In scripted speeches and presentations,
semantic line breaks
make it much easier
for speakers and presenters
to sound charismatic.

When they read a speech to an audience,
many people sound terrible!

Their spoken words
do not flow in natural phrases.

Emphasis falls in weird places.

Intonation is either flat or sounds artificial.

In short, when many people
read a speech out loud,
they sound like they’re reading it.

Why do so many people sound so bad
when they read a speech out loud?

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When we speak naturally,
we cluster words into meaningful phrases.

To let each phrase register with the listener,
we pause— however briefly—
before we speak the next phrase.

When a person reads a speech out loud,
to sound natural,
he or she has to sort and cluster
into meaningful phrases
words that, usually, are strung along
on paper pages,
on a screen,
or on a teleprompter
without any grouping
into meaningful phrases.

For many a speaker
who is reading a speech out loud,
from the instant
that the speaker’s eyes and brain
register the pronunciation
of a string of words
until the instant
that those words come out
of the speaker’s mouth,
the time interval
is not enough time
for the speaker’s brain to fully register
the meaning of the words
and to group the words
into natural sounding phrases.

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To make it easy
for people to sound natural
when they read
on paper pages,
on a screen,
or on a teleprompter
a speech that I have written;
I introduce semantic line breaks.

That is, I break the sentences
of the speech
into meaningful, natural phrases.

I display the speech text
on paper pages,
on the screen,
or on the teleprompter
at the font size that,
for the speaker, produces
the most natural flow of speech.

The semantic line breaks
and large font size
minimize the amount
of cognitive work
that the speaker has to do
to sound natural, brilliant, and charismatic.

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In fact, I’ve formatted the sentences
on these pages
with semantic line breaks.

If you’re reading this page
on a computer screen,
hit CTRL plus +
or COMMAND plus +
a few times
until the font is big enough
for you to read the text
at a glance.

If you’re reading this page
on a cellphone,
rotate the phone to landscape view.

Then read a few paragraphs aloud.

See how easy it can be
to sound natural.

(To get your computer screen
back to normal size,
hit CTRL plus zero
or COMMAND plus zero.)

---

I believe that this same technique
of semantic line breaks
that works so well for people
who are reading speeches out loud
also makes the written word
more accessible to all readers.

Semantic line breaks
minimize the amount of cognitive work
that any reader has to do—
even if he or she
is not communicating
his or her strategic vision
to thousands of employees,
but is reading to himself or herself
on his or her cellphone
about how someone could help
make his, her, or a colleague’s
writing and speaking
more marvelous and charismatic.

---

Semantic line breaks
also let readers’ eyeballs
do a lot less muscular work.

“How so?”

When our eyeballs scan text,
they grab text in clusters of words.

The more words there are in a line of text,
the more work
our eyeballs have to do
to group the words into clusters;
the farther our eyeballs have to travel
to get back to the beginning
of the next line of text;
and the harder it is
for our eyeballs to find
the beginning of the next line of text.

If you’ve ever wondered
why you despise reading
closely packed lines of text
that run all the way across
a page or screen, that’s why:
Your eyeballs are doing
a miserable amount of physical work.

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In their body text,
newspapers usually have
around thirty-eight characters
on each line of text.
Columns of text of that width
make readers’ eyeballs happy.

If you want to make your readers happy,
make their eyeballs happy.

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semantic_line_breaks_helpchapter

For several years,
I studied voice with Carl Stough,
a breathing and voice coach
who worked with actors,
with Olympic athletes,
with Metropolitan Opera singers,
with pop singers,
with business leaders,
and with musicians.

From Carl, I learned that,
when a person speaks with a voice
that is weak, muffled, whispery, grating,
or otherwise less than fully charismatic;
most often, he or she,
consciously or subconsciously,
has in his or her brain
an erroneous and counterproductive
mental model
of the physics and physiology
of speech.

If an uncharismatic speaker learns
an accurate and productive mental model
of the physics and physiology of speech
and does some exercises
that I can lead him or her through,
then he or she can escape
decades of self-defeating
physiological speaking habits.

Greater speaking joy, power, and charisma
are almost certain to emerge.

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Want to sound more charismatic
when you deliver
your next speech or presentation?

Want to command everyone’s attention
when you speak up
at your next group meeting?

Let me teach you how it’s done.

Call or text me at (917) 817-8659.

Or email jerrymarlow@jerrymarlow.com.

Let’s have some fun with your voice!

Jerry Marlow

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speak_with_greater_charismaChapter