Add rhythm to your speech

is for RHYTHM

"Anywhere in the world, and whatever the style, language is rhythm. And it has always been - speech is probably the ultimate origin of all music and dance." -William Z. Shetter

Using just one or two of these rhythm tips will increase the quality of your presentation dramatically.

For Rhythm, think "RAPS"

-R is for Repetition: "It can be fun, fun, fun!"

-A is for Accentuating words: "It CAN be fun!"

-P is for Pause: "It can be fun! (five second pause) "Lots of fun!"

S is for Speech Pace - normal/slower/faster: "It can be fun (normal pace); Let me repeat that. It---Can---Be---Fun. (slower pace.) So let's do it!" (fast pace.)

The chapter titled, “How to Make Your Speech Sparkle,” from The public speaker's treasure chest: A compendium of source material to make your speech sparkle offers the following suggestions to add cadence in your presentation.

- Repeat some words or phrases. Not only adds rhythm, it helps to stamp them indelibly upon the minds of the speakers. Audiences hearing the same information six times over retain more than 90 percent of it!

- Intersperse short sentences with long ones.

- Use a series of short, crisp sentences.

More tips that add rhythm to your speech comes from James Humes, a presidential speech writer, in his book, The Sir Winston Method:

RHYME (one syllable words are the easiest)

-Sell, tell, fell, well

-Survive, thrive, strive

- Buy-die, try, defy

-Invest, divest, best, test

-Earn, learn, yearn, turn

-Gain pain, wane, retain

“Those who first learned the market are those who now have earned the big profits”

ECHO: Mix and match 12 of the simplest and oldest verbs...

...with 11 of the simplest and oldest adverbs:

“We will reach our goal if we reach out to the upside market”

ALLITERATION:

“The bottom line of communication is contact and communion with your audience”

The Master Puts it all Together

I believe one of the most powerfully effective speeches of all time is Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. Dr. King employed dozens of techniques, including those of rhythm. The result? A poignant speech that is undeniably a timeless classic. Take a look at the cadence in the following excerpt.
”But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition”

Comment of Phyllis Moif from her book, I was Winston Churchill's Private Secretary

“I can see him now, pacing slowly up and down the room, his hands clasped behind his back, his shoulders hunched, his head sunk forward in deep thought, slowly and haltingly dictating the beginning of a speech or an article. I wait, my pencil poised in midair, as he whispers phrases to himself, carefully weighing each word and striving to make his thoughts balance. Nothing may be put down until it has been tested aloud and found satisfactory. A happy choice brings a glint of triumph to his eye; a poor one is instantly discarded. He will continue the search until every detail – of sound, rhythm and harmony – is to his liking. Sometimes there are long halts, during which he patiently sounds out a phrase a dozen times, this way and that, making the cigar in his hand serves as a baton to punctuate the rhythm of his words”