Guidelines For Sentence Length And Variety In Public Speaking

Have you ever sat and attempted to write a speech, only to discover after you’ve begun that you have no idea how to structure your sentences to effectively convey your ideas? In public speaking sentence length and structure are as intimately involved in the effective delivery of a speech as proper enunciation and emphasis. Before stepping up behind the podium you should ensure that the material you are preparing to deliver has been prepared effectively, presenting the ideas as clearly and concisely as possible.

Variety

Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of listening to a college professor who sounds like the speaker from the Visine commercials at eight o’clock in the morning can understand the hazards associated with being a monotonous speaker. Your audience is going to fall straight to sleep! In public speaking it is important that you incorporate enough variety in your tone and material to keep your audience interested.

The first rule of sentence structure in speech is to employ secure variety. Your sentences should range from long to short, declarative to interrogative, exclamatory to emotional. With the huge range of variety available in the English language there is no reason for any person with ideas and a basic command of the language to be a monotonous speaker.

Length

The emphasis and tone behind a statement is a large part of its delivery, but its length plays a role as well. There are a number of advantages and disadvantages with the employment of varied sentence length. The savvy student of public speaking be familiar with both in order to  ensure effective delivery of their thoughts and ideas.

Short Sentences-The advantages of the short sentence are self apparent. Short sentences are easily understood. They are direct and to the point. They are easy to deliver with the proper emphasis. They are easy to say!

With these advantages it would be easy for the beginning student to employ only short sentences in their speeches. More is best, right? Not necessarily. Speeches filled with short, compact sentences run the risk of becoming monotonous. They may not present ideas in their entirety, leaving the listener either scrambling to follow along as the speaker takes five sentences to convey a single thought. Finally, they run the risk of being overly compact, leaving the speech bare of the emotive expressions and supporting thoughts that make it complete.

Long Sentences-The advantages of excessively long sentences are few. More often than not a lengthy sentence will defeat its own purpose, droning on and on until the listener has lost interest. Anyone who has ever had the privilege of reading the works of John Milton or Les Miserables can relate to how difficult it can be to follow along when a speaker (or writer, in this case) gets carried away with an idea and forgets to stop for breath. One sentence in Les Miserables includes nearly one thousand words in both French and English!

At what point does “long” become “too long”? That’s difficult to say. There are no established number of words to state at what point in public speaking short becomes medium, medium becomes long and long becomes excessive. A good rule of thumb is to stop a sentence and begin another when a full thought has been completed. If this feels too choppy a good speaker can easily break up a long sentence into smaller portions through the use of sensible pauses.

Proper mastery of sentence length and variety will go a long way toward improving your skills in public speaking and making your messages and your delivery as effective as possible.

My Name Is Christopher Carlin And I Want To Give You Twenty Free Public Speaking Tips

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