5 Keys to Becoming Playful, Precise, and Persuasive in Speech

This podcast discusses five essential qualities for becoming a playful, precise, and persuasive speaker. These qualities include expanding your vocabulary, accessing your deep lexicon, commanding pauses for emphasis, pruning filler words, taking inventory of your language inputs, and tuning your vocal instrument. By implementing these strategies, you can improve your clarity, depth, and resonance as a communicator. Five keys to becoming playful, precise, and persuasive in speech. Articulate speakers harness the power of language to engage, inform, and persuade. In this podcast, we will delve into five essential qualities that enable speakers to be expressive and captivating. Expanding your lexicon. Everyone has two lexicons, the surface and the deep. Your surface lexicon consists of words you unconsciously default to daily. The deep lexicon comprises of words that you recognise but seldom use. The key is to tap into this rich reservoir. Accessing the deep lexicon, repetition, utilising a word 38 unique times makes it part of your surface lexicon. Time. Allowing more time to explore your deep lexicon helps you to find the right words. Number two, commanding the pause. Pauses are not signs of slowness or unintelligence. They demonstrate confidence, intentional language use, and create suspense. Number three, pruning your filler words. Being over-reliant on filler words like um, uh, and like makes your speech more clear and powerful. Focus on hearing word endings and keeping your mouth closed until ready to speak can aid in this process. Number four, taking inventory of your language inputs. Your speech is a reflection of the language you're exposed to. Engaging with rich language, reading great works, and being mindful of your daily language sources can significantly enhance your articulacy. Tuning your vocal instrument. Articulation is not just about words, it's about how you say them. Using your pitch, volume, speed, and variation, you can make even ordinary words sound extraordinary. Sir David Attenborough's voice exemplifies this principle. Reading poetry out loud is a practical method to develop your vocal instrument. Becoming an articulate speaker is an attainable goal that requires understanding and mastery over these five key areas. Implementing these strategies can lead you to speak with greater clarity, depth, and resonance, making you a more effective and persuasive communicator.