Westside Toastmasters is located in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, California

Your Path to a Powerful Voice

Although there are many voice pitfalls into which we can fall without knowing it, there are also many steps that assure us of clear and effective communication:

• Use a warm, resonant voice. Avoid sounding flat, gruff, harsh, too weak, or too loud. Strive for a clear, ringing tone and speak with vigor.

• Build your point vocally. Add emphasis and drama through the way you actually say your words by stressing the most important words and phrases and shading the less important ones.

• Vary your pitch, force, volume, rate, and rhythm. Catch people's attention by getting noticeably louder at an important point.

• Have enough breath to finish each sentence on a strong note.

• Make sure your thoughts forge ahead and build your argument.

• Display a lively amount of vocal and physical energy. Be animated; otherwise, why should your audience be enthusiastic?

• Use rhetorical questions to involve your audience, but don't overdo it.

• Clearly articulate each sentence, phrase, word, and syllable. Give full value to all the sounds in your speech.

• Do not drop consonants (for example, gonna, runnin').

• Use correct pronunciation.

• Strive for a smooth tone; it will sustain your argument better than a choppy one.

• Avoid "oh," "uh," "okay," and "you know."

• Make sufficient use of the pause.

• Make sure your voice rises when you ask questions and falls when you make statements.

• Use emphasis, pauses, inflections, changing pitch, and loudness to shade what you have to say.