2022.02.04 – 0400 – Pauses To Engage Attention Before Significant Content To engage attention before significant content A brief moment of silence adds suspense, adds anticipation and indicates incoming important information that may require attention. “This just in from Downing Street” [pause] “There are new rules for the lockdown…” “We are just getting news in from Paris…” [pause] “The Princess died at around 4.30 this morning…” “A statement from The White House in the last few minutes has con...
Feb 04, 2022•3 min•Season 2Ep. 400
2022.02.03 – 0399 – Pauses As Script Divisions As script divisions to aid understanding Pauses divide a script into ‘sense groups’ for the ‘heard word’, the same way that a comma or full stop/period does for the written word. A dash or ellipses (…), comma, full stop/period, paragraph, page or chapter – they all indicate in text or when translated into speech, different kinds of pause to help marshal thoughts and aid understanding. In these situations, the length of the pause may differ. Say micr...
Feb 03, 2022•2 min•Season 2Ep. 399
2022.02.02 – 0398 – The Importance Of Pauses In Lists Sometimes you have a list of two or three items in a sentence: So, on an airline when the cabin crew offer you a meal (we used a similar example previously): “Would you like chicken or fish with vegetables or pasta?” Are you being offered: · “Would you like chicken / or fish with vegetables / or pasta?” o Chicken, fish with vegetables, or pasta? · “Would you like chicken or fish with vegetables / or pasta?” o Chicken and fish (both of which c...
Feb 02, 2022•4 min•Season 2Ep. 399
2022.02.01 – 0397 – My Manager’s A Jerk… “What’s that on the road ahead?” “What’s that on the road, a head?” A pause can make all the difference between seeing traffic problems, and the scene of a murder… If your friend said to you: “My manager who’s in the New York office / is a jerk” the pause would indicate that they have more than one manager, and they are referring to the one in New York, rather than the one in London or Paris. If instead they said “My manager / who’s in the New York office...
Feb 01, 2022•2 min•Season 2Ep. 397
2022.01.31 – 0396 – Pauses As A Signpost To Meaning As well as the above reasons, you pause to help signpost the sense of the sentence. You can pause between setting up a statement and presenting it: “Crafted in stunning 9ct white gold / each of these studs boast a brilliant-cut solitaire diamond.” You can pause to make a statement stand out: “This / is the BBC” or as I say at the end of my podcast: “From London / I’m Peter Stewart” But the meaning is the key-thing. Remember that for when you co...
Jan 31, 2022•2 min•Season 2Ep. 396
2022.01.30 – 0395 – When We Pause When we use a pause Not all pauses are created equal. We use them to help both the reader and the listener in many different ways. Pauses – together with intonation - aid understanding Pauses should be at speech-natural places within a script, rather than appearing at random within it. But you don’t pause at every comma or after every phrase. The commas are there in the main to help you and not to dictate to you and to break whenever you reach one will give you ...
Jan 30, 2022•2 min•Season 2Ep. 395
2022.01.29 – 0394 – Don’t Fear The Silence “Pauses strengthen the voice. They also render thoughts more clear-cut by separating them.” Rhetorica ad Herennium - the oldest surviving Latin book on rhetoric, dating from the late 80s BC Broadcasters can fear silence. We want to have a wall of sound on air – music and talking, or music and talking. It causes some people to talk, without ‘saying anything’, verbal diarrhoea just to keep the volume meter waggling on the studio desk. Silence doesn’t mean...
Jan 29, 2022•3 min•Season 2Ep. 394
2022.01.28 – 0393 – Pauses: An Introduction PAUSES The huge majority of this book is about noise and sound. From how words are written to how they are uttered … their volume, intensity, pitch and pace. But now we’re going to look at what’s missing. Literally. The silence. The bits betwee n the words. The change of pace that’s a reduction to a complete standstill: the pause. Pauses are hugely important and effective, and they go hand-in-hand with ‘pace’. They are perhaps the least-used vocal tool...
Jan 28, 2022•2 min•Season 2Ep. 393
2022.01.27 – 0392 - How Fast Can We Speak… and Listen? How Fast Can We Speak? “In just 600 milliseconds, the human brain can think of a word, apply the rules of grammar to it and send it to the mouth to be spoken.” How Fast can We Listen? The average rate of speech for an American is about 125 words per minute; the human brain can process about twice that speed (“the average adult can readily comprehend spoken audio at 2X speed or at a compression rate of 50%. This roughly corresponds to 275 wor...
Jan 27, 2022•3 min•Season 2Ep. 392
2022.01.27 – 0392 - How Fast Can We Speak… and Listen? How Fast Can We Speak? “In just 600 milliseconds, the human brain can think of a word, apply the rules of grammar to it and send it to the mouth to be spoken.” How Fast can We Listen? The average rate of speech for an American is about 125 words per minute; the human brain can process about twice that speed (“the average adult can readily comprehend spoken audio at 2X speed or at a compression rate of 50%. This roughly corresponds to 275 wor...
Jan 27, 2022•4 min•Season 2Ep. 392
2022.01.26 – 0391 - Backtiming 2 Of course, the duration of a song or a report is known in advance, but there are variables such as live interviews (especially with non-professional guests who may talk in in half-sentences or whole paragraphs!). At the end of a show, presenters may adlib to fill time, or a buffer item such as a weather report is included, which can often be extended or cut short depending on an over- or under-run. On radio, presenters can often dip a song to get to a news bullet...
Jan 26, 2022•4 min•Season 2Ep. 391
Backtiming Some stations or programmes hand back to a network (possibly automatically) at a certain time. As this has to be ‘to the second’ there may be silence (‘dead air’) if a presenter ends too early, or a ‘crash out’ if their output is taken over mid-way through a sentence or story. So, each script is timed at the average speaking rate of three words per second. With this figure, the presenter or producer calculates the time they need to have started reading the script by, if they are to fi...
Jan 25, 2022•6 min•Season 2Ep. 390
2022.01.24 – S2024 – 0389 - How To Talk To Time A sense of timing can be developed in the same way as an experienced driver can tell the speed of a car as it passes, or while they’re in it, and with experience you will be able to slightly adjust your reading rate ‘speedometer’ (or a ‘read-ometer’!) to say, shave a second or two off a script: · Taking shorter breaths – or longer ones (that can be edited out) that will allow you take fewer breaths over the duration of the script · Slightly increas...
Jan 24, 2022•2 min•Season 2Ep. 389
2022.01.23 – S2023 – 0388 - Talking To Time One of the skills of a broadcaster is being able to talk to just the required length of time to ‘hit a junction’ (for example, a news bulletin or commercial break), up to the vocals in a song introduction or before a ‘music bed’ [1] runs out. Similarly, a commercial voice over artist must be able to talk to time, to fit the approved copy into the time allowed for that commercial, while keeping correct characterisation, inflection, phrasing and pausing ...
Jan 23, 2022•2 min•Season 2Ep. 388
2022.01.22 – S2022 – 0387 - Rehearsing Your Read-Speed Rehearsing Your Read-Speed Ever seen the rehearsal rooms from the tv shows “ Strictly Come Dancing ” or “ Dancing With The Stars ”? You will have seen, or can imagine, how the pros show the celebs the steps: slow to start, then get fast. And it’s like that with learning a new instrument, a new song, heck even reading itself … and now with script-reading: start slow, practice getting your tongue around the words, a phrase at a time. Practice ...
Jan 22, 2022•1 min•Season 2Ep. 387
2022.01.21 – S2021 – 0386 - Slow-Speed Speed Traps · By itself , reading slowly does not make you sound more authoritative or serious. You still have to understand the content, have intentional intonation, proper pronunciation, a sense of context and so on. · And neither does a slow read, by itself, make a script easier for a listener to understand. Telling a tale like a tortoise may actually make it more difficult to absorb – the listener becoming so frustrated with your relaxed reading rate th...
Jan 21, 2022•1 min•Season 2Ep. 386
2022.01.20 – S2020 – 0385 - Slowing Down To Highlight Importance Saying a single word or phrase slower, slightly elongating its pronunciation, highlights it within a sentence and so can be used as part of your arsenal to highlight its importance. These variable speeds contrast with the text around it, and therefore take on additional significance. · “ The cost is over one-billion pounds …” · “ The death toll stands at fifty-thousand people ” · “ The statue is over 100-metres high ”. Hosted on Ac...
Jan 20, 2022•2 min•Season 2Ep. 385
2022.01.19 – S2019 – 0384 -The Message Given By ‘Slowing Your Talking’ · Slower speed may add tension, or suspense before a surprise, (and you can use the pause – which we discuss later - as a ‘drumroll’ before a punchline, or a release) · A slower speed is often required for a video voiceover, to give the viewer time to absorb any images or graphics on screen · Complex, sadder or formal content may benefit from a slower, calmer pace · Slowing your pace will add accuracy and clarity – there’s le...
Jan 19, 2022•2 min•Season 2Ep. 384
2022.01.18 – S2018 – 0383 - The Message Given By ‘Slowing Your Talking’ · Slower speakers can be seen as ‘slow-witted’, overly-thoughtful and lacking in confidence… · Or as so super-confident they can go at their own speed, despite what others may think, they may be thoughtful and considering every nuanced word in what they say. Again the context and content of your message will help you decide which image you want to project. · Or be perceived as tired - as though the speaker is bored with the ...
Jan 18, 2022•3 min•Season 2Ep. 383
2022.01.17 – S2017 – 0382 - EXTREMES OF SPEED - The Slower Read EXTREMES OF SPEED - The Slower Read “Slow down, you move too fast, You got to make the morning last” The 59th Street Bridge Song (“ Feelin’ Groovy ”), Simon & Garfunkel 1966 If you want to communicate an important point well, naturally, you may need to fight the urge for urgency. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 17, 2022•2 min•Season 2Ep. 382
2022.01.16 – S2016 – 0381 - The Speed of T&Cs These ‘disclaimer statements’ are often heard at the end of an ad … so, after the enticing offer comes the ‘boring bit’ and information on the limitations. Let’s be honest, the client doesn’t want to highlight this detail and certainly doesn’t want to spend vital airtime having it read at the same speed as the main deal. But in 2008 the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority ruled [1] , perhaps not unreasonably, that disclaimers on radio adverts mu...
Jan 16, 2022•3 min•Season 2Ep. 381
2022.01.15 – S2015 – 0380 - Fast Talking Speed Traps 2 · A fast read can lead to reduction in intonation, leading to a machine-gun fire style as you rush to squeeze more script into fewer seconds · If you are reading quickly, you have less time for your eyes to ‘read ahead’; and your brain to process what’s coming up … which could lead to more tongue-tied talking · Saying a word or phrase faster tells your listener that it is ‘insignificant information’ (remember we covered this in the chapter o...
Jan 15, 2022•1 min•Season 2Ep. 380
2022.01.14 – S2014 – 0379 - Fast Talking Speed Traps Some people speak fast naturally and can still be understandable and engaging. But: · If you read a script too fast, then for the listener it might be like watching the landscape from an express-train window: they get a general idea, but not a full understanding. To use another analogy: they will be gobbling down your nuggets rather than digesting them · If you talk too fast, there’s a chance people will miss things, the detail about a product...
Jan 14, 2022•3 min•Season 2Ep. 379
2022.01.13 – S2013 – 0378 - The Message Given By Talking Fast The Message Given By Talking Fast · Fast talkers are often seen as confident and clever. It’s almost as though they have so much great content to share that they can’t wait to get it all out…. · Or they can be perceived as nervous and excitable, unable to control themselves, “ letting their tongue run away with them ”. So, think of the image you are giving when you rattle off like a cattle-market auctioneer: verbal dexterity or intern...
Jan 13, 2022•2 min•Season 2Ep. 378
2022.01.12 – S2012 – 0377 - Being Chased By The Music · You are being ‘chased by the music’ Many presenters like to talk with music running underneath them. Such a track is called a ‘bed’. It makes them feel safe and less exposed as they can pause for a moment and know that there’s no silence or ‘dead air’. But music beds can encourage someone to talk too fast as presenters confuse pace for ‘momentum’ or ‘excitement’. Although your delivery should mirror the bed (a lugubrious read over a dance t...
Jan 12, 2022•6 min•Season 2Ep. 377
2022.01.11 – S2011 – 0376 - The Script’s Too Long Or The Time’s Too Short In a commercial voice-over situation, the duration of the piece is of the essence. If the spot has to be a certain length (to fit with the pictures, or because that’s the duration that has been bought, or it’s the duration of all commercials on that network so all breaks are balanced on different transmitters), then that is the length it has to be. This can cause some problems: · The script writer might have tried to cram ...
Jan 11, 2022•4 min•Season 2Ep. 376
2022.01.10 – S2010 – 0375 - Why You May Talk Fast · Fast-talking may be from how you were brought up. Perhaps you had several siblings and in a busy home you had to take any gap in a conversation to blurt out your contribution as fast as possible, and then keep talking to keep attention and ‘hold the floor’ · It may be that you have developed a fast-talking speed: perhaps as a sports commentator in a fast-moving play-by-play event such as basketball or ice hockey where you had to be fast to keep...
Jan 10, 2022•4 min•Season 2Ep. 375
2022.01.09 – S2009 – 0374 - Extremes Of Speed: The Faster Read EXTREMES OF SPEED - The Faster Read Usually, your listeners won’t have a second chance to process what it is that you have said. There’s no easy ‘rewind’ button on live radio or video and certainly not in an auditorium presentation. When speaking face to face, we can change our pace in response to the feedback we get and our feeling of their understanding of the topic – but not with pre-recorded audio, or live audio in a radio studio...
Jan 09, 2022•2 min•Season 2Ep. 374
2022.01.08 – S2008 – 0373 - Changing speed within a story Changing speed within a story On occasion you may change the speed within a paragraph or a story: starting slowly because of the content which is new, important and serious: ‘Multiple fatalities this morning, as a bus carrying commuters into the city, left the road and mounted a pavement in Stockbridge…’ And then, when giving information later in the story that is less important, throwaway or a ‘filler fact’, speeding up slightly: ‘It’s t...
Jan 08, 2022•6 min•Season 2Ep. 373
2022.01.07 – S2007 – 0372 - When You May Change Your Reading Rate For example, a weather script on a sunny summer’s day may be quite rushed – listeners are expecting it to be blue sky and high temperatures. But tell them about a forthcoming storm and your speed will slow (and your tone will also change) to reflect the severity of the situation. A lighter story can be read more quickly than a serious one, a complex story will be presented more slowly (although not patronisingly so) than a straigh...
Jan 07, 2022•3 min•Season 2Ep. 372
