curing agent mixed at a ratio of 15:1. Subsequently, the weight ratio of the magnetic powder and mixed PDMS is measured to be 4:1. Next, the as-prepared magnetic paste is poured into a 3D-printed mold (polylactic acid, PLA) of 30 * 30 * 1 mm (length, width, height) and transferred to an oven set at 70 °C for over 4 h. The cured MC layer was then removed from the mold and magnetized by an impulse magnetizer (IM-10–30, ASC Scientific) with an induced angle of 45° to the magnetization direction at an impulse voltage of 350 V. The magnetized MC membrane is then positioned in a laser cutter (ULTRA R5000, Universal Laser System). The desired kirigami pattern is designed using AutoCAD software and subsequently uploaded to the laser cutter. To ensure precision and depth, the laser cutter is programmed to repeatedly trace the same pattern without repositioning the MC membrane. This iterative process ensures that the cuts progressively deepen until they fully penetrate the membrane, culminating in the desired kirigami structure.

Fabrication of serpentine-shaped-coil, sensing, and actuation membrane

A serpentine-shaped 3D printed mold is used to twine a copper coil with a diameter of 67 μm and a spacing of 22.3 ± 2.14 μm. The coil used in our final device design is 20 turns with a thickness of 147.3 μm. A sensing and actuation membrane is fabricated by scraping polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) (10:1) onto a glass slide. The completed copper coil is then placed onto the glass slide before the membrane is cured at a temperature of 70 °C for over 4 h. The membrane is carefully removed from the glass slide with a razor blade. PDMS is then applied to the edges of the MC layer and the two membranes. The top and bottom membranes are attached to the MC layer, and the entire device is cured in an oven for another 4 h until complete.

Electrical performance measurement

The current signal of the device is measured by a current Stanford low-noise current preamplifier (model SR570) with the following parameters, including (1) Gain Mode: We selected the “LOW NOISE” mode to ensure the most accurate and noise-free measurements. (2) Sensitivity: This was adjusted to “2 × 100 μA/V”, which allowed us to capture even minute variations in the current. (3) Filter Frequency: We employed a “Lowpass 6 dB” filter set at “100 Hz”. This setting was chosen to filter out any high-frequency noise that could interfere with our measurements. (4) Input Offset: This was set to “NEG” with a value of “1 × 10 μA” to account for any inherent offset in the preamplifier.

Sweat simulation test

To evaluate the device’s resilience and performance under sweaty conditions, we employed an artificial sweat surrogate (Biochemazone Inc., Artificial Sweat BZ320). The consistent composition of artificial sweat ensured uniformity across all tests. The procedure for sweat simulation and device testing includes (1) Skin Preparation: Each participant’s throat area was meticulously cleaned using an alcohol pad to eliminate any natural oils or residues. After this, the area was dried with a tissue pad to ensure the complete removal of residual alcohol. (2) Initial Sweat Application: A calibrated spray bottle was utilized to evenly apply 0.5 ml of artificial sweat solution onto the cleaned skin area, simulating a layer of sweat. (3) Device Attachment: Post the artificial sweat application, the device was carefully affixed to the treated skin surface, ensuring optimal contact. (4) Secondary Sweat Application: To further mimic sweat exposure, an additional 0.5 ml of artificial sweat solution was sprayed directly onto the device’s surface. (5) Settling Period: Participants were then instructed to remain stationary for a duration of 5 min. This interval was crucial to assess any potential infiltration of the artificial sweat solution into the device. (6) Data Collection: Following the settling period, the device’s performance metrics were recorded under simulated sweat conditions.

Machine-learning algorithm

Principle component analysis is used in this study to reduce the redundancy of the data and prepare data for further classification. For each throat movement signal Xi , it was inputted as a N th order matrix, where N represents the longest sentence’s time multiplied by the sampling point selected. In this case, N equals 4 s multiplied by the sampling rate of 100, equaling 4000. The detailed theory of PCA can be found in ref. 65 . Multi-class support vector machines are used in this study for classifying throat movements. The detailed theory of SVM can be found in ref. 66 . SVM is a binary classification model, with its basic model being a linear classifier with the largest interval defined in the feature space. In this study, a “one vs. rest” strategy is adopted for multi-class classification. With our data set of N different features (sentences in this case), for each target feature X (X here represents the target sentence), the rest of N − 1 features are regarded as a whole group Y. Subsequently, SVM is applied to create a linear binary between X vs Y, thus distinguishing X from the rest of the features. The same procedure is conducted for every other feature in the dataset, and a classifying boundary is set as “one vs. rest”. When the data from the testing set is inputted, these boundaries are used to determine which feature this new signal belongs to, thus realizing multi-class classification.

Statistics and reproducibility

No statistical method was used to predetermine the sample size. No data were excluded from the analyses. The experiments were not randomized. The investigators were not blinded to allocation during experiments and outcome assessment.

Reporting summary

Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article.

Data availability

All data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary files. Any additional requests for information can be directed to, and will be fulfilled by, the corresponding authors. Source data are provided with this paper and can be found at DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.24784107. Source data are provided in this paper.

Code availability

Codes are available from the corresponding authors upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Henry Samueli School of Engineering & Applied Science and the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, for the startup support. J.C. also acknowledges the Vernroy Makoto Watanabe Excellence in Research Award at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award (Award ID: N00014-24-1-2065), NIH R01 (Award ID: R01 CA287326), the American Heart Association Innovative Project Award (Award ID: 23IPA1054908), the American Heart Association Transformational Project Award (Award ID: 23TPA1141360), the American Heart Association’s Second Century Early Faculty Independence Award (Award ID: 23SCEFIA1157587), the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Grant (Grant No. 30944), and the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Science UCLA CTSI (Grant No. KL2TR001882). We also acknowledge Dr. Jennifer Long, Dr. Maie St. John, Qingyan Zhou, and Jianhui Gu for providing professional insights into Otolaryngology and laryngeal anatomy.

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These authors contributed equally: Ziyuan Che, Xiao Wan.

Authors and Affiliations

Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

Ziyuan Che, Xiao Wan, Jing Xu, Chrystal Duan, Tianqi Zheng & Jun Chen

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J.C. conceived the idea and supervised the whole project. Z.C. and X.W. designed the work and fabricated the device; J.X., C.D., and T.Z. assisted in the device’s performance testing; Z.C., X.W., and J.C. wrote the paper and created the figure; all authors participated in the analysis of experimental data and discussion of the results.

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Correspondence to Jun Chen .

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A patent has been filed related to this work from the University of California, Los Angeles with US provisional patent application No. 63/176,651.

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Che, Z., Wan, X., Xu, J. et al. Speaking without vocal folds using a machine-learning-assisted wearable sensing-actuation system. Nat Commun 15 , 1873 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45915-7

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PRDV008: Preparing and Delivering Presentations

Vocal delivery.

In addition to discussing rate, volume and pitch, this reading introduces the concepts of fluency and conversational tone.

Speaking for Engagement

We have all had the displeasure of listening to an unengaging speaker. Even though the person may care about his or her topic, an unengaging delivery that does not communicate enthusiasm will translate into a lack of interest for most audience members. Although a speaker can be visually engaging by incorporating movement and gestures, which we will discuss more later, a flat or monotone vocal delivery can be sedating or even annoying. Incorporating vocal variety in terms of rate, volume, and pitch is key to being a successful speaker.

In general, a higher rate of speaking signals that a speaker is enthusiastic about his or her topic. Speaking slowly may lead the audience to infer that the speaker is uninterested, uninformed, or unprepared to present his or her own topic. These negative assumptions, whether they are true or not, are likely to hurt the credibility of the speaker.

The issue most speakers face is speaking too fast. The goal is to speak at a rate that will interest the audience and will effectively convey your information. Speaking at a slow rate throughout a speech would likely bore an audience, but that is not a common occurrence.

Some people naturally speak faster than others, which is fine, but we can all alter our rate of speaking with practice. If you find that you are a naturally fast speaker, make sure that you do not speed talk ; through your speech when practicing it. Even if you try to hold back when actually delivering your speech, you may fall back into your practice routine and speak too fast. You can also include reminders to slow down ; on your speaking outline.

When speaking in larger rooms, you will need to project your voice. You may want to look for nonverbal cues from people in the back rows or corners, like leaning forward or straining to hear, to see if you need to adjust your volume more. Obviously, in some settings, a microphone will be necessary to be heard by the entire audience.

Like rate, audiences use volume to make a variety of judgments about a speaker. Softer speakers are sometimes judged as meek, which may lead to lowered expectations for the speech or less perceived credibility. Loud speakers may be seen as overbearing or annoying, which can lead audience members to disengage from the speaker and message. Be aware of the volume of your voice and, when in doubt, increase your volume a notch, since beginning speakers are more likely to have an issue of speaking too softly rather than too loudly.

Pitch refers to how high or low a speaker's voice is. As with other vocal qualities, there are natural variations among people's vocal pitch. Unlike rate and volume, there are more physiological limitations on the control we have over pitch. For example, males generally have lower pitched voices than females. Despite these limitations, each person still has the capability to intentionally change their pitch across a range large enough to engage an audience.

Changing pitch is a good way to communicate enthusiasm and indicate emphasis or closure. In general, our pitch goes up when we are discussing something exciting. Our pitch goes down slightly when we emphasize a serious or important point. Lowering pitch is also an effective way to signal transitions between sections of your speech or the end of your speech, which cues your audience to applaud and avoids an awkward ending.

Record yourself practicing your speech to help determine if the amount of pitch variety and enthusiasm you think you convey while speaking actually comes through. Speakers often assume that their pitch is more varied and their delivery more enthusiastic than the audience actually perceives it to be. Many of my students note this on the self-evaluations they write after viewing their recorded speech.

Vocal Variety

The key is to become aware of how you use your voice when you speak, and the best way to do this is to record yourself. We all use vocal variety naturally without thinking about it during our regular conversations, and many of us think that this tendency will translate over to our speaking voices. This is definitely not the case for most beginning speakers.

Unlike in your regular conversations, it will take some awareness and practice to use vocal variety in speeches. I encourage students to make this a delivery priority early on. Since it is something anyone can do, improving in this area will add to your speaking confidence, which usually translates into better speeches and better grades further on.

Speaking for Clarity

Since most of our conversations are informal and take place with people we know, many people do not make a concerted effort to articulate every word clearly and pronounce every word correctly, and most of the people we talk to either do not notice our errors or do not correct us if they do notice. Since public speaking is generally more formal than our conversations, we should be more concerned with the clarity of our speech.

Articulation

For example, a person may say dinnt instead of didn't , gonna instead of going to , wanna instead of want to , or hunnerd instead of hundred . Unawareness and laziness are two common challenges to articulation.

As with other aspects of our voice, many people are unaware that they regularly have errors in articulation. Recording yourself speak and then becoming a higher self-monitor are effective ways to improve your articulation. Laziness, on the other hand, requires a little more motivation to address. Some people just get in the habit of not articulating their words well. I am sure we all know someone who mumbles when they speak or slurs their words together. From my experience, this is a problem that I have noticed more among men than women.

Both mumbling and slurring are examples of poor articulation. In more informal settings, this type of speaking may be acceptable, but in formal settings, it will be negatively evaluated, which will hurt a speaker's credibility. Perhaps the promise of being judged more favorably, which may help a person become more successful, is enough to motivate a mumbler to speak more clearly.

When combined with a low volume, poor articulation becomes an even greater problem. Doing vocal warm-ups or tongue twisters can help prime your mouth, lips, and tongue to articulate words more clearly. When you notice that you have trouble articulating a particular word, you can either choose a different word to include in your speech or you can repeat it a few times in a row in the days leading up to your speech to get used to saying it.

Pronunciation

If a word does not include an audio pronunciation, you can usually find the phonetic spelling of a word, which is the word spelled out the way it sounds. There will occasionally be words that you cannot locate in a dictionary. These are typically proper nouns or foreign words. In this case, I suggest the "phone-a-friend" strategy. Call up the people you know who have large vocabularies or are generally smart when it comes to words, and ask them if they know how to pronounce it. If they do, and you find them credible, you are probably safe to take their suggestion.

The third option is to " fake it 'til you make it " and should only be used as a last resort. If you cannot find the word in a dictionary and your smart friends do not know how to pronounce it, it is likely that your audience will also be unfamiliar with the word. In that case, using your knowledge of how things are typically pronounced, decide on a pronunciation that makes sense and confidently use it during your speech. Most people will not question it. In the event that someone does correct you on your pronunciation, thank him or her for correcting you and adjust your pronunciation.

Fluency hiccups are unintended pauses in a speech that usually result from forgetting what you were saying, being distracted, or losing your place in your speaking notes. Fluency hiccups are not the same as intended pauses, which are useful for adding emphasis or transitioning between parts of a speech.

While speakers should try to minimize fluency hiccups, even experienced speakers need to take an unintended pause sometimes to get their bearings or to recover from an unexpected distraction. Fluency hiccups become a problem when they happen regularly enough to detract from the speaker's message.

Verbal fillers are words that speakers use to fill in a gap between what they were saying and what they are saying next. Common verbal fillers include um , uh , ah , er , you know , and like . The best way to minimize verbal fillers is to become a higher self-monitor and realize that you use them. Many students are surprised when they watch the video of their first speech and realize they said um 30 times in three minutes.

Gaining that awareness is the first step in eliminating verbal fillers, and students make noticeable progress with this between their first and second speeches. If you do lose your train of thought, having a brief fluency hiccup is better than injecting a verbal filler, because the audience may not even notice the pause or may think it was intentional.

Common Causes of Fluency Hiccups

Lack of preparation. Effective practice sessions are the best way to prevent fluency hiccups.
Not writing for speaking. If you write your speech the way you have been taught to write papers, you will have fluency hiccups. You must translate the written words into something easier for you to present orally. To do this, read your speech aloud and edit as you write to make sure your speech is easy for you to speak.
A poorly prepared speaking outline. Whether it is on paper or note cards, sloppy writing, unorganized bullet points, or incomplete/insufficient information on a speaking outline leads to fluency hiccups.
Distractions. Audience members and the external environment are unpredictable. Hopefully audience members will be polite and will silence their phones, avoid talking while the speaker is presenting, and avoid moving excessively. There could also be external noise that comes through a door or window. A speaker can also be distracted by internal noise such as thinking about other things.

Key Takeaways

Speakers should use vocal variety, which is changes in rate, volume, and pitch, to make a speech more engaging.
Speakers should use proper articulation and pronunciation to make their message clear.
Interruptions to the fluency of a speech, including fluency hiccups and verbal fillers, detract from the speaker's message and can lessen a speaker's credibility.

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‘What kind of person thinks that what’s going on now in Gaza is acceptable?’ … Tony Kushner and Jonathan Glazer.

‘Unimpeachable, irrefutable’: US playwright Tony Kushner praises Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech

The playwright and screenwriter, who was Oscar nominated last year for Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, has backed The Zone of Interest director

The playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner has come to the defence of director Jonathan Glazer , whose speech at the Oscars nearly a fortnight ago continues to polarise opinion.

Picking up his award for best foreign language film on 10 March, Glazer related his film , The Zone of Interest, to current events in the Middle East.

He said he hoped his movie, which shows the domestic lives of Rudolph and Hedwig Höss just outside the walls of Auschwitz, where he was camp commandant, “shows where dehumanisation leads, at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present.”

Standing on stage with producer James Wilson and financier Len Blavatnik, Glazer continued:

Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation, which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanisation – how do we resist?”

Kushner, who won a Pulitzer prize for his play Angels in America, and has collaborated with Steven Spielberg on four films including 2022’s The Fabelmans, was a guest on Monday’s edition of the podcast of Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Asked if he identified with the speech, Kushner said: “Of course. I mean, who doesn’t? What he’s saying is so simple. He’s saying: Jewishness, Jewish identity, Jewish history, the history of the Holocaust , the history of Jewish suffering must not be used in a campaign of – as an excuse for a project of dehumanising or slaughtering other people.”

Kushner continued: “This is a misappropriation of what it means to be a Jew, what the Holocaust meant, and [Glazer] rejects that. Who doesn’t agree with that? What kind of person thinks that what’s going on now in Gaza is acceptable?”

Kushner, who is Jewish, told the Guardian he was proud that The Fabelmans – which is based on Spielberg’s early life – sought to call out antisemitism in the US. “It’s always a great thing to say antisemitism is abhorrent,” he said, “[It] has a history of ignominy second to none, and if you play footsie with it, if you tolerate its existence, you’re going to be led into some terrible place, because fascism and authoritarianism are unbelievably dull movements every time they reorganise and recrudesce, and they will follow the same tropes over and over again.

“They don’t have a huge imaginative armamentarium, and antisemitism is always right there and it’s been there for centuries, so if anybody starts to sound like an antisemite, they’re done, repudiate them, it’s over, do not make common cause with them.”

Kushner has frequently spoken out about the conflict in the Middle East; in 2011 , the City University of New York U-turned on its decision to block an honorary degree given to the playwright on the grounds that he was insufficiently pro-Israel.

The fallout from Glazer’s speech, which was enthusiastically applauded in the Dolby theatre, began early the following week, when it was condemned by the US Holocaust Survivors Foundation and Anti-Defamation League (ADL), who said his remarks “excuse terrorism”.

Yet vocal supporters of Glazer, including directors such as Boots Riley, Zoe Kazan and Asif Kapadia, were quick to come to his defence, with Kapadia telling Variety : “He stood up and told the truth. This is what true artists do.”

Meanwhile an editorial in Haaretz argued that Glazer was correct, while the director of the Auschwitz Memorial also defended him, saying that “Glazer issued a universal moral warning against dehumanisation.”

Dr Piotr MA Cywiński continued: “His aim was not to descend to the level of political discourse. Critics who expected a clear political stance or a film solely about genocide did not grasp the depth of his message.”

Later in the week, The Zone of Interest’s executive producer, Danny Cohen, broke rank and told the Unholy podcast he “fundamentally disagree[d]” with Glazer’s words. On Friday, Laszlo Nemes, who also won the foreign language Oscar for a film set in Auschwitz towards the end of the war, 2015’s Son of Saul, told the Guardian Glazer “should have stayed silent instead of revealing he has no understanding of history and the forces undoing civilisation, before or after the Holocaust ”.

Nemes continued: “Had he embraced the responsibility that comes with a film like that, he would not have resorted to talking points disseminated by propaganda meant to eradicate, at the end, all Jewish presence from the Earth.”

On Monday, Spielberg’s sister, Laura Spielberg, was one of some 450 Jewish creatives who signed an open letter condemning Glazer’s speech and criticising what they perceived as his “drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination”.

By Tuesday, some 700 additional names had signed the letter, which also took issue with Glazer’s “use of words like ‘occupation’ to describe an indigenous Jewish people defending a homeland that dates back thousands of years, and has been recognised as a state by the United Nations, [which] distorts history”.

The Guardian has contacted Glazer and Spielberg for comment.

Jonathan Glazer
Tony Kushner
Oscars 2024
Israel-Gaza war

Chapter 10: Delivering a Speech

10.3 vocal delivery, learning objectives.

Identify elements of vocal delivery that make a speech more engaging.
Identify elements of vocal delivery that make a speech clearer.
Discuss the relationship between vocal delivery and speaker credibility.

Speaking for Engagement

Speaker at Podium – CC BY 2.0.

Vocal Variety

Speaking for Clarity

Articulation

Pronunciation

Common Causes of Fluency Hiccups

Lack of preparation. Effective practice sessions are the best way to prevent fluency hiccups.
Not writing for speaking. If you write your speech the way you’ve been taught to write papers, you will have fluency hiccups. You must translate the written words into something easier for you to present orally. To do this, read your speech aloud and edit as you write to make sure your speech is easy for you to speak.
A poorly prepared speaking outline. Whether it is on paper or note cards, sloppy writing, unorganized bullet points, or incomplete/insufficient information on a speaking outline leads to fluency hiccups.
Distractions. Audience members and the external environment are unpredictable. Hopefully audience members will be polite and will silence their phones, avoid talking while the speaker is presenting, and avoid moving excessively. There could also be external noise that comes through a door or window. A speaker can also be distracted by internal noise such as thinking about other things.

“Getting Plugged In”

Delivering Presentations Online

Have you ever presented online or been an audience member for an online presentation? If so, describe your experience and compare it to face-to-face speaking.
What are some of the key differences between presenting online and presenting in person that a speaker should consider?
How might online presentations play into your future career goals? What types of presentations do you think you would give? What could you do to ensure the presentations are effective?

Key Takeaways

Speakers should use vocal variety, which is changes in rate, volume, and pitch, to make a speech more engaging.
Speakers should use proper articulation and pronunciation to make their message clear.
Interruptions to the fluency of a speech, including fluency hiccups and verbal fillers, detract from the speaker’s message and can lessen a speaker’s credibility.
Record yourself practicing your speech. How does your speech sound in terms of vocal variety? Cite specific examples.
Listen to your recorded speech again. How would you evaluate your articulation and pronunciation? Cite specific examples.
Over the course of a day, take note of verbal fillers that you tend to use. List them here so you can be a higher self-monitor and begin to notice and lessen your use of them.

Courville, R., “Delivery,” TheVirtualPresenter.com, accessed November 5, 2012, http://thevirtualpresenter.com/category/delivery .

Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies. Provided by : University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing edition, 2016. This edition adapted from a work originally produced in 2013 by a publisher who has requested that it not receive attribution.. Located at : https://open.lib.umn.edu/communication/ . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

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Don Lemon Grills Elon Musk About Drug Use, Hate Speech on X and His Meeting With Donald Trump in Contentious Interview: ‘Choose Your Questions Carefully’

By William Earl

William Earl

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Don Lemon has released his hour-long interview with Elon Musk , after the former CNN journalist claimed that it upset the X (formerly Twitter) owner so much that Musk canceled the launch of a new interview show named “The Don Lemon Show” that the pair had been planning together.

During one section of the interview, Lemon asked about Musk taking a puff of weed on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” and then inquired about the tech mogul’s ketamine prescription.

Lemon then asked if Musk ever abused ketamine, which Musk denied, saying he took a small amount about every other week.

Things got especially contentious during the last stretch of the interview, when Lemon asked Musk about advertisers pulling out of X as a result of not wanting their content to be near what they perceived to be unmoderated hate speech.

Lemon questioned Musk about said companies, asking, “Why is that not a form of free speech? They are free to advertise where they want.”

“Whereas the other platforms will censor on behalf of other advertisers, the X platform will not,” Musk said.

After a back and forth, Lemon pushed further about advertisers, saying, “So you said, ‘If they kill the company, it’s them’ — but doesn’t the buck stop with you?”

“Choose your questions carefully — there’s five minutes left,” Musk retorted.

Lemon also asked Musk about meeting with Donald Trump recently in Florida.

“I was at a breakfast at a friend’s place and Donald Trump came by — that’s it,” Musk said, downplaying the conversations, adding, “Let’s just say he did most of the talking. The normal things he says. There was nothing particularly groundbreaking or new. President Trump likes to talk.

Musk said Trump also did not ask him for any money or campaign finances.

Watch the full interview below.

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Grammy hall of fame adds ‘appetite for destruction’, ‘i feel love’, buena vista social club & lauryn hill albums, more, jon bon jovi not sure if he’ll tour again amid vocal cord surgery recovery.

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'Pollstar Live!' Conference Tabs Jon Bon Jovi, Steve Ballmer, Jeff Ament As Keynoters

During a panel at TCA for the docuseries Thank You, Good Night , the Bon Jovi frontman opened up about the surgery he got in 2022, explaining that one of his vocal cords was “atrophying,” saying one was “thick as the thumb” and another was “thick as a pinky.”

“One of my vocal cords was literally atrophied,” he said (via ABC News ). “Your vocal cords are supposed to look parallel, or let’s pretend that they are as thick as a thumb — one of mine was as thick as a thumb and the other one was as thick as a pinky. So, the strong one was pushing the weak one aside, and I wasn’t singing well.”

Bon Jovi is among the artists set for a Jimmy Buffett tribute at the Hollywood Bowl scheduled for Thursday, April 11.

Watch the entire Bon Jovi interview below.

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Why Vocal Variety Is So Valuable

1 Vocal variety makes you more interesting to listen to.

2 Vocal variety is important because it conveys your emotion to the listener.

3 Effective vocal variety can magnify the meaning and significance of your message.

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The Danger of Vocal Intensity

Silence Is Golden

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10.3 Vocal Delivery

Speaking for Engagement

Vocal Variety

Speaking for Clarity

Articulation

Pronunciation

“Getting Plugged In”

Key Takeaways

Unlock Your Voice: How to Use Vocal Variety in Public Speaking

Quick Review

Benefits of Vocal Variety in Public Speaking

Must-Know Points

Tools for Utilizing Vocal Variety

Developing Good Vocal Variety

Practices for Achieving Vocal Variety in Public Speaking

Responses to Common Questions

How can I use vocal variety to make my public speeches more engaging?

What are the most common mistakes to avoid when using vocal variety in public speaking?

Learning Objectives

Speaking for Engagement

Vocal Variety

“Getting Plugged In”

Key Takeaways

Speech Critiques

Speech Preparation #7: Choreograph Your Speech with Staging, Gestures, and Vocal Variety

Vocal Variety: The Four P’s

Gestures / Body Language

Example of Staging, Gestures, and Vocal Variety — Face the Wind

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