Guide to Correct Pausing During Speech

The intelligent use of pausing contributes very materially to artistic and effective speech. It discloses a speaker's method of thinking, and its possibilities are almost as varied as thought itself. Rapid utterance, unless employed specifically to portray hasty action, is usually a sign of shallow-ness. The speaker fails to weigh or measure his thought, and skims over its surface in undue anxiety to express what is in his mind. Friday afternoon furnishes a good illustration of meaningless declamation. He rushes through his lines with breathless haste, oftentimes gabbling the last few words while resuming his seat.

Correcting pausing is the result of clear thinking. As a usual thing long pauses indicate importance and depth of thought. Its basis is that used by a good speaker in conversation. In the discussion or expression of the weighty and important truths of a regular discourse, a trained speaker will generally use a slower movement and appropriately longer pauses. Grammatical punctuation shows the construction, but is not always an accurate guide for the speaker or reader. There are numerous shades of pausing, from the slightest spiritual separation of words to very long intervals of time. These must be determined by the thought, the occasion, and the speaker's intelligence. Nor is a pause merely '' an interval of time.' A speaker is here occupied as fully as when actually expressing words. His mind is employed in seeking, picturing, and weighing the ensuing thought. His audience will follow his mental process and share with him his search for words, pictures, and lines of reasoning. It is said of Webster that upon one occasion, in a public address, the word he wanted did not readily come. He discarded one after another, until finally he found the word that precisely expressed his meaning, whereupon the audience broke out into spontaneous applause.

Nowhere is the "eloquence of silence" more manifest than in this matter of pausing. Frequently it is during these intervals that speaker and auditor are drawn together into closest relationship, and what is termed "personal magnetism" is most deeply felt.

Pausing is a physiological and psychological manifestation of the principle of action and reaction that underlies all vocal expression. Time must be provided in which to replenish the lungs. The listening ear demands relief from an otherwise incessant flow of sound. Clearness insists upon proper divisions of thought. Pausing gives additional interest by keeping the hearer in a state of expectancy. It is particularly valuable in expressing emphasis, spontaneity, and deep feeling. In short, it gives justness, freshness, clearness, and poise to spoken language.