Pauses:

The best speeches are defined as much by the pauses as the spoken words and as much by the gaps as by the sentences they separate. Because of the value of the pause, the most effective speakers strive to put the same care and attention into their pauses as they do to their scripts. There are some good reasons why the pause is one of the critical part of speech: 1) Set the pace. When we set the right pace in our speech our audience has a good chance to keep up, actively listen and understand you. It's down to pace. We use effective pauses in our speech to slow down the pace and increase our audience's understanding. 2) Breathing. When our breathing is out of control our speech pattern also goes out of control. Short, sharp breaths don't lend themselves to confident speaking. Sentences become muddled. Pauses are non-existent or they occur in the wrong place. Our aim is to balance the needs to breathe and speak and strike the right balance so that pauses are as eloquent as your words. 3) Impact. When we put the right emphasis on a word it is instantly noted by our audience. And when we leave a pause after making that point it's also noted by our audience. Pauses add extra emphasis to our speech. When used properly they add weight, gravitas and value to our spoken word. 4) Eye contact. When we look our audience in the eye we intend to get them engaged with our speech; engaged in a one to one dialogue. And when we combine this with a good pause we add extra emphasis to each of the points we make. Our eye contact and pause technique reinforces the all important one to one relationship that we want with our audience. 5) Rhetorical questions. When we ask a question of our audience we look for their engagement. Ask a question and pause...and we have their engagement. Our pause brings their focus straight to our question. We can continue this by further answering our question, taking a pause...and then continuing. 6) Speak in Short Phrases. We should use the pause to shorten the average length of phrases that we are speaking. This would help us to keep the attention of our audience in control and to put forth and emphasise on the crux of the matter.

Hand Gestures:

Body language accounts for between 55% and 65% of our communication. Body language is carriage, facial expressions, eye contact and gestures. All go into establishing our presence and making a connection with the audience. Gestures can be made with our hands, arms, shoulder, torso, legs, feet or a combination of these but hand gestures are probably the most common. Yet appropriate use of our hands can result in a marked increase in the understanding and retention of our message. Correctly used, hand gestures can help us say more in less time, show what we mean without having to resort to visuals, signal our conviction and confidence and add texture and dimension to our material and ideas. We holding our notes in our hands since this effectively immobilizes them. It is important to stand with our hands relaxed at our sides. We avoid making gestures that reveal anxiety such as clenching our hands together, clutching an object, fiddling with clothing or accessories or touching a body part (pulling ear, wiping brow, rubbing chin).

Once we have relaxed in front of an audience, hand gestures can be used to emphasize the structure of our presentation. This represents the best use of hand gestures and we should avoid using gestures as decorations. We begin by using our hands to illustrate our enthusiasm for being there. We can accentuate our point of view with a solid, intentional gesture and emphasize main points with deliberate gestures. We use our hands to indicate a new topic or transition with a forward or open gesture. We also use hand gestures to enhance our presentation by using them to respond to audience input with affirmative or encompassing gestures. Where appropriate we look for opportunities to use our hands to express emotion or attitude, emphasize importance, demonstrate relationship or contrast, show shape, direction or location and signal recognition, acceptance, departure, or approval.