Welcome to the November Issue of Speaking-Out-Loud write-out-loud.com's monthly E-zine to help you effectively 'talk your walk'.

If this E-zine speaks to you, then quite likely it will talk sense to your friends, family or work mates too. Please pass it along.

You might even suggest that they sign up! The page to send them to is here Speaking-Out-Loud

Remember, if you have any questions you're most welcome to ask them through my contact form. I enjoy hearing from my readers and will respond as soon as I am able.

Apologies for the late issue. I've been having problems with email service providers. Some of them gobble the html formatting reducing the content to garbled nonsense. I don't think it's completely sorted yet so I hope your issue is not one of the affected. If it is, try the plain text version. It seems to be fine.

Despite that, happy speaking,

Susan

In this Issue

If you don't have time to read the whole ezine, click on the topic that interests you. This month you will find:

• Susan's Spiel

• Pause Power

• Tidy Thoughts = Clear speech

• Post Speech Positives

Susan's Spiel

Pause Power
This month's Article makes punctuation your new best friend. Truly. Fall in love with a full stop and improve your speech.

Tidy Thoughts = Clear speech
Are you brimful of ideas? Do they spill over into speech before you've had time to sort them? Get yourself some tidy tips to structure your speech.

Post Speech Positives
One of the most powerful opportunities to lessen ongoing public speaking anxiety occurs directly after you've given a speech. Are you using this positively?

I am always looking for ways to improve the site. If you see any errors or would like to contribute in any way, please accept this invitation to contact me through my About Me page.
I would love to publish your article or write one about you or your business. Just let me know! If your activity or idea fits with the site theme, get in touch.

Thank you for reading and especial thanks to those who completed the survey when you signed up to receive Speaking-Out-Loud. It's great to find out a little more about who, where you are and what you want.

I hope you enjoy this month's Speaking-Out-Loud!

Susan

Go to Top

Pause Power

Onceuponatimetherewasawomanwhodidn'tknowwhentostoptalking.

She talked on and on and only ever paused long enough to take a breath to keep talking on and on. Her words became a meaningless blur. She left no room for anybody to respond with a nod or a smile, let alone a word. And she complained bitterly that no one listened to anything she said.

When we read, words are thankfully divided into digestible chunks by punctuation. A full stop or a period, for example, signals the end of a sentence. It's a pause - a stopping point. An idea has ended and that full stop space allows us time to make sense of what has gone before another, in a new sentence, is introduced.

The same principle applies to a comma, semi colon, or colon. These all denote pauses too. Each plays a special role; helping us to decode and understand the words we are reading.

The problem that many have with spoken speech is that they forget to include those signals. Their speech is a rushing river that rapidly becomes too difficult to listen to and the only stops they make are dictated by survival, needing to breathe. Inevitably, these occur in the wrong places and their message is further compromised.

When I was teaching I met lots of 'rush and gushers'. Once they opened their mouths the race was on to get out everything they had to say before they ran out of breath or lost their nerve.

To help them to pause I introduced a counting system, a sort of 'oral' punctuation to be said silently in their minds. Often I marked up their text and sometimes, if needed, called it out when they were practicing with me.

It went like this:

• For a full stop or period, count 1,2
• For a comma, count 1
• For a semi-colon, count 1
• For a colon, count 1,2
• Between the end of one paragraph and the start of the next count 1, 2, 3

If you have a tendency to rush and only stop to gasp in a breath when you absolutely have to, do try it.

Mark your speech notes using different colored highlighters to show the varying pauses e.g. blue for 1, yellow for 1,2 and pink for 1,2,3. As you practice either count the pauses in your mind or out loud. Use the full stop pause to take a breath.

I promise you you'll hear a difference. Your speech and more importantly, your message will be clearer.

If you'd like more on using pauses effectively try the exercises on this page. There's an extract from Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech, one from Charles Dicken's book David Copperfield and a Shakespearean sonnet.

Go to Top

Tidy Thoughts = Clear Speech

How's the state of your mind?

Is it clean and clear? Have you got all your thoughts tidily arranged ready for speaking at a moment's notice?

Or is it cluttered? You've got a pile of jumbled ideas, each one struggling for space to call their own?

One of the major hurdles of speaking, (either everyday communication or making a more formal speech), is sorting through your ideas and giving them some form or structure. Without it having your listeners understand you is difficult and sometimes impossible.

It's like baking a cake. A cake does not become a cake until its ingredients are combined and processed in a particular way.
In speaking the ingredients are thoughts and clarity in speech does not happen until you impose some sort of organization to pull them together.

For some people, myself included at times, those thoughts behave like rebellious monsters. Given the chance to express an opinion, they all rush forward scrambling to be at the head of line.

The result is chaos. Panic. There is no order and they tumble out in a higgledy-piggledy mess. It's embarrassing and, if it happens often, enough to convince a would-be speaker to keep their mouth very firmly shut.

So how do you take control of those rampant runaways?

Here's three ideas that have worked for me.

1. Regardless of the circumstances, make it a rule to pause before you speak. In that space organize your thoughts.
   Click the link to an article on Instant Structure
   You'll find a variety of adaptable templates or thought organizers. Once you commit them to memory, they'll be there when you need them. In the pause you can choose the right one to slot your ideas into before you open your mouth.
2. Breathe. Panic jangles the brain and we forget to do the most obvious and basic things that would benefit us the most like breathing!
   A deep and controlled breath brings clarity. Try it. There's a series of breathing exercises here.
3. Practice. Yes, this is one of those inconvenient truths. If you want to be eloquent you're going to have to work at it. And some of us have to work harder than others. It may not be fair but that is how it is.
   To make real gains in controlling and organizing thoughts before you speak set aside a regular slot of time to really focus on developing your skills. You can do this by yourself using the suggestions on this page on impromptu speaking or if you know you'd work better with a group join Toastmasters International.

Go to Top

Post Speech Positives

How hard are you on yourself?

Let's set a scene.
You've just finished a speech. The audience is clapping as you step down from the stage to take your seat once more.

Do you find yourself fixating on the 'wrong' things?

• Oh my goodness, I forgot to mention XXX! How stupid of me!
• And I stumbled over pronouncing XXX clearly.
• That person with the red tie in the third row kept playing with his phone. That means I'm boring.
• I'm never going to be good at this no matter how hard I try.

Or do you focus on your successes?

Many of us tend to lump everything in together. It's either good or bad. Black or white. There are no distinctions and more importantly no credit given for little successes, improvements along the way to mastery.

If we apply commonsense we know that being successful in giving a speech is not black or white, good or bad. We also know that positive feedback, acknowledgment of elements done well, boosts confidence and creates a willingness to keep moving, to learn more, and to work with criticism positively.

So let's practice being kinder to ourselves.

The next time you finish a speech instead of flaying yourself by re-running your errors big and loud on the screen of your mind focus on what you did well.

Grab up a pen and paper and note them down. The act of committing them to paper gives them more power. Anything, no matter how minor you think it is, qualifies. The only rules are that whatever you list must be positive and true.

Examples:

• I stood tall.
• I breathed deeply to calm myself before I started to speak.
• I faced the audience.
• I managed some eye contact.
• I recovered from a moment of panic by remembering to use my cue cards.
• My voice got stronger as I got further into my speech.
• The audience appreciated my power point presentation.
• I felt good about my clothing choices.
• My cue cards were ordered well.

Try it. There's a fine balance between being 'cruel to be kind' and overly indulgent with ourselves. My personal experience is that most of us err on the cruel side. How we expect ourselves to learn through repeated beatings is beyond me. It's ridiculous, silly logic. Let's change it.

Click if you'd like more positive post-speech strategies to boost ongoing public speaking success.

Go to Top

To keep up with what's new on the write-out-loud.com go to our What's New Page, Blogging Aloud. There you can subscribe to the site and add it to your RSS feed, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Newsgator or Bloglines site.
These days you can join us on Facebook too!

Thank you for reading the November Issue of Speaking-Out-Loud. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or feedback through the form at the foot of the Speaking Out Loud Page. I love hearing from my readers!

If you enjoyed this issue of Speaking-Out-Loud, please feel free to send it on to any friends or family. The site url to forward so they can subscribe is Speaking-Out-Loud.

Until next time,
Happy speaking,

Susan

Go to Top