Reading Aloud

Thanks to Fred Miller for permission to share this tip.

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Reading Aloud Will Improve Your Delivery.

Practice -Practice -Practice

We’ve all heard that mantra, and it’s true.

And one of the best ways to improve your voice is to:

Read Aloud – Read Aloud – Read Aloud

Hearing yourself as you speak, and listening to a recording of yourself, are two of the quickest ways to improve your Verbal Delivery.

Areas for improvement are quickly ‘heard’ and usually easy to correct.

Pay attention to your:

• Pronunciation and Enunciation
  • Are words pronounced as they should be with the correct syllables emphasized?
  • Is your diction correct, or are you mumbling?
  • Are you speaking clearly and distinctly?
    • If English is your second language, or if you have a regional accent, don’t completely trust your own judgment on this, get the opinion of a trusted adviser.
    • Projection of your voice
      • Will the entire audience be able to hear you clearly?
      • Is the projection consistent, or does your voice sometimes fade?
    • Inflection
      • Do you speak in a boring monotone, or do you correctly put inflection into sentences that paint vivid pictures in the minds of the audience.
    • Cadence
      • Is the pace of your delivery boringly the same, or do you quicken and slow down the speed based on emotion and content?
    • Pauses
      • Do you stop speaking long enough for the audience to digest the words you’ve just spoken, or enjoy laughing at a humorous statement?

Pick a variety of material to read.

• Read aloud several news headlines and the stories that follow.
• Read aloud magazine articles.
• Read aloud children’s books.
  • These are among the best to read, since many are written with the intention to be read aloud to kids.
    • If you have a child, or children to practice on, so much the better.

Read Aloud, and ‘Hear’ the improvement!