Introducing Talk To Or Talk With In A New Light!

 Men And Mannerism!

We sometimes saw people follow a form of mannerism when addressing the public. There is a tale of a politician who had adopted a mannerism of fingering a button on his coat while addressing an audience. Some people have a mannerism while speaking, tried to take hold of the lapels of his coat with both hands as if he were in deadly fear of running away before he had finished. Similarly others, at the introduction of a speech, would sound his chest and sides with their hands, and getting at that his ribs were in good order, would begin to rinse their hands with invisible soap.

The weird thing about mannerisms is that the speakers are generally unconscious of them and would be the first to blame them on others.  The solution for such flaws lies in thorough and intense self-examination and self-criticism. Regardless of eminent a speaker may be with unsavoury mannerisms, he would be quite amazing without them.

Every public speaker has distinct qualities of voice and manner that differentiate him from other men. In so far as this personality offers boosted power and convincingness to the speaking style, it is preferable and should be motivated. When, nonetheless, it is transmitted to excess, or in any sense hurts the feelings of good taste, it is just a mannerism and should be demoralized.

There is a disagreeable mannerism of the voice, remembered as pulpit tone, that has appeared to be correlated with some preachers. It carries numerous forms, such as an excessively raised key, a drawling monotone, an immediate shift from one peak of the pitch to another, or a tone of condescension. It is furthermore listened to in a plaintive nominal inflexion, imparting a characteristic of intense unhappiness to a speaker's style. These are all withdrawals from the natural, gravity, polite, and simple delivery that goes to the high office of preaching.

However, another unpleasant mannerism of the voice is that of conveying a soaring inflexion at the closing of consecutive sentences that are precise. Here the speaker's thought is left halted in the air, and the hearer experiences a sense of dissatisfaction or doubt and probably the whole meaning is perverted. Feelings recited in such a manner, unless they distinctly compel a waking inflexion, require the priority and force of effective speaking.

Artificiality, pretence, pomposity, mouthing, excessive emphasis, tedium, intoning and everything that distracts from the clarity and genuine fervour of the conversation should be ignored. Similarly, much articulation may ride an impression beyond the mark, and attentive devotion to making a great speech may protect the speaker from a state of tension throughout its whole delivery.

Clean and accurate pronunciation is important, but it should not be pedantic, nor should it captivate awareness itself. What you're deterring me from listening to what you say, might also be pertained to the manner of the speaker. Excessive opening of the mouth, loud smacking of the lips, carrying painstakingly to final consonants, the long hiss of sibilants, are all to be denounced. Hesitation, stumbling over complicated combinations, covering up final syllables, and converging the last sound of one word with the first sound of the succeeding word, are indefensible in an experienced speaker. When the exact modulation of the voice is recited too often, it comes to be a mannerism, a sort of tedium of variation. It recollects one of a street-piano set to but one tune and is quite as discomforting to a sensitive ear. This is not the style that is wanted by a public man.

What should the speaker do with his hands? Do nothing with them unless they're especially required for the more comprehensive expression of a thought. Allow them to drop at the sides in their natural relaxed stance, available for instant use. To press the fist in the hollow of the back to aid the speaker, to clinch the lapels of the coat, to clap the hands audibly together, to place the hands on the hips in the behaviour of vulgar ease, to put the hands into the pockets, to squeeze the hands as if washing them with invisible soap, or to violently pound the pulpit these go to the list of unpleasant mannerisms.

At the opening of a speech, it may lend the impression of ease to set the hands behind the back, but this posture needs force and effort and should not be the property of maintenance. To push the arms upon the desk is to put them out of commission for the time being. Stooping or lounging of any kind, kneeling at the knee, or another symptom of complication or exhaustion may imply the composure of the simple chair but are barely applicable in a wide-awake speaker striving to convince men.

Swirling the body to and fro, soaring on the toes to bring out, sitting, stamping the foot, emerging from side to side, over-acting and impersonation and chaos and waste of every definition may well be excluded in public speaking. Be careful of extremes. Stop a statue-like manner on the one hand and a lasting uneasiness on the other. Dignity is preferable, but one should not ignore the messages of the Reverend Sam Jones, There is nothing more dignified than a corpse!

Gestures that are similarly often and also rapidly fall their importance.  If they strive at all they should be altered and complete, recommending freedom and spontaneity. When only half made they're likely to call awareness to the disparity and this extent will darken instead enable the thinking. The continual use of gestures is embarrassing to the eye and delivers the appearance of a lack of poise.

The young speaker especially should be cautioned not to mimic the speaking style of others. What is flawlessly natural to one may seem unreasonable in another. 

There is a peculiarity in a distinct type of speaking, which, while not precisely a mannerism, is damaging to the highest result. It embodies itself in physical imperfection. The speaker is uniformly exhausted, and his speaking has a half-hearted tone. The lifelessness in voice and manner conveys itself to the audience and deters all probability of a deep and lasting impression. 

The well-equipped speaker has a gifted culture of voice and body. All the methods of expression must be given rise to his obedient servants, but as master of them, he should feel to it that they conduct their work sincerely and spontaneously. He should be competent while speaking to surrender himself fully to his subject, convinced that as a result of virtuous motivation his delivery may be left greatly to take care of itself.

The next article is about how to speak in public?