A Brief Overview of Emphasis in Speech

Emphasis consists in giving prominence to words or parts of discourse so as best to express their meaning. The principal means of giving emphasis are by change of force, inflection, pitch, movement, pause, and feeling. Two things are essential to correct emphasis: First, a clear understanding of the thought to be expressed; second, a thorough and practical knowledge of the various modes of emphasis.

These modes are usually found in combination, but the best results will be secured by practicing them at first separately. The speaker should thoroughly understand thought "values," the order of their importance and their relation to each other. He should be able to concentrate upon one thought at a time. He must carefully avoid over-emphasis. Too many interpreters of literature try to read into the lines meanings never intended by the writers.

The form of emphasis most frequently used by untrained speakers is that of force. Many people who speak with varied and appropriate emphasis in conversation, change to a loud declamatory style when called upon to address an audience. They endeavor to drive their thought home by force, mere loudness of voice, accompanied by violent physical movements. The difference between conversational style and that of public speaking is illustrated as follows: A cabinet size photograph, if shown to a few individuals, can be seen in all its details. Hold the same picture up before an audience of a hundred or more people, and the result is unsatisfactory. The picture, however, can be enlarged so that everybody in a large audience can see it, and if the process of enlarging it is naturally and symmetrically done the large picture will be as true a likeness as the small one. If it is otherwise enlarged, the result may be a caricature. In like manner, the public speaker who wishes to be natural and effective should enlarge his conversational style to fit the larger occasion, using all the various modulations and modes of emphasis employed in addressing a single individual.

The most intellectual use of emphasis is that of inflection, wherein graceful glides of the voice are used to give added prominence. This is particularly noticeable in the voices of well-bred children.

To pause immediately before a word gives greater emphasis than to pause after it. The hearer is kept waiting, and the mind, being in a state of expectancy, is likely to be more receptive and impressionable. This accounts, in part, for the effectiveness of a deliberate style over a rapid one. The speaker appears to weigh his words, and the hearer is made to appreciate that which is withheld from him even for a moment. It is said that a person who is thoroughly in earnest will emphasize correctly and naturally.