Habits are hard to change, especially if you don’t notice the habit as you’re doing it. This is often the case with a bad speech habit called Up Speak. Public Speaking Trainers hear it almost every day. It is a speech pattern where most of your sentences end on a pitch that goes up. Speakers with this habit sound like they’re asking a question and asking for the listeners’ validation. Either way, it makes the speaker sound unsure of themselves. There are reasons why it starts. Luckily, there are also techniques for making it stop.
But There’s More To Come!
Upspeak usually develops from a need to connect information together. The speaker wants to ensure the listener knows that more is coming and doesn’t want to lose their attention. Very often the speaker is guilty of constantly using run on, compound sentences that try to include too much information and not enough clear perspective. The right Public Speaking Training will point out the amount of Up Speak in your cadence and the negative perceptions that accompany it.
Running Out of Gas
Limited breathing and breath support, especially when you’re nervous, will worsen the problem. It is hard to end a sentence with authority when you run out of air. Your Public Speaking Training will remind you that any presentation or conversation is a series of statements. Allow your listeners to connect those statements together. Up Speak will make you sound unsure of yourself, as if you are asking for validation for your message. It erodes the sense of trust that you need from your listeners. Make sure you breathe deeply when speaking to minimize the occurrence of Up Speak.
Pull It Down
Integrating deliberate breathing into your speech is a great tool for countering Up Speak. If you lack breath support, it’s easier to go up than down in pitch at the end of your sentences. Changing the habit of barely breathing when speaking is hard to break. You will need solid Public Speaking Training to learn the techniques for better breath support and how to make it look and feel perfectly natural.
Pump It Up
Adding gestures to will also reduce Up Speak by helping you definitively end your sentences. It will make you feel more locked in. Gesturing will also had a visual aspect to your presenting that will hold your listener’s attention. Public Speaking Training will offer sentences and gesturing ideas to break the Up Speak habit.
Listening Honestly
Up Speak is a tricky, bad habit. Like most habits, it creeps up on you, and you must take steps toward positive change. Try recording yourself talking about a favorite vacation or movie, and see if you spot the annoying repetition of Up Speak. If you do, find the right Public Speaking Training and break that habit for good.