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Pauses enhance meaning by providing a type of punctuation, emphasizing a point, drawing attention to a thought, or just allowing listeners a moment to contemplate what is being said. In short, they make a speech far more effective than it might otherwise be. Both the speaker and the audience need pauses.
Avoid Meaningless Vocal Fillers
Many novice speakers are uncomfortable with pauses. It’s as if there were a social stigma attached to any silence in a speech. We often react the same way in conversation, covering pauses with unnecessary and undesirable vocal fillers such as “uh,” “hmm,” “you know,” “I mean,” and “it’s like.” Like pitch, however, pauses are important strategic elements of a speech. Use them purposefully, taking care to eliminate distracting vocal fillers.