Because many speakers believe that their entire goal is to talk, they pause too infrequently. The truth is that good speakers do not fill every second of a speech with words. Taking a moment between statements, words, or phrases adds drama by giving the audience time to reflect on what you have said and anticipate what will follow. For example, in Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, King’s use of pauses, combined with rhetorical tools like repetition, helped to build drama and anticipation as he delivered his speech.