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In some elocution courses, a student is required to underline all the significant words in a poem or article before reading the selection aloud. He is then urged to read the underlined words with special emphasis. He can do this by pronouncing them in a higher pitch or with more force, that is, with a louder, stronger tone of voice and, most effectively, by judicious timing. He will in properly regulated tempo take as much time to speak the significant words as it took him to speak three or four of the preceding words. That is the important technique for speaking interestingly, with an edge of liveliness. Nature abhors monotony. Speaking all syllables in the same measured way, pronouncing all words in the same tempo, creates monotony, blurs the true meaning, and propagates yawns. Let everyone remember that the sine qua non, the minimum essential of good talking, is to make the important, the significant words in a phrase, in a sentence, and in a paragraph stand out. If that is done, no matter how, the worst danger of tiresome diction will be by-passed. A person may well set the rule for himself to take about as much time to speak any important word as three less important ones. |
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