Seminar 3

2nd year ACCS

Tutor: Simona Mazilu, PhD

THE POWER OF VOICE IN ORAL PRESENTATIONS (I)

BECOMING AWARE OF WHAT WE CAN DO WITH THE VOICE

Task 1
Read the following text on the human voice. Pay attention to the connection between sounds and
feelings and the importance of alternating speech with silence.
We speak with an instrument we call “the voice”. Listen to the sounds people make when they speak –
only the sounds – and you will discover something of the person playing the instrument. I learned that
the spaces between words were as important as the words themselves. A word could be emphasized
and a thought underlined by silence, by space, whilst the rapid, close, unbroken delivery of words
causes the ideas to become blurred and recede into noise. The voice reveals who we are and how we
are more than the words we choose. And the feelings communicated in the sounds of words are the
only truth. (excerpt from Gerry Spence, How to Argue and Win Every Time, 1995, in In Company
Upper-Intermediate, p. 23)
Gerry Spence is a renowned American lawyer who, in a TV mock trial organized in the UK in 1986
defended Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of J. F. Kennedy, against Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor.
In his book How to Argue and Win Everytime (1995), Spence, who, in a career spanning over 50 years,
has never lost a criminal case, views the human voice as a musical instrument which needs to be tuned
to the feelings and attitude of the speaker. Moreover, Spence argues that silence can have a decisive
role in persuading people if it is used appropriately.

Task 2
Watch the following videos on the tone of voice and how to change the tone of voice. Pay attention to
the connection between emotions and voice and the impact we have on listeners/interlocutors.
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hvVjOqk_4o Alex Lyon on tone of voice (8.06 min)
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH287zxVXE0 Alex Lyon on how to change tone of voice
(8.56 min)
Task 3
Watch the following video on ways to improve one’s public speaking voice.
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOVlEIR4rBU Brian Tracy on voice (5.01 min)
Task 4
Watch the following video on pausing in public speaking. Pay attention to the rule of pausing after the
emphasized words/ideas.
4. https://www.briantracy.com/blog/public-speaking/tip-the-power-of-the-pause/ Brian Tracy on pause
(3.42 min)
Task 5
Watch the following video of Gerry Spence’s final plea at the mock trial of Lee Harvey Oswald. Pay
attention to the alternation between speech and silence.
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-Reemd6FzM Gerry Spence’s final plea (4.36 min)

Task 6
Watch the following video on voice as a personal brand.
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ylzGfHKOs TEDx Vocal branding (12.21 min)

Task 7
Utter the sentence “I’ve been working here for five years.” in such a way as to convey anger, joy,
sadness and contempt. Make use of voice inflections and facial expressions to sound as credible as
possible. Using your mobile phone, record yourselves saying this sentence in different ways and then
listen to how your voice sounds. What is your impression?