sixminutes.dlugan.

com
Speech Pauses: 12 Techniques to Speak Volumes with Your Silence
Andrew Dlugan

Effective use of speech pauses is a master technique.

If you do it right, nobody is conscious of your pauses, but your ideas are communicated more
persuasively.
If you do it wrong, your credibility is weakened, and your audience struggles to comprehend your
message.
In this article, we examine:
benefits of effective speech pauses;
techniques for using pauses naturally (there are more than you think); and
communications research which provides clues to why pauses help us communicate effectively.
Vocal Delivery Article Series
Benefits of Effective Speaking Pauses
Pausing is one of the most overlooked delivery techniques, but there are many benefits of using
pauses effectively.
1. Pauses help your audience understand you.
Pauses allow you to punctuate your spoken words, giving your listeners clues as to when one phrase,
one sentence, or one paragraph ends, and the next begins.

Research says:
Brigitte Zellner (PDF paper) notes that pauses participate in rendering human communication more
intelligible. Zellner also points to research by Grosjean and Deschamps (1975) which shows that
the more complex the communicative task, the greater the number of pauses. She writes:
In other words, pauses stick out like sore thumbs, and thus may occupy beacon positions in
speech, serving to structure the entire utterance for both speaker and listener. By subdividing speech
into smaller segments, pauses probably contribute a great deal to the improvement of speech
comprehension.
The key takeaway is that your audience doesnt have the benefit of punctuation, bolding, italics,
bullets, and other formatting as in written material. Youve got to provide that, and pauses are a
central way to do it.
2. Pauses help convey emotion.
Research says:
Janet Cahn (PDF paper) shows that, along with other linguistic factors, pauses help to convey
emotion. That is, the placement and duration of pauses should differ depending on whether you are
conveying sadness, anger, gladness, or some other emotion.
To capitalize on this, use pauses authentically to convey emotion, just as you would during a
conversation with a friend or family member.
3. Pauses control the overall pace of your delivery.
Your audience has cognitive limitations, and cannot absorb information beyond a certain rate. Pauses
allow you to slow your rate to match their listening capacity.
Research says:
Estelle Campione and Jean Vronis (PDF paper) observed that speech consists of short (0.15
seconds), medium (0.50 seconds), and long (1.50 seconds) pauses. Further, they note that read
speech (speaking from written text) tends to produce only short and medium pauses, while
spontaneous speech (speaking without reading) shows more frequent use of medium and long
pauses.

So, if you must read a portion of your speech, be sure to deliberately extend your pauses to mimic a
more natural spontaneous speech style. Otherwise, your audience will have difficulty keeping up.
4. Pauses are healthy.
Lengthy pauses are healthy, allowing you to take deep breaths, swallow, or even drink water. Not
only will this aid your brain (by providing more oxygen), but your vocal quality will be enhanced by
keeping your mouth and throat lubricated.
5. Pauses help engage your audience.
Speaking without pauses means your audience expends all their effort just to keep up with you.
Using pauses, on the other hand, gives your audience time to reflect on your words, and start making
connections with their own experiences or knowledge in real time. Forming these personal
connections with your content is the basis of audience engagement.
6. Pauses replace filler words.
Excessive use of filler words (um, er, ah) undermines your credibility, and signals lack of knowledge,
lack of preparation, or lack of authenticity. An earlier Six Minutes article discusses how to stop saying
um, uh, and other filler words. Using pauses is one of the best ways to do so, while still providing time
for you to think of your next words.
7. Pauses let your mind catch up to your mouth.
A speaker performs two tasks simultaneously:
The first task is internal, and involves thinking what to say (and what to do) next.
The second task is external, and involves vocally projecting those words, using body language,
and other interactins with an audience.

Ideally, the internal tasks build up a queue of words and actions for a speaker to deliver, always
having words ready when needed. Pausing gives the advantage to the internal task, and helps your
mind catch up to your mouth.
Effective use of speech pauses is a master technique.
Pause Techniques
Now that weve examined the benefits of speech pauses, lets look at the various types of pauses,
and when they should be used.
A. The Clause Pause (or the Comma Pause)
Use short pauses in your speech whenever a comma would be used in written language to separate
two clauses, or to separate items of a list clearly. For example:
Wanting to impress my wife on our anniversary [pause] I prepared eggs [pause] bacon [pause] and
pancakes for breakfast.
In Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln, James C. Humes advocates breaking your speech text
into a series of short clauses, one per line. Through rehearsal, short pauses are introduced whenever
the line ends at the end of each clause.
B. The Sentence Pause
Use medium pauses in your speech wherever a period (or question mark, or exclamation mark)
would be used in written language to separate two sentences. For example:
We were married ten years ago [pause] I still remember my first look at her coming up the aisle.
A sentence pause should generally be longer than a clause pause, just as a period is a more forceful
punctuation mark than a comma.
Beware of the tendency to connect sentences with and infinitely. Doing so robs your audience of
this critical semantic break.

Using pauses gives your audience time to reflect on your words, and start making connections with
their own experiences or knowledge in real time. Forming these personal connections with your
content is the basis of audience engagement.
C. The Paragraph Pause
Use longer pauses in your speech whenever you are transitioning from one idea to the next, in the
same way as paragraphs are used in written language.
Two very common applications for this type of pause are:
Separate two points from one another. e.g. The second benefit of this approach is [pause] The
third benefit of this approach is
Separate a story/anecdote diversion from the normal speech with paragraph pauses before and
after the story.
D. The Emphasis Pause
When you want to emphasize a key word (or phrase), try pausing immediately before and
immediately after the key word (or phrase). In tandem with variations in pitch, volume, or intonation,
these pauses draw attention to the key word. The preceding pause signals listen up, while the
succeeding pause says put that in your memory.
Before/after a transition or contrast word:
Folk wisdom suggests picturing your audience naked [pause] however [pause] I think this is terrible
advice.
Before/after a key word:
Olivia Mitchell offers a cure [pause] called chunking [pause] to eliminate ahs and ums.
Research says:
I was surprised to discover that, in certain cases, um helps auditory word recognition. (More
precisely, the word immediately following the utterance of um is recognized more frequently.)
However, Corley and Hartsuiker (PDF paper) point out that the same benefit is realized by a silent

pause preceding the target word. According to the temporal delay hypothesis, a delay of any kind
immediately before a key word helps listeners remember it.
E. Rhetorical Question Pause
After you ask your audience a rhetorical question, pause for a little while. This stimulates your
audience to engage, to think internally about their answer to your question. The same is true for other
ways that you invite silent participation from your audience e.g. Think for a moment about how you
would feel if
On the other hand, failure to pause after a rhetorical question frustrates your audience. (Theyve been
asked a question, and now you are moving on without allowing them time to think about it!)
F. New Visual Pause
When speaking with slide visuals, its generally good to pause when switching to a new slide to give
your audience a moment to study the visual in silence. When you continue to speak, you signal that
the focus should be back to you. Simple images require only a short pause before continuing; more
complicated visuals require a longer pause. (Of course, you should simplify visuals as much as
possible)
G. Im in Thought Pause
Despite your best intentions at speech preparation and moderating your pace, you will sometimes
find that you get ahead of yourself, with your lips locked as your brain searches for the next word.
You may feel a tendency to fill this space with a filler word ah, er, um but its much better to just
pause until youve gathered yourself.
This technique can also be used as a deliberate pause for dramatic effect, even if you know exactly
what you are going to say next. Although, perhaps that makes it a
Pause immediately before and immediately after a key word (or phrase). The preceding pause
signals listen up, while the succeeding pause says put that in your memory.
H. Dramatic Pause

Part rhetorical and part theatrical, a dramatic pause is used whenever you want to generate some
drama or suspense. A dramatic pause could be used before continuing your spoken speech, or it
could be used just before displaying a slide, or a prop.
I. Punchline Pause
Professional comedians argue that pauses should be used just before a humorous punch line, and
research agrees! Archakis, et. al. (PDF paper) concludes that, along with variations in speech rate
and intensity, pauses are used before and after punch lines in jokes.
Pause immediately before your punch line to create heightened anticipation and signal a payoff.
Pause immediately after your punch line to allow your audience to release their laughter. Extend
the pause as long as there is laughter. Otherwise, your words are competing for attention, and will be
diminished. Similarly, never try to speak over applause.
J. Power Pause
In Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma, Nick Morgan suggests that powerful people
indulge in longer pauses.
In the first chapter of Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln, James C. Humes advocates starting
your presentation with a deliberate pause:
Before you speak, try to lock your eyes on each of your soon-to-be listeners. Force yourself before
you begin your presentation to say in your own mind each word of your opening sentence. Every
second you wait will strengthen the impact of your opening words. Make your Power Pause your
silent preparation before any presentation you make.
I have used the Power Pause regularly in my own presentations, and I find it has two wonderful
effects. First, it earns the attention of my audience. Second, it allows me a few seconds to center
myself, take a deep breath, and confidently launch into my opening words.
K. Get-a-Drink Pause
In longer presentations, youll occasionally need a drink of water. Dont hesitate to do so, but try to
time it appropriately. The best time to grab a drink is when you are already in a longer pause, such as

when you are transitioning to a new section of material, or when youve just put up a slide visual for
your audience to study.
Occasionally, you can use this technique to conceal that you need a moment to think and recover. In
Lend Me Your Ears: All you Need to Know about Making Speeches and Presentations, Max Atkinson
points out that the sight of speakers pausing to have a drink or to check their notes is so familiar to
audiences that they are unlikely to notice that anything is wrong.
L. Check-Your-Notes Pause
See the Get-a-Drink Pause, above.
Vocal Delivery Article Series
How many seconds should a short/medium/long pause be?
Theres no strict rules on precisely how long your pauses should be. Appropriate lengths for pauses
(from a fraction of second to several seconds or more) will vary considerably based on your speaking
style, the nature of your message, the duration of your talk, your audience, and cultural norms.
Consider the following guidelines:
While the duration of your pauses may be different than another speaker, you should vary your
pause length consistently. For example, your comma pauses (however long they are) should be
shorter than your paragraph pauses. Failure to do so will negate the benefits of using pauses, and will
confuse your audience.
For long pauses, pause longer than you think is necessary, perhaps longer than is comfortable for
you.
Seek feedback on your use of pauses. Ask for candid feedback through questions such as: Did my
pauses seem natural? Were there any awkward pauses? Was my overall pace too fast, or too slow?
Use video recordings to perform a self-assessment of your pause performance.

Breathing: The Seductive Key to Unlocking Your Vocal Variety

Kate Peters
Everyone breathes. Its one of the most natural things we do.
However, if you ask singers to name the most important part of vocal
technique, 9 out of 10 will say breathing.
So, is there some special way to breathe that makes your voice
better? Yes!
In this article, we explore breathing as it relates to vocal variety as a speaker. Ill provide you an
easy to follow technique, as well as tips to improve your voice through better use of air.
The results of applying these tips will be more Power, better Pacing, more interesting Pitch and
more effective Pauses in your speaking.
Vocal Delivery Article Series
Contents

Lose Your Breath, Lose Your Voice

Overview of Breathing
o

Breathing 101

Breathing and Vocal Variety

o

Pace

Pitch

Pause

Power

Practical Advice for Daily Life

Lose Your Breath, Lose Your Voice

In Edgar Allen Poes short story, Loss of Breath, the narrator loses his breath as he is about to
berate his wife. Except for some frog-like utterances, his voice also stops with his breath. Shocked by
this, he agonizes, philosophizes, and tries to hide his condition, all to no avail. Eventually, he finds his
voice when he finds his breath. (Did I mention that someone stole it? This is Poe, after all!) Although

the story is a bit macabre, it underlines the fact that if you lose your breath, you lose your voice
and its never a good idea to berate your wife.
Overview of Breathing
So how does one breathe for better speaking and singing? Well, watch a baby breathe. Youll see
that she seems to breath from her stomach, but she is really using her abdominal muscles. Its
breathing 101 so easy a baby can do it. Heres how its done:
Breathing 101
Read the following instructions out loud carefully, and then try them. (An audio file of these
instructions can be heard by clicking here.)
1. Sit forward in a chair and let your stomach muscles relax.
2. Breathe in through your nose and imagine that you are a vessel filling up with air as you would
pour water into a vase. Fill up your abdomen first, then your lower ribs (you should feel them
expand) and then all the way up to your chin.
3. Hold this breath for a count of ten.
4. Now exhale slowly. As you exhale, keep your ribs expanded and tighten your abdomen as you
would if you were doing a crunchthat is, the lower abdominal muscles should come in first
as though you were rolling up a tube of toothpaste. (Since you are not a tube of toothpaste,
keep your chest up as you exhale.)
5. Repeat. Once you have mastered the exercise sitting down, practice incorporating it into your
speaking and singing. You may need to do it slowly at first until you can coordinate all the
actions smoothly.
The key thing to remember is that breathing should be low and expansive.
The key thing to remember is that breathing should be low and expansive. If you do the exercise
correctly, your stomach will go in while your chest stays out and expands. Practicing this technique
will provide many benefits, including:

Awareness of your breathing will enable you to breathe more effectively.

Proper posture for breathing creates a confident, strong appearance. Deeper breathing makes
you feel more confident and strong as well. Andrew Weil, MD writes, You cannot always

center yourself emotionally by an act of will, but you can use your voluntary nerves to make
your breathing slow, deep, quiet, and regular, and the rest will follow.

Deep breathing decreases tension and helps to focus intellectual activity. Charles Kirk
describes how proper breathing technique helps him to remain calm on the trading floor.

Breathing and Vocal Variety

An earlier Six Minutes article advised you to use your voice to complement your message. This is
what I refer to as vocal image: how you are perceived by the sound of your voice.
Ideally, you want your content to align with your delivery method and both to align with the sound of
your voice. Vocal variety is all about the sound of the voice and, in this case, that vocal image is
created through several aspects of your sound, including pace, pitch, pause, and power.
Pace
Pace is the speed of your delivery. In general, for vocal variety you are encouraged to vary your pace
by speeding up and slowing down appropriately for the message you are delivering. However, some
people have trouble with pacing due to poor breathing. If you speak too quickly, or if your speaking is
labored or too slow, consider the following:
Vary your pace by speeding up and slowing down appropriately for the message you are delivering.

Speaking too fast is often the result of not stopping to breathe often enough.
Solution: To slow down your speaking with the breath, consciously take a breath before you
begin. Remember to stop and breathe between ideas. The next time you practice a
presentation, take time to inhale and exhale deeply five times before you start to speak. Then
take one more deep breath and exhale vigorously into your first words.

Speaking too slowly can also be caused by not taking in and using enough air.
Solution: Not using enough air can cause a person to sound dull and lifeless. This may also
be caused by poor posture. Practice the breathing technique above, paying special attention to
posture. Be sure you move that air with the abdominal muscles as you speak. Overdo the
latter when you practice so you really feel the breath in the sound. By breathing deeper and
then using all the air in your sound, you create a more energetic sound and you feel more
energized, too.

Pitch

Pitch is determined by the notes we use when we speak. Yes, we use notes when speaking just as
we do for singing. Speaking notes, however, are random, informally ordered, and usually of shorter
duration than notes we sing. To create vocal variety, one uses different pitches to make their sound
more interesting. Sometimes problems with creating variety in pitch can be the result of poor
breathing technique. Here are two such problems, their likely causes, and some ways to fix them:

A voice that is too high-pitched and thin can be the result of shallow breathing (without
abdominal expansion and support).
Solution: The solution to shallow breathing is to relax the abdomen and drop the air in lower.
This also relaxes the larynx so it doesnt ride so high. A high larynx can
create a higher, thinner sound.

If your voice sounds squeezed or strained, or too low, you

may not be using all the air you take in.

Lisa Braithwaite comments rightly that speaking too low can do vocal damage.
Another lesson from Poes prose is that you can produce a sound without breath. He writes:
I discovered that had I, at that interesting crisis, dropped my voice to a singularly deep guttural, I
might still have continued this pitch of voice (the guttural) depending, I find, not upon the current of
the breath, but upon a certain spasmodic action of the muscles of the throat.
If you dont want to be limited to a guttural growl, air should flow freely in your voice. You can improve
a strained sound by practicing a breathy sound and then gradually adding more and more vocal
sound to it. I call this energizing the voice. It also has the effect of making pitch variety much easier
to achieve because the voice becomes free to move and create more pitches. If you do this correctly,
you will definitely feel the freedom in your voice!
Pause
Awareness of breathing makes for natural pauses.
When speaking, pauses are the golden silences that allow your listeners to take in what you are
saying. They are the beats an actor uses between phrases; they are that special something that
leads to comedic timing. Importantly, pauses also give us time to breathe.
Heres how to apply breathing to your pauses:

Breathe before speaking your first words.

Taking that first breath allows you to align everything physically, mentally, and emotionally. It
also allows your larynx to be stimulated but relaxed. And finally, it gets the oxygen flowing so
that you can think more clearly and look your best.

Be aware of your breathing.

It is amazing to see how many people simply forget to breathe when they are in front of an
audience. As you may have experienced, nerves can play a big part in forgetting to breathe
and feeling out of breath. So the short term solution to this, as blogger Denise Graveline
mentions, is to pause and breathe! The long-term solution, however, is to practice being
aware of your breathing all day long. Awareness of breathing makes for natural pauses. The
more you practice, the more likely it is youll remember to breathe when youre speaking in
public.

Power
A common misconception about Power is that it is the same thing as volume. The truth is that vocal
power is so much more than how loud you are. Vocal power is all about the impact your sound has on
others. Your personal vocal power may be found in the tone of your sound or in how you phrase a
thought. Many people are surprised to learn that power can be heightened or lessened by how they
breathe and how they use their breath.

Sound moves on air, so you need to have air to get a powerful sound. You can speak
loudly, but if you arent incorporating that air into your sound, you will be shouting. Your impact
on others may be quite different than you intended! In addition, keeping the air moving with the
sound allows for wonderful control of your voice so that you can use all of your vocal variety
techniques more effectively.

A powerful speaker is one who is relaxed and comfortable. A powerful voice is relaxed
and comfortable. Breathing deeply relaxes the larynx so the voice can settle into a
comfortable, natural sound rather than one that is contrived or forced.

Vocal Delivery Article Series

Practical Advice for Daily Life

Try to practice good breathing technique several times a day and soon you will naturally incorporate it
into your everyday speaking. Here are a few tips for practicing breathing:

Practice breathing while driving. Your hands are raised as you drive which makes it easier
to keep your chest high. And practicing breathing can also ease road rage significantly!

Practice breathing while sitting at your desk when you would normally be slumped over in
your chair. Sit on the edge of your chair and take 10 practice breaths three times a day.

Practice breathing when you are about to go to sleep or

lying down on the floor at the end of a workout session. When you
are lying down, it is easier to isolate the abdominal muscles and
strengthen them for proper breathing. (You can even put a book on
your abdomen to exaggerate the way you use those muscles for
even better awareness of how to do this correctly. Watch the book go
up and down as you breathe with your stomach.)
The final and real test, of course, will come in how well you
incorporate good breathing into your presentations. On the day of
your big presentation, remember to consciously practice using the air
you take in. Take time to inhale and exhale deeply five times before
you start to speak, then take one more deep breath and breathe into
your first words. Dont forget to slow down and breathe from time to
time during the course of a talk in front of an audience.
As they say, practice makes perfect. So practice and it wont be long before you are able to make
your learned breathing as natural as the breathing you are using now, and the benefits will be
enormous.
Pump Up Your Speaking Voice with a Strength Training Workout
Kate Peters

Does your voice convey confidence and conviction every time you speak?

Or does your voice need strength training?

A Six Minutes reader whose career depends on a strong, confident voice sent in this question:
One thing I need help in is voice control. For some reason my voice quivers. Is there some kind of
exercise that may strengthen my vocal cords? Any ideas what may contribute to that?
Also, as a Realtor, I encounter the quivery voice as Im talking with my clients and it conveys an
impression of not being sure of what Im saying.
Your Speaking Voice
The voice is made up of muscles, cavities, tissues, nerves, fluids, etc., just like the rest of you. It can
produce at least 325 different pitches. There are more nerves in the muscles of the larynx than any
other muscles in your body, with the exception of your eyes. In addition, you use three quarters of
your body when you speak a word, and even a stubbed toe can affect the sound of your voice. So its
not surprising that your voice can be adversely affected by excitement and stress.
Just as with the rest of your body, some people naturally have more vocal strength, while others need
to pump up theirs just to keep up with their daily vocal requirements. I cannot know the exact cause
of the readers quivers without speaking with them, but it is likely that the cause of their quivering
voice is either nerves, or lack of vocal strength, or both. Regardless of the case, voice training using
proper vocal exercises can make a world of difference in both control and endurance in the voice.
Unless you are a voice practitioner, or have studied with a voice professional (which I highly
recommend!) you may not know what proper vocal exercises are. So here is a mini-workout that you
can use every day to get your voice in shape and get control of those tremors, quivers, and flips when
you speak.
A Strength Training Workout for Your Voice
1. Breathe deeply and exhale on a hisssssssing sound. Repeat 10 times.
o

Proper breathing is the foundation for a healthy voice AND control over nervous energy
that can make the voice quiver.

2. Say Mm-mmm (as in yummy) Mmm-hmm (like yes) Repeat 5 times.

o

This develops mask resonance, which creates a clean and vibrant sound by creating a
clean approximation of the cords and a resonance that will sound great and project
easily.

3. Say Mm-mmm. Mmm-hmm. up and down your vocal range, from low to middle to high and
back again, 10 times.
4. Raise your volume a bit and say Mmmmmmmmy name is Repeat this ten times up and
down your vocal range.
o

This enhances vocal flexibility and coordination.

5. Say Ney, ney, ney, ney, ney loudly but without yelling 10 times up and down your vocal
range.
o

This is more mask resonance training.

6. Starting at mid range, make a siren sound with Oooo and Eeeee by sliding down your vocal
range several times, starting higher each time.
o

Again, the focus here is on more flexibility and coordination.

7. Say Mmmmmmm until you feel a buzzy sensation in the front of your face. Repeat 5 times.
o

Mask resonance again.

8. Now, for isolation of muscles for articulation, try some tongue twisters like those below. To get
the full workout, say them each several times but only as fast as you can go and keep them
clear. You can increase your speed over time:
o

The blue bluebird blinks.

Three free throws.

What time does the wristwatch strap shop shut?

Strange strategic statistics.

Freshly fried flying fish, freshly fried flesh.

9. To bring it all together, speak a few sentences out loud. Use an opening or closing of a talk, a
favorite poem or long quote, or song lyrics.
10. Every good work out needs a cool down. End with 5 more big, deep breaths.
Vocal Delivery Article Series
Taking Your Vocal Workout to the Next Level
The workout above will help you get some awareness of your voice and start to strengthen it. To go
to the next level, I recommend the following:

Practice your speeches out loud.

Warm up your voice everyday, but especially before public speaking. Ideally, spend as much
time practicing as you will in front of an audience.

Learn to breathe properly and apply that technique to your public speaking.
See Breathing: The Seductive Key to Unlocking Your Vocal Variety

Hum a lot. Explore and develop mask resonance.

See Speak Up! A Guide to Voice Projection

Take a singing class or private singing lessons. This is true strength training for your voice.