The Importance of Voice When Presenting Virtually (Part 3)
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“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”
—Mark Twain, author
We’re continuing our series of posts about voice with another important topic: Pauses/Silence.
When reflecting on a presentation he gave for graduate school, Scott Taylor, Owner & Creative Director at BlkDog, told us that “in this unique setting, I had to slow down, pause intentionally, and recognize the areas where I could inject enthusiasm or emphasis, and adjust my tone to keep the audience’s attention.” Notice his statement about pausing intentionally. When used effectively, pauses are powerful. (1) In fact, scholars have shown “that listeners were more likely to recognize words which had been encountered after silent pauses, demonstrating that silence affects not only the process of language comprehension but also its eventual outcome.” (2) Pauses can communicate confidence and are critical to effective storytelling. They emphasize key points, and a well-placed pause helps the previous content “sink in.” In addition, slight pauses have been shown to increase comprehension. (3, 4) According to scholars, “Research observed that speech consists of short (0.15 s), medium (0.50 s), and long (1.50 s) pauses.” (5) A speech that is read aloud, usually from a script, tends to produce only short and medium pauses, while spontaneous speech shows more frequent use of pauses. When the pace is too slow and is accompanied by a monotone pitch, there is a high likelihood that the speaker will be perceived as boring. If the pace is too fast, the speaker can be difficult to follow. Their sentences may run together or listeners may perceive them as frazzled (and in turn, the listeners may become frazzled, too). Likewise, a fast pace can also communicate nerves or immaturity.
Remember, too, that your listeners will be accessing your presentation on a variety of devices and WiFi (or cell phone data) speeds; if you are speaking too quickly and a listener’s internet speed or cellular connection is poor, that person may miss a lot of content. Maria has also witnessed presentations (and even meetings) where a presenter’s video quality is poor and freezes—and then when it reconnects, the sound “catches up” by transmitting very quickly everything the presenter said while they were frozen! This, of course, is not to say that you as the presenter should speak very slowly or pause for long amounts of time; we just want to remind you to be as conscious of your audience (and your own devices and connection) as possible! The ideal approach when you are planning your speech is that a measured pace provides listeners with a break, an opportunity to follow along better, or (as we mentioned earlier), a moment to reflect on what was just said.
Of course, the pause can be overused and oddly placed, but in general, an intentional pause is an important tool in a speaker’s ability to connect. And when you are giving online presentations, pauses could be especially important just in case a participant’s sound cuts out momentarily; a pause on your end (even when you do not know that a participant’s connection is poor) could allow their internet connection to catch up.
Here is one place that we do not recommend pauses, especially when this becomes an obvious pattern: when you are shifting to the next slide. When Scott and Maria coach speakers (like in an Executive Communication class), one element that Maria in particular pays attention to is how the speaker transitions to the next slide. We are not saying that you cannot and should not ever pause between slides; sometimes the pause may be warranted. What we are referring to here is the abrupt and awkward pause when the speaker finishes the content on one slide…stops for a moment of silence…clicks to the next slide…and starts speaking. Even worse is when the speaker does this with every slide. Try to save your pauses for key moments in your verbal content; you could transition to the next slide while you are speaking and closing up the content from the previous slide, pause for a breath, and then continue. It takes practice, but it leads to a more cohesive presentation overall—and this way, the pauses you do incorporate will enhance meaningful content, not the approach of a new slide!
References
1 Treasure, J. (2013, June). How to speak so that people want to listen [Video]. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/
2 MacGregor, L. J., Corley, M., & Donaldson, D. I. (2010). Listening to the sound of silence: Disfluent silent pauses in speech have consequences for listeners. Neuropsychologia, 48(14), 3982–3992.
3 MacGregor, L. J., Corley, M., & Donaldson, D. I. (2010). Listening to the sound of silence: Disfluent silent pauses in speech have consequences for listeners. Neuropsychologia, 48(14), 3982–3992.
4 Woolbert, C. H. (1920). Effects of various modes of public reading. Journal of Applied Psychology, 4(2-3), 162.
5 Saukh, O., & Maag, B. (2019, April). Quantle: Fair and honest presentation coach in your pocket. In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks, 253–264.
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We explore this topic and others in our new book Captovation: Online Presentations by Design.