We have often feel uncomfortable during pauses in our talks or lessons. However, planned pauses are very powerful.
Mark Twain observed, “The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”
Benefits of Planned Pauses
- Gives the listeners a chance to absorb what you said
- Emphasizes a point
- Lets the listeners catch up with your message
- Provides a transition and separation between major points
- Captures the listeners’ attention by creating tension and anticipation
- Gives the listeners a chance to ponder
- Helps convey emotion
- Replaces and avoids distracting “filler words”
- Lets your mind “catch up” with your mouth
- Controls the pace of your delivery
- Adds emphasis to key points
- Makes you look more thoughtful and credible
- Gives students a chance to think about and respond to discussion questions
A famous actor (Walter Matthau) explained that when he received tragic news on stage, he didn’t react immediately. Instead, he counted for a full 10 seconds before responding. By then, he had the audience in the “palm of his hand.”
Avoid “Fillers”
Our fear of pauses, causes us to use annoying “filler words.”
A filler word is any short meaningless noise, word or phrase used during a talk or lesson to fill silence. They are the “ums” and “uhs” that litter your dialogue and distract from your message. Remember, “silence is golden.”
“Fillers”
- “Um”
- “Uh”
- “Ah”
- “So”
- “Like”
- “Right”
- “Well”
- “You Know”
I had a speech professor whose pet peeve was the filler phrase, “you know.” Whenever a student used “you know” during their speech, the professor stood up and bellowed: “No, I don’t know. Do you?” He broke us of that annoying habit.
A Powerful Memorable Pause
I remember a youth sacrament talk from 45 years ago. The talk was on “Family History and Temple Work.” At the end of the talk, the girl stood and looked at the congregation for 30 seconds. It was very uncomfortable, and it felt like an eternity. “You have waited just 30 seconds for me to finish my talk. How long have your ancestors waited for you to finish their temple work?” Powerful!
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