Page 183 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

174 DELIVERY

But even if you understand the up-down-up idea, chances are
that you may still wind up speaking too fast because your mouth
will be tempted to try to catch up with your eyes. So always leash
yourself in.
-

Put on the brakes. Consciously slow down, and you will probably
end up sounding conversational.
-

And remember to pause often. Pause after every sentence. Stop
after every key point. Saturate your audience with eye contact. Really
look at the people and not over their heads.

TEXT

The up-down-up drill sounds easy, but for people not used to it, it
can feel awkward. To make the procedure as easy as possible, pre-
pare your scripted speeches so that:

1. The letters are big enough to be read easily from three to four feet
away. Laser printers can quickly produce enlarged conven-
tional typeface, which should be one-third- to one-half-inch
high.
2. Each sentence is a separate paragraph. (This makes it a lot easier
to execute the drill we just discussed.) If the original text has
several sentences in a paragraph, you can indicate which sepa-
rated sentences belong to the original paragraph by not indent-
ing those sentences. They would still be separate, just not
indented on the speech copy. The only indented sentence
would be the lead sentence of the original paragraph.
3. Double-space each sentence, and triple-space between each
paragraph.