VOICE & TONETRAINING DELIVERY COMPETENCY

Your Voice Creates an Impression

What Kind of Impression Do You Want to Make?

PitchThe tone of your voice.

Inflectiondon't end sentences with an upward tone

Pacespeed at which your thoughts are put together out loud

Articulation and Pronunciation

ability to produce individual sounds

putting sounds together to make understandable words

PitchThe tone of your voice.

The Speech Problem #1

When you don’t bother to pronounce each syllable of each word properly and words get slurred together, you sound uneducated

Exercise 1: Say this list of words out loud:

• Going

• Walking

• Jogging

• Thinking

• Striking

• Selling

Exercise 2: Say the sentences out loud

• I’m going to have to rethink that bid.

• Waiting to hear back from the bank is very nerve-wrecking and

stressful.

• Before starting my business, I looked at a lot of different business

opportunities.

• There’s more to learning than just reading, writing and arithmetic.

Tongue-twisters

Keeping customers

content creates kingly

profits.

Success seeds

success.

Bigger business isn’t

better business but

better business brings

bigger rewards.

Wanting won’t win;

winning ways are

active ways.

Seventeen sales slips

slithered slowly

southwards.

Don’t go deep into

debt.

Ensuring excellence

isn’t easy.

Time takes a terrible

toll on intentions.

The Benefits of Enunciation

Form a better impression of you as you speak,

thinking of you as an educated, knowledgeable

person, more worthy of trust.

Be better able to focus on the message you’re

communicating, rather than being distracted by

the way you’re expressing yourself.

The Speech Problem #2

Using excessive fillers while you speak is the most irritating speech habit

Filler sounds

• “uh”,

• “um”

• “eh”

• “errr”

Filler phrases

• “you know”

• “anyway”

• “all right”

• “like”

• “whatever” (new)

The Speech Problem #3

Speaking in a monotonous voice

Speech Exercise: Emotion Sentences

• I just got a call saying that I won a lottery of

Rs.10 million.

• I’m going to have to change that light bulb.

• Our town now has a new recycling

program.

• My next door neighbour is moving out next

week.

• I’ll be able to retire in only two more years.

The Speech Problem #3

Speaking in a monotonous voice

Speech Exercise: Belief Sentences

• You’ll never regret buying one of these.

• This extended warranty is a great deal.

• This is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime

opportunity.

• What I’m doing now is the best thing

I’ve ever done.

• I am the best at what I do.

The Benefits of not using fillers.

As your voice expression

increases, your listeners will:

• Be more interested in what you’re

saying and more attentive;

• Be more likely to be receptive to

you and the message you’re

communicating.

The Speech Problem #4

Speaking too quickly a.k.a. “motormouths”

Happens when we’re stressed or

excited.

• Speaking too slowly is

much less common, but...

• Trick: remembering that

you need to speak for your

listener to understand

The Speech Problem #4

Speaking too quickly a.k.a. “motormouths”

Speech Exercise: Practicing Phrasing

• Go back to the start of this speech lesson

and read it out loud, using the punctuation

to guide your phrasing. Think of a period or

semi-colon as a pause twice as long as a

comma.

Speech Exercise: Practicing Phrasing

• Speech Topics:

Speech Topics

How to

perfectly boil

an egg

How to plant a

tree

How to send

an email

How to handle

a customer

complaint

How to send a

fax

How to

evaluate an

employee

How to replace

a printer

cartridge

How to impress

a client

How to give a

good speech

How to make

the perfect cup

of coffee or tea

The Speech Problem #5

Littered with acronyms, buzzwords and slang

Slang

• informal language consisting of words and expressions

that are not considered appropriate for formal

occasions; often vituperative or vulgar

Buzzwords

• stock phrases that have become nonsense through

endless repetition

Acronyms

• formed from the first letters of each word of a phrase

Summary:

Be energetic when you speak. Emphasis is

simply the force or stress you place on

important ideas, concepts for feelings. It’s

the simplest of the tools for effective public

speaking. Make sure you use enough

energy to reach across space to your

listeners, “bringing your voice to them.”

Summary:

Add colour and excitement with pitch

inflection. Too many speakers “sit on” their

pitch: they start low, and then don’t go

anywhere in varying their pitch on the

musical scale. A pitch that doesn’t vary is a

“mono-tone.”

Summary:

Vary your rhythm and pace.

Adrenaline always kicks in when you

speak in public. And if you had a

tendency to speak too quickly before,

you’ll certainly do so in that important

presentation! To keep audiences

attentive, you need to vary your pace.

Summary:

Use the power of silence. Pauses and

silence are two of the most neglected

tools in public speaking. Nervousness

can make you speak as though you’re

a runaway freight train, exhausting

your audience.

Summary:

Vocal quality creates a richer audience

experience. Vocal quality concerns the

tone, richness, pleasantness, and

emotional connection that you achieve

when you speak. Your audience wants

a voice that reaches listeners

effectively and enjoyably.