Breaks between words are what tells us when a word has finished: there’s bound to be an ancient proverb somewhere about it. Speaking without the slight gaps between words can make you harder for your audience to understand, in exactly the same ways as takingoutthespaces makes your written stuff harder to read.
More important than simply being harder to understand, not speaking with breaks runs the risk of being actively misunderstood. Let me give you an example.
I recently went to the U2 performance in Glasgow and on the train back home I over-heard a member of staff on the platform telling another passenger that this wasn’t the train they wanted. They wanted the Virgin train on the adjacent platform. What they meant to say was “No; Virgin’s on the other platform” but unfortunately what everyone heard, because there was no silent space for the comma, was “No virgins on the other platform“.
It might have been true, I suppose, but…
When you practice your presentation, always (but always!) make a point of making sure you get your spaces between words sorted out: it really is the most basic presentation skill in the world!
That’s hilarious – and so true! Pausing not only helps distinguish words, but it also helps pacing and and help emphasize certain key words.
Great post.
Good point! The trick is to find out just how long your pauses should be. I always like to slowly count to 5 in my head before going on and this helps me to make my pauses last long enough…
– Dr. Jim Anderson
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