Study 32

Sense Stress and Modulation

1, 2. What does sense stress do for a talk?

¹ Sense stress and modulation combine to make a talk meaningful and colorful. Without them, thoughts become distorted and interest lags. Since sense stress is usually the easier of the two to master, we will give it attention first.

² Keep in mind what sense stress is to accomplish. It is to emphasize words or thoughts in such a way  as to convey accurate meaning and to indicate to your audience their relative importance. Sometimes the stress needed is simply heavy or light, but there are also times when it requires finer shades.

3-7. Tell how one can acquire good sense stress.

³ Thought-conveying words in sentences stressed. Placement of stress is basically a matter of which words are stressed. It involves the recognizing of those words that convey the thought and, by proper emphasis or stress, making them stand out in relation to the words surrounding them. If words other than those that carry the thought are stressed, the meaning will be obscure or distorted.

⁴ Most persons in normal, everyday speech will make their meaning clear. Unless you have a particular mannerism, such as emphasizing prepositions, this aspect should present no real problem. Any outstanding weakness in the matter of placement is usually the result of some such mannerism. If that is your problem, work at it diligently. Ordinarily such habits cannot be broken in a talk or two, so your counselor may not hold you back if your wrong placement is not so pronounced as to distort your meaning. But for the most forceful and effective speech, keep working until you have completely mastered proper placement of stress.

⁵ Usually more conscious thought must be given to sense stress in preparing for public reading than for purely extemporaneous speech. That is true of the reading of scriptures in a talk just as it is true of reading paragraphs at the congregation Watchtower study. The reason why more attention must be given to sense stress when there is reading to be done is that the material we read usually was written by someone else. So we need to study it carefully, analyzing the thought and repeating the expressions themselves until they become natural to us.

⁶ How is emphasis or sense stress accomplished? There are various means, often used in combination: by greater volume, by more intensity or feeling, by lowering the tone, by raising the pitch, by slow and deliberate expression, by increasing the pace, by pausing before or after a statement (or both), by gestures and facial expressions.

⁷ At first be concerned primarily with whether your  emphasis is properly placed and of sufficient degree to make the key words stand out. So, in preparing your material, underscore the key words if you will be reading it. If you are speaking extemporaneously, get the thoughts clearly in mind. Use key words in your notes and then stress those words.

8, 9. Why is it important that principal ideas be stressed?

⁸ Principal ideas in talk stressed. This is the aspect of sense stress most frequently lacking. In such cases there are no peaks in the talk. Nothing stands out above everything else. When the talk is concluded it is often impossible to remember anything as being outstanding. Even if the main points are properly prepared to make them stand out, failure to give them proper emphasis in delivery can weaken them to the extent that they may be lost.

⁹ To overcome this problem, you must first analyze your material carefully. What is the most important point of the talk? What is the next most important? If you were asked to state the gist of the talk in one or two sentences, what would you say? That is one of the best ways to identify the highlights. After these are known, mark them in your notes or manuscript. You can now build to these points as climaxes. They are the peaks of your talk and, if the material is well outlined and you deliver it with strong degrees of emphasis, the principal ideas will be remembered. That is your purpose in speaking.

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10-12. Explain what modulation means.

¹⁰ Simple sense stress enables the audience to understand what you say, but variety in stress that modulation offers can make it enjoyable for them to listen. Do you make good use of modulation in your field ministry and in talks that you are privileged to give in the congregation?

¹¹ Modulation is an intermittent variation of pitch, pace and power designed to hold interest and demonstrate your progressive thoughts and emotions as speaker. To serve you best, your modulation should cover the full range of color that the material of any particular talk will allow. In the upper range of modulation you may have, in diminishing degree, excitement, enthusiasm and keen interest. In the middle range is mild interest, while in the lower range are seriousness and solemnity.

 ¹² In no instance would you want to appear theatrical by extremes of expression. Our speech should be colorful, not piously solemn like the orthodox clergy’s, nor hysterically violent like the tent-meeting evangelist’s. Proper dignity and respect for the Kingdom message will prevent any such unchristian displays.

13, 14. What is meant by variety in power?

¹³ Variety in power. Perhaps the simplest way to obtain modulation is to vary the power of your voice. This is one way of building climaxes and stressing the main points of your talk. However, simply increasing your volume will not always make the points stand out. In some cases it might make them more prominent, but the added force with which they are delivered may defeat your purpose. It may be that your points call more for warmth and feeling than an animated tone. In this case, lower your volume but increase your intensity. The same would be true if you were expressing anxiety or fear.

¹⁴ While variety in power is essential for modulation, care must be exercised not to speak so softly that some will not hear. Neither should volume be increased to the point of unpleasantness.

15-17. How does variety in pace enhance a talk?

¹⁵ Variety in pace. Few beginning speakers will vary their pace on the platform. We do it constantly in our everyday speech because our words flow out of us spontaneously just as we think of them or have need of them. But the new speaker on the platform will usually not allow himself to do this. He prepares his words and phrases too carefully, so all the words come out at the same rate of speed. Speaking from an outline will help to correct this weakness.

¹⁶ The main current of your talk should be a moderate pace. Minor points, narration, most illustrations, and so forth, will allow you to speed up. Weightier arguments, climaxes and main points usually call for a slower delivery. In some instances, for particularly strong emphasis, you could use slow, deliberate stress. You might even stop completely, in a pause, which is a total change of pace.

¹⁷ A few words of caution. Never speak so rapidly that your diction suffers. An excellent exercise in private practice sessions is to try reading aloud as rapidly as you can without stumbling. Repeat the same paragraph over and over, constantly increasing your  pace without stumbling or muffling your articulation. Then try reading as slowly as possible, dr-aw-ing ou-t th-e v-ow-els rather than chopping off the words. Then speed up and slow down alternately and spasmodically until your voice is flexible and will do what you want it to do. Now when you speak, your changes in pace will come automatically, according to the sense of what you are saying.

18-20. Explain how one can acquire variety in pitch.

¹⁸ Variety in pitch. Change of pitch is probably the most difficult means of modulation, that is, in any degree. Of course, we constantly stress words by a slight raising of the pitch, usually accompanied by a slight increase of power. We hit the word, as it were.

¹⁹ But more change in pitch than this is called for if you are to get the most benefit from this aspect of modulation. Try reading aloud Genesis 18:3-8 and Ge 19:6-9. Notice the great variety of both pace and pitch called for in these verses. Excitement and enthusiasm always have their outlet in a higher pitch than sorrow or anxiety. When these emotions appear in your material, express them accordingly.

²⁰ One of the main causes of weakness in this aspect of speech is the lack of sufficient range in the voice. If that is your problem, work at it. Try an exercise similar to that suggested earlier in this study. In this case, though, work at raising and lowering the pitch rather than varying the pace.

21-24. Why must modulation fit the thought or the emotion?

²¹ Modulation to fit thought or emotion. From our discussion of this quality so far it becomes quite clear that variations of the voice cannot be made simply to obtain variety. Your expressions must fit the mood of what you are saying. Where, then, does modulation begin? Obviously, it begins with the material you have prepared to deliver. If you have nothing but argumentation or nothing but exhortation in your talk, you will have little variety in your delivery. So analyze your outline after you have finished it and make sure you have all the ingredients present for a colorful as well as meaningful presentation.

²² But sometimes in the middle of your talk you feel the need for a change of pace. You feel your talk is dragging. What can you do? Here again extemporaneous delivery has the advantage. You can change the nature of your material as you go. How? One way  would be to stop talking and start reading a text from the Bible. Or you might convert some statement into a question, with a pause for emphasis. Perhaps you could insert an illustration, making it an adaptation of an argument in your outline.

²³ These techniques used during the talk, of course, are for experienced speakers. But you can use the same ideas in preparing your material in advance from your assignment.

²⁴ It is said that modulation is the spice in a talk. If the right kind is used and in the right amount, it will draw out the full flavor of your material and make it a delight to your audience.

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