My podcast this week is from the Effective Public Speaking book.
Enjoy!
Podcast:
Transcript:
I’m Johanna Rothman, and this is Johanna’s 60 Seconds of Writing WIP for November 1, 2024, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some writing in progress.
This is from the Effective Public Speaking book.
Now comes the most difficult part of listening to yourself. Many of us have nervous affectations, such as a nervous giggle, or a voice that rises at the end of a sentence, instead of lowers. Some speakers combine those nerve-problems, with a giggle or a sigh, followed by a tongue cluck, followed by some phrase such as, “I wish.”
If you record yourself and listen, you can learn to hear these nervous affectations. Then, you can choose what to do about them.
Maybe you decide your tongue cluck is okay once a slide. That means you will have to practice how you speak to avoid any more clucks.
What about other problems, such as restarted sentences? If you don't do that often, it's okay, because we all speak that way.
If you end a sentence where your voice goes up in pitch, the audience will think you're asking a question, instead of stating a fact. Watch and listen to your pitch changes. Make sure you end sentences with a lower pitch, so people know you're stating something useful, not asking a question.
I thought I had scheduled the video, but Something Happened. It's live now.