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Used skillfully, pausing—leaving gaps between words or sentences in a speech—affords you some significant advantages. Besides enabling you to collect your thoughts, it reinforces the seriousness of your subject because it shows that you’re choosing your words carefully. Pausing can help you create a sense of importance as well. If you make a statement and then pause for the audience to weigh your words, your listeners may conclude that you’ve just said something especially important.

To get the most from pausing, use it judiciously, pausing every so often rather than after every sentence. Otherwise, your listeners may wonder if you’re having repeated difficulty collecting your thoughts, or they may think you’re being melodramatic. In either case, your audience will begin to take you less seriously.

When pausing during a speech, it’s best to fill those pauses with silence rather than with verbal fillers or verbal tics. A verbal filler is a word or phrase, such as like or you know, that speakers use to fill uncomfortable silences. Here’s an example of what verbal fillers do to a speaker’s delivery:

And so, the library was closed . . . you know. But I had to study somewhere. But . . . I didn’t get to study there, and . . . but . . . I had to go somewhere . . . but . . . and . . . I tried the dorm reading room. And, like . . . it was so quiet there, you know?

A verbal tic is a sound, such as um or ah, that speakers use when searching for a correct word or when they have lost their train of thought:

Um . . . the purpose of my speech is . . . ah, to . . . um make you see how . . . um . . . dangerous this action . . . ah . . . really is.

Everyone uses verbal fillers or tics at some point while giving speeches—it’s hard not to. But using them too often can distract your listeners or make them wonder if you’re tentative or ill-prepared. The best way to avoid overusing fillers and tics is by learning to be more aware of when you use them. How? Try speaking in front of a friend who is holding a clicker or other low-level noisemaker; have your friend use the noisemaker every time you use a filler or tic. At first you may be surprised by how often you do so, but with some practice, you will develop better awareness and better habits.