A SPEAKER’S GUIDEBOOK 4 TH EDITION CHAPTER 18 The Voice in Delivery

Elements of Vocal Delivery  Volume  Pitch  Rate  Pauses  Pronunciation & Articulation  Vocal Variety

Volume  Voice projection to fit the size of the room  Variations in your voice that indicate loudness or softness  Compensation for interfering noises  Breathing from your diaphragm improves your volume control and doesn’t strain your vocal cords

Pitch  Inflections of the voice  How high or low you speak – a very high- pitched voice can be painful to the ear; a low- pitched voice is difficult to hear.  Monotone versus varying pitch – practice varying your pitch by reading children’s stories out loud.

Rate  Rate is the speed of your delivery/speech.  Some speakers are breaking the “speaking limit” when they deliver their speech.  If you notice that you start stumbling over your words or getting tongue-tied, you are speaking too quickly. Take a deep breath and start again at a slower rate.

Pauses  Fluency is the smooth flow of your words.  The human speech pattern has a natural rhythm.  Alliteration and repetition help create a more pleasing rhythm.  Pauses should be brief silence for effect, and not awkward.  Vocal fillers are the utterances that are vocalized during an awkward pause (uh, um, er, and stuff) and should be avoided.

Question If the custodian engages a noisy floor waxing machine in the hallway outside your classroom during your speech, what do you need to adjust? A. Pitch B. Rate C. Fluency D. Volume E. Pause

Pronunciation & Articulation  Pronunciation may be difficult for some words. (Example: statistics) Look up the correct pronunciation in the dictionary and practice until you are comfortable.  Articulation refers to making all of the sounds in a word appropriately. Many people drop off the ending sounds of words or squish words together instead of saying all of the syllables. (Correct Example: “I am going to the grocery store.”) (Incorrect Example: “I’m go-n ta da gro-shry sto.”)

Vocal Variety  Combining all of the elements together is demonstrating vocal variety; effectively using one or two elements is not enough to perform well on your speech.  Add emotion and crescendos to your voice.  Avoid mumbling or slurring your words together.  Practice until you feel confident.

Question If a speaker has lazy speech, a type of articulation problem, how can this be corrected? A. Practice speaking correctly. B. Seeking medical advice. C. Wearing an orthodontic appliance. D. It cannot be corrected.

Chapter 18 Key Terms for Review volume lavalier microphone handheld or fixed microphone pitch intonation speaking rate vocal fillers pauses vocal variety pronunciation articulation dialects mumbling lazy speech