2021.11.07 – 0311 – The Upward Circumflex Intonation Within A Word This is when you start saying a word in one tone, and then end it on another, giving the word an upward tonal spin from one syllable to another. It suggests a wavering lack of finality as well as: · Doubt – “I’m not sure what I think about that…” · Worry – “ Will you finish now?” · A simple question that expects a simple answer – “Did you ever visit Paris?” · Do you think I care? · Should I send you an e-mail? · Would you finish ...
Nov 07, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 311
2021.11.06 – 0310 – The ‘Intonation Circumflex’ But one doesn’t always merely ‘push’ a whole word, sometimes by changing your inflection within a word it carries another meaning. This is the ‘word-wobble’ or ‘circumflex intonation’, denoting doubt by the reader. Consider the statement “ the Moon is made of cheese ” and the reply “ Really? ”. That reply could be said: · Really? – a matter-of-fact slightly disbelievingly, with a low, emphatic tone · Really? – a slightly more intrigued answer, as t...
Nov 06, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 310
2021.11.05 – 0309 – Intonation for Comedians OK this is a bit off topic, but let’s spend a moment looking at intonation in respect of the delivery of a joke. One of the reasons something is funny is because it is unexpected. And that may mean you have to change your intonation to signpost the humour. So (and this is not the joke!) what do you call the situation when lots of cars are filling a road and none of them are moving? A ‘traffic jam’ right? And you would naturally put the colour on the w...
Nov 05, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 309
2021.11.04 – 0308 – How Mis-Intonation Can Cause Mis-Direction Not intonating the correct words can completely alter its meaning and tone, leading to a completely different message given to the listener. He said their action had made a walkout inevitable. Stressing the word “ he ” might suggest there are others who would disagree with this statement. He said their action had made a walkout inevitable. Emphasising the word said casts doubt on the truth of the statement, implying there are grounds...
Nov 04, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 308
2021.11.03 – 0307 – 13 – A Brief Bit on Brackets (or ‘A Pause for a Part on Parentheses’) You will be unlikely to find these in news or commercial reads (although sometimes you might), these are clauses which may appear with brackets around them, or – just like this – with dashes… or maybe ellipses. On other times, depending on the style of the writer, they may appear inside commas. As bracketed phrases (or those in parenthesis) may appear in an ebook narration, let’s spend a few moments looking...
Nov 03, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 307
2021.11.02 – 0306 – 12 – Positive Intonation About Negative Information Remember earlier we looked at the fulcrum of facts in a story or sentence? That is, ‘this person says this and that person says that’? Well that can be developed into situations when ‘that person says this happened and that person says it did not’. In other words, negatives, opposites, contrasts and contradictions. Words such as “ didn’t ”, “disagreed”, “refused”, “never”, “hadn’t”, “not”, “no” and “none” are usually key wor...
Nov 02, 2021•7 min•Season 1Ep. 306
2021.11.01 – 0305 – 11 – Positive Intonation About Positive Information The ideas about highlighting contrasting and new information join together, when we look at ‘positive’ words such as ‘any’, ‘all’ and ‘always’. “ Police found a body in a house on Devilgate Drive, and they didn’t allow anyone to walk up there.” Remember our shades of colour in intonation. The fact that they didn’t allow anyone up the road, is new information and “ anyone ” may be lifted slightly. But in the following sentenc...
Nov 01, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 305
2021.10.31 – 0304 – Grammar Glue Part 2 or – and and or are often two sides of the same coin. “ And ” is often giving additional information, whereas “ or ” usually suggests options or alternatives are available. In a simple ‘either/or’ phrase, the “ or ” is often subdued, to allow the basic options either side to be coloured. “You can have chicken or fish”. But in a more complicated sentence, when there are two sets of options compared with two more you may want to highlight the “ or ” to be a ...
Oct 30, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 304
2021.10.30 – 0303 – 10 – Grammar Glue Consider a dodgy phone connection and you can only hear some of what a friend is saying. You get the gist of the content from the meaningful words in the sentence: the words which actually are full of meaning, give detail and context and move the story along. Some words in a sentence don’t add much information, they are there to give it structure and hold the important words together. They act as grammar ‘glue’ . You can usually dampen down these delete-able...
Oct 29, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 303
2021.10.29 – 0302 – 9 – By Super-Stressing One Insignificant Word, You Downplay The Sense Of The Sentence “Christmas is the best time of the year.” It’s a short, straightforward sentence: this speaker loves Christmas! It is simply the best! Therefore, the words that are most-coloured are: · Christmas · Best And slightly-coloured: · Year “ Christmas is the best time of the year .” But some people fall for the temptation of saying: “Christmas is the best time of the year.” By highlighting “ the ” ...
Oct 28, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 302
2021.10.28 – 0301 – More Intonation Confusion In a news item about the Kashmir earthquake, one presenter said that she was going to speak to “ someone who was in the country [Pakistan] at the time of the earthquake ”. But she highlighted “ country ”, which made it seem that this person had gone off to a quiet rural retreat. The new and newsworthy information is that that person being spoken to was an eye-witness, experienced what happened, and so the phrase that needed to be highlighted was that...
Oct 27, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 301
2021.10.27 – 0300 – 8 – Beware of Potential Intonation Confusion We have already seen how colouring different words in a sentence leads to a change in meaning of that sentence. Therefore, if you colour the wrong word, the meaning of the sentence becomes wrong too. In 2021 there was a lack of lorry drivers in the UK which hit distribution companies and threatened to lead to higher prices for products and stock shortages. It was suggested this was because of the Coronavirus pandemic and the result...
Oct 26, 2021•7 min•Season 1Ep. 300
2021.10.26 – 0299 – 7 – Take Notice Of What Is Implied When no contrast is implied There are some phrases in which to colour one part over another, suggests a contrast that does not or cannot exist. On occasion you are able to rewrite the sentence so the anomaly disappears: “Police have found a dead body on wasteland in the city centre”. A ‘body’ in this context is by sheer definition, dead (otherwise the discovery would be referenced as “ an injured man ” for example). It would be odd to lift d...
Oct 25, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 299
2021.10.25 – 0298 – Purposeful Mis-Intonation It’s similar in this e-learning script: “Human beings inhales mainly oxygen and exhales mainly carbon dioxide…” – we might normally say ex-HALE, but because of its contrast with an earlier word we say EX-hale. And on this government website: “… whether it’s national or international trade…” – instead of the more usual pronunciation of inter-NATIONAL, we say INTER-national so it contrasts with the NATIONAL mentioned previously. Or this training ‘pitch...
Oct 24, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 298
2021.10.24 – 0297 – 6 – Shades of Colour In your ‘vocal palette’ you: · slightly colour new information… · give slightly more colour to the first part of contrasting information… · and slightly more again to the second part of contrasting information. That’s because you have to give credit to your audience: they understand that there is a pattern in the ‘emerging explanation’ of what you are saying, that you are going to mention everyone by name and the locations and times. You just need to brin...
Oct 23, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 297
2021.10.23 – 0296 – Guiding The Listener It’s a complicated explanation, and your intonation will help the listener through who is doing what with who and when. And that of course is the point of intonation – to signpost the sense of a story. Here’s another example. Read it aloud naturally and then look at the construction and with what you know so far, work out the contrasts and therefore the ‘colour words’ that are there. “The climate action group said humans were felling too many trees, flyin...
Oct 22, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 296
2021.10.22 – 0295 – Contrasts Within Contrasts Let’s make it a bit more fun, because sometimes there’s more than one contrast, or contrasts within contrasts! “Some dealerships give you a free vehicle wash with every service, we give an internal valet too … with every service and every winter tyre change.” Note the contrasts between “ some dealerships ” and “ we ” … “ free vehicle wash ” and “ internal valet ” … and “ every service ” and “ every service and every winter tyre change”. “The union l...
Oct 21, 2021•9 min•Season 1Ep. 295
2021.10.21 – 0294 – 5 – Look For The Balance Look for the fulcrum in the story – what balances one side of it with another. A story is often a story because the arc is based around an axis-point: ‘while this is happening over here, that’s happening over there . . .’, or ‘he says this, but she says that’. In your head you probably just read that sentence, slightly lifting the words “ this ”, “ here ”, “ that ”, and “ there ”. That’s because those words are giving ‘context through contrast or comp...
Oct 20, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 294
2021.10.20 – 0293 – 4 – How Long Before An Old Idea Is New Again Yeah, good point. I mean, if you’re reading a longer script, a word, term or idea may keep reappearing. You can’t subdue every subsequent reference to it just because you said it two paragraphs or pages before. Indeed not. It becomes a new idea when other information has been introduced subsequently and taken the listener’s attention away from that ‘new thing’. It may be a ‘recycled’ new idea quite quickly – sometimes within a sent...
Oct 19, 2021•7 min•Season 1Ep. 293
2021.10.19 – 0292 – 3 – Synonyms: simple and advanced We looked at the basic synonyms earlier. This is when “ the Prime Minister ” is then referred to as “ she ”, or “ The Green Fingered Gardening Group ” is called “ the business ”. And we discussed how, just because it’s a different word, the idea is still old: that person, organisation or idea has already been introduced and so a further reference to them using either the same word or a substitute term, should not be lifted. There are exceptio...
Oct 18, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 292
2021.10.18 – 0291 – ‘Reading In’ In broadcast newsrooms, the person who writes the introduction to a story (the cue) may not be the person who goes on and actually records the script of the story itself. That’s because larger newsrooms might have specialist writer and those who are on-air. In smaller newsrooms it’s because the newsreader (who will read the cue on air) is usually the person who finds and writes the whole story and asks a colleague to ‘voice up’ the main report (a ‘voicer’). The p...
Oct 17, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 291
2021.10.17 – 0290 – Grades Of Lifting And Subduing You will remember the musical stave earlier, and realise that it’s not a matter of rising up from and down to your ‘home tone’ of intonation, in many cases you need to go below that tone to ‘un-colour’ or ‘subdue’ a word or phrase, such is its insignificance. I have used the word ‘subtle’ and ‘nuanced’ before, and that is deliberate, because I want to show the shades of colour you can bring to words within a sentence when you intonate. The degre...
Oct 16, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 290
2021.10.16 – 0289 – Subduing Old Information: Examples Let’s look at the idea of subduing old information with a few more examples: · “The England football captain and other members of the team” – you would not highlight “ team ” as you have suggested that is what you’re referring to (with the use of the words “ captain ” and “ other members ”), and so would simply lift the word “ other ” and subdue “ members of the team ” · “Prince Charles, Prince William and many of the Queen’s other relatives...
Oct 15, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 289
2021.10.15 – 0288 – When Information Is Implied VOICE BOX This subduing of old information also, as I mentioned before, goes for information which – although never explicitly said – is implied: A large fire has broken out at a coffin makers in Strabane, County Tyrone. The Northern Ireland Fire Service is at the blaze at O'Doherty's on Railway Street. Julie Journo reports. Let’s look at that very last line “ Julie Journo reports”. We all understand the ‘grammar of news reporting’, and we know tha...
Oct 14, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 288
2021.10.14 – 0287 – The Synonym Intonation Substitution. Here’s a quick way to work out whether you should be ‘colouring a synonym’: simply put into effect The Synonym Intonation Substitution. This is: take a word or phrase that you think may be a synonym for something you have already said, and replace it with that first mention. Then read those same sentences again – with the repeated word in both. If you naturally drop the second reference (as you likely will), then: · You need to drop it aga...
Oct 13, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 287
2021.10.13 – 0286 – What To Do About Synonyms The same goes when synonyms (other words which have the same meaning) are used: · “A man’s been stabbed on Epsom Common. He was attacked as he walked on wasteland near the Wells estate.” o Colour “ stabbed ” as this is new information, but un-colour “ attacked ” as it is a synonym. The same principle goes for “ Common ” which is highlighted, and “ wasteland ”, which is another word for the same thing. · “The court heard how Mr Smith had set fire to t...
Oct 12, 2021•7 min•Season 1Ep. 286
2021.10.12 – 0285 – 2 - Un-colour Old Information Unimportant or old information (that is, detail which is already known or presumed to be known), can be ‘thrown away’ in your delivery and does not need to be highlighted. It can stay on your level tone or subdued. “ The crash was between two cars. The blue car hit the red car .” We just saw how you would naturally slightly highlight “ crash ” and “ two cars ” in the first sentence but would you colour the word “ car ” in the second? Go ahead and...
Oct 11, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 285
2021.10.11 – 0284 – What Are Meaningful Words? VOICE BOX Meaning-ful words These are the words which help make the story, the story. They are the ‘magic key’ words to help the listener understand what is being said, rather than the (usually) shorter, more common words which are the ‘glue’ that holds the sentences together. When talking conversationally, we instinctively lift these key words, even without the benefit of a script or rehearsal time! It just naturally happens as the words tumble fro...
Oct 10, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 284
2021.10.10 – 0283 – 1 - Colour Important New Information Here are then, some keys to a good read. 1 – Colour Important New Information In ad-libbed speaking we naturally highlight the detail that ‘makes the story, the story’ – the information that is new and important, the facts that we want to draw attention to, and which propel the message… the ‘meaning-ful’ words and phrases. So ask yourself what the script is about and what makes it unusual. What is different, new or unexpected? “ The crash ...
Oct 09, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 283
2021.10.09 – 0282 – Intentional Intonation THE GUIDE to INTENTIONAL INTONATION Your intonation education and behaviour modification, starts here! Accurate intonation is the most important of all elements in spoken delivery. It allows your message to be communicated with precision. There is no point in reading if your listeners don’t understand the meaning. If you have any doubt in ‘how to read out loud’ think, “ how would I say this? ” rather than “ how would I read this? ” – that’s a trick that...
Oct 08, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 282
