As a member of a public speaking club, I have to listen to many speeches, evaluate them and give my recommendations to the speakers. Almost always, I recommend that speakers use pauses more effectively.

Common mistakes

Many people when delivering a public speech feel nervous and tend to rush their speech. They do not make pauses between sentences and paragraphs and thus do not separate their ideas and thoughts. Such speakers lack power and gravitas. It is very difficult for their listeners to follow them and to get engaged.
Some people who take our elocution lesson complain that they are being asked to repeat what they said. During their speech analysis, we discovered that they have a tendency to speak very fast. They have no time to lean on long English vowels and diphthongs and pronounce the sounds properly. Because of their bad pronunciation, others do not understand them.
It is a mistake to have too many pauses, for example within a phrase. It is a mistake to stress words that should be “thrown away” such as articles, prepositions and auxiliary verbs.
Making too many pauses might weaken your performance and make it a bit boring. Read our blog about liaisons and fluency.
People who do not know how to use a pause for effect often sound monotonous. The longer pauses can be used to make an impact and to highlight a particular point/word.
Often, when we speak with others, we do not have the patience to listen. We are caught up in our thoughts and cannot properly reply to a question. Here is an example: I asked my tennis partner how many times she played tennis last week. She had replied that she was not going to become a tennis coach or compete and she just played for fun. But my question was not about her future tennis plans, it was simply about the number of times she played in a week.
Below are a few tips from our apps and book on the use of pause:
1. Separate your ideas in order to allow your listeners to absorb one idea at a time and prepare them for the next one. Usually, the speed of listening is slower than the speed of speaking.
2. Make a pause before a word that you want to stress in a sentence to make it stand out. If you want to stress the first word of the sentence, make a pause after it.
3. Make a longer pause between paragraphs and even longer to create a dramatic effect. This can be very effective in public speeches when a longer pause keeps the audience in suspense and creates anticipation.
4. Listen, pause, think and reply. Pause for five seconds and think about the question and your answer or what you want to say. Try to answer only those questions that are being asked of you. It is particularly useful in business meetings, job interviews and sales pitches for investors promoting better understanding and pleasant communication.
5. Substitute parasite words such as “so, you know, basically, like, em, ah” with pauses.
Speaking without pauses is often a long-term habit and it may take time and effort to start using pauses correctly. A few elocution lessons, together with the book Get Rid of your Accent Part Two, Advanced Level and the apps Fluent English Speech and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause will help you master this valuable technique for successful performances.
The correct use of pauses will help you look and feel calm, confident and caring.

Accent reduction blog