A “25 x 25 in ’25” Public Speaking Exercise
Have you ever had this experience:
- You’re in a meeting, and you offer an idea.
- Nobody reacts, or even acknowledges that you just spoke.
- A few minutes later, someone else offers your same idea, and gets heaped with praise for it.
This often happens to women, but it can happen to men, too.
How? Well, the person who took your shine might have more status, or be determined to make an impression (even if that means stealing your idea), or just have a loud voice.
Or maybe no one heard what you said—and that’s a possibility you can do something about!
Articulation Shapes Your Sound
What you’re trying to do when you articulate is to organize the sound that hits your listeners’ ears.
This is always useful to the person who’s listening, and might be particularly helpful if you’re:
- A shy, or quiet person, or have a naturally soft voice (you can raise the clarity of your speech instead of raising the loudness of your sound)
- Talking to people who don’t know much about your subject
- Talking to people who speak English as a second language
- YOU speak English as a second (or third or fourth) language, and worry about others understanding your accent
How to Articulate in English
The simplest way to ensure that you’re always heard is to articulate your consonants. (A consonant is any letter that’s not a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y).
Why consonants? Because in English, the vowels (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y) are bland and floaty and can’t help you speak more clearly.
Think of articulation as sharpening the corners of your sound—particularly at the end of words and sentences, where the sound we’re making tends to drop off—so that words and ideas come through more clearly.
How do you do that?
Here’s how: