Hey there. One of my largest pet peeves as an audience member, I have to admit, is a platform speaker who does not have his or her 'ums' or 'ahs' under control. Sure, these involuntary 'placeholder,' 'filler,' or 'bridge' noises are understandable in their way. However, in my opinion, one of the hallmarks of a professional teacher, trainer, or public speaker is that his or her speech just f-l-o-w-s as naturally as possible, and is relatively or completely free from extraneous filler words. In this blog post I will share a technique that has helped me to solve this problem.
I learned how to stop the 'ums' during my first year of teaching, and the technique that I was shown was quite simple:
Record yourself teaching or giving a lecture, and study your own speech afterward.
Over the past couple of years I have been doing a great deal of computer-based training (CBT) development work; accordingly, through editing these QuickTime movies of my teaching, I've had the opportunity to listen to my own voice for hours and hours on end.
Furthermore, when you edit your own CBT movies you're constantly snipping out otherwise innocuous mouth and lung sounds such as plosives, big in-breaths, lip smacks, et cetera. Therefore, I've become extraordinarily aware of the dynamics of my own speech.
I am not suggesting, necessarily, that you get into the instructional design gig to improve your public speaking skills. On the other hand, I do recommend that, if you are willing, that you set up your camcorder in your living room when you are home alone and you deliver one or more extemporaneous speeches—totally off-the-cuff material to catch your verbal language at its most spontaneous and natural.
After you have finished, observe your speech and study that thing. Over and over. Listen extremely closely to the dynamics of your language. We're not talking about narcissism here, folks. Instead, we are dealing with enlightenment and professional growth.
The best possible scenario is to capture an example of your speaking or teaching 'in the wild.' This way you can listen to how you sound in a 'production environment,' as it were. Believe me, when you hear how many times you use filler words, it will rattle you to your core, and you'll develop a newfound self-awareness that will help stanch your subconscious desire to use these filler words during your next class or public speaking event.
Now, to address a question that I have been asked numerous times by folks with whom I have shared this technique: "Won't doing this practice make me ultra self-conscious of my speech to the point where I'll go all OCD when I'm speaking?"
In my experience, this has not been the case. I'd be interested to know how many of you other instructors/professional speakers feel the same way as I do about this.
When I deliver a presentation, I have two distinct 'mindstreams' running concurrently and silently in my head:
- A 'content' mindstream, which contains the presentation proper
- A 'speaking dynamics' mindstream, which contains an audience- and self-monitoring 'system' (for lack of a better word)
I hope that this doesn't sound too weird. Anyway, for me, I am able to stay both 'on point' with my presentation, as well as to regulate speaking mechanics stuff such as voice volume, modulation, "How's the time?" "How's the audience doing?" and so on.
I firmly believe that this ability to dual-task while teaching or speaking is, like the ability to play the piano or fly an airplane, something that can be developed with practice.
Have a nice day.
Technorati Tags: speech, public speaking, communication, filler words, professional, career, life, internet
49 Comments
Good stuff. “Ums” drive me crazy - with some speakers, I’m so distracted by them that I just count how many times they say it, because I can’t concentrate on the content. Another that I’ve noticed a lot is “sort of,” where there is no meaning for the phrase. Such as, “We did X,” but stated as “So we sort of did X, and um…”
Good post! As Rachel mentioned, I can’t watch Anderson Cooper of CNN; after he um introduces to um Bob Smith um with um um update on the um Israeli um war, there is a stark contrast between the correspondent’s reports and um Anderson’s narration. I think it is more hyperness on Anderson’s part than anything else.
This also applies to more personnal events like interviews where your capacity to communicate will be evaluated. Good article, worth a read.
I took a public speaking class where we did an exercise to squelch those vocalized pauses. During a short speech, the class was instructed to alert the speaker (silently by raising a hand) every time they heard a vocalized pause (an “ah” or “um”). The flood of negative feedback was very effective in focusing attention on the problem.
If you can enlist a couple of friends to help you on this in real time, you’ll likely get noticeable results in just two or three sessions. Keep your sessions short - 3 minutes is plenty - and take a break between sessions to let your brain process the experience.
At first you’ll feel frustrated, especially if this is a big problem for you, because your friends will be putting their hands up at the end of every sentence or so. Your frustration might manifest as an even bigger flood of vocalized pauses. Don’t be discouraged; the negative feedback is part of the process of retraining your brain. After two or three sessions, I and most of my classmates had succeeded in vastly reducing our our vocalized pauses, and I attribute the success rate to the immediate real-time feedback.
I listen to an assortment of professionals when they are speaking to audiences (via podcasts) and I make mental notes of who sounds good and who doesn’t, and I’ll imitate the good ones and try to figure out what causes pitfalls of the bad ones.
The stanford entrepreneur podcasts are great, you can tell who’s a skilled speaker within the first several minutes of their presentation. And the women who speak are usually fantastic examples, very few ‘um’, ‘uh’, and ‘like’ fillers.
…and of course, I tape myself speaking, too. A little ways to go yet before I consider myself great!
With my talk at Princeton less than a week away, it’s funny that I came across this website suggesting an approach to eliminating the umms from your speech (at least when delivering a talk). I’ll have to see if I can dig up that old videotape and force myself to watch it a few more times…
Toastmasters www.toastmasters.org is a great way to learn how to speak. There is an um and uh counter in every meeting that counts each occurance. It does help.
It’s been a while since I last gave a talk and it’s good that I saw this. I’d have to learn to be more conscious of what I say. I suppose that aside from these pointers you gave, I ought to boost up my confidence level so I could communicate more effectively.
Thanks. Interesting article.
Anonymous Coward’s post (getting the audience to signal when you use a vocalised pause) sounds like it would be particularly helpful.
On the lifehacker blog the discussion touches on the idea that vocalised pauses also have the function (in conversational speech) of allowing the speaker to ‘hold onto the ball’ while they formulate their words ummmm The vocalised pause makes it harder for someone to interject.
A boss of mine seems like an extreme example of this kind of behaviour: her extended monologues are peppered by a vocal sigh of falling pitch lasting up to two seconds while she thinks of what comes next.
I suppose a habit like this would transfer to public speaking situations too, even though the speaker wouldn’t be interrupted in that situation.
Good advice about recording your speech. To talk in front of the mirror is also a nice way to remove your quirks.
I second CK’s recommendation for Toastmasters. In addition to counting “ums” and “ahs” and other “filler” utterances, one of the members clicks a loud “clicker” or cricket or rings a bell or gives some other immediate, audible feedback whenever someone says “um” or “ah.” This immediate feedback often produces dramatic results; I have seen novice speakers go from dozens of “ahs” a minute to none after a few speeches. It has made me acutely conscious of fillers in my own speech and others’. I hear the “clicker” in my head whenever I am about to say “ah.” Try it; it really works!
I took a public speaking class in which we had an “um counter” as well. For me though, it wasn’t the counter, but just -=thinking=- about how often I was saying it. After three or four speeches I realized that I wasn’t doing it anymore.
A big part of getting past the “um ah” problem is just working out what you’re going to say. I tend to avoid notes and cards in favor of three memorized points I want to make and a speech “theme.” Then I just converse with the audiance. I find my language much more natural and my audiance much more receptive.
I was a Toastmaster for a few years and it helped me get rid of some of my ums and ahs. Now, if only I could stop saying “Like” and “you know”. Great post.
Thanks for the great article. I’m a new speaker, and I have recorded 90 minute and 4 hour presentations, but I haven’t had the courage to listen yet!
Referring to ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ as ‘vocal pauses’ is accurate - that’s what they are. But there is nothing wrong with a pause when speaking. The key, I think, is to be comfortable with shutting up for a moment, while you collect your thoughts, find your place, whatever.
The same goes when answering a question - rather than start answering immediately after it is posed, which leads to an immediate ‘ummmmmmmm’ if your answer is not immediately forthcoming, it’s better to think about it for a moment, then answer. This has the bonus of making one appear thoughtful.
Hello,
I have a much faster way to get rid of the um’s, ahh’s, like, etc. I used to have a really bad habit of saying “it’s like, you know”. One day we picked up my cousin from the airport, a well educated woman and great friend. She heard me talking and said I’m going to get you to stop saying that and proceed to pinch me (not real hard, but hard enough) every time I said “uh, like …” She was only visiting for a weekend but I stopped after 2 days of getting pinched. And that’s all it took. This was a bad speech pattern that I had built up over a few years and it was gone within 2 days. I’m sorry, but I think getting rid of um’s and ahh’s can be corrected much quicker. Also we can do this with ‘you all’, and ‘fixin’ as in ‘i’m fixing to get rid of my bad speech problems’.
my 2 cents.
Here is another way that I’ve seen (and used) to handle vocal pauses during Q&A, while still sounding reasonably professional.
If you repeat back a paraphrased version of the question, that’ll give several seconds to formulate your answer and tighten your thoughts. It can take some practice to make it flow, but it can also earn points with some audiences that you care enough to try to understand.
Didn’t realize people found it so disturbing. From the material I have read, people that use ‘um’ and ‘ah’ have been found to have larger vocabularies than most people, and are pausing to choose their words (Ref - Wall St. Journal and others).
I started to keep track of it, and found that I learned more from the people who did things like that than I did from talking heads who didn’t take any time to consider their responses. But that is just me.
Anonymous (Comment #27),
I want to respond to something you said here:
I started to keep track of it, and found that I learned more from the people who did things like that than I did from talking heads who didn’t take any time to consider their responses. But that is just me.
I’m speaking for myself only, of course, but when I speak publicly I often take pauses: intentionally for effect, or unintentionally because I need time to, as you mentioned, choose the right word or think further about the issue at hand.
However, these pauses, for me anyway, are blessedly silent. And I dare say that quite a few people would agree with me that other platform speakers are very effective indeed with well-executed silent pauses.
Thanks for sharing, though—I appreciate your taking the time to do so.
Tim
I agree that recording yourself and listening helps us to become more aware and reduce uhms from personal experience.
Part of it is also being comfortable with silence. I had a teacher and she got me to put big periods in my text and keep saying something like “a period is complete and it does not need anything to fill it.” It helped.
I find that if I am tired or nervous that my uhm’s count goes up.
I think that the big thing with uhm’s is if they are excessive and interfere with the message. Less is better but if a speaker is speaking off the cuff and expressing themselves well - I am willing to accept some uhm’s etc. Sometimes a few uhms even feel natural and do not interfere with the message.
I was at a conference and heard a speaker who filled in for someone at very short notice. The speaker was dynamic, clear, wonderful and fun speaking without a prepared text but with some uhm’s. I went to another conference and made a point to hear the wonderful speaker again - but now with a prepared text - he was now uhmless but also lifeless, boring and droning. What a disappointment!
In conclusion, less uhms is better but the best thing is to be a dynamic and clear speaker who connects with people. If we communicate well, people will generally forgive a few uhms etc.
Rob
Another idea, instead of a camcorder, is a simple, small voice recorder. There are lots of really nice ones that fit into the palm of your hand. nice to have one anyway to record little snippets and moments of inspiration anyway!
Lots of them let you offload to your computer via USB, so you can save for archiving if you wish.
There is one case where a teacher’s use of fillers is justified and even heartily recommended - when he or she is teaching a foreign language , in this case English as a Foreign Language .Foreign language learners need to become acquainted with the use of fillers as a communication strategy , especially since they are very often stuck for words , and the teacher provides a model input of said strategy .
I also made an intentional practice of eliminating filler from my speech beginning about a decade ago. Although I still use filler occassionally, I’ve eradicated it from my speech for the most part. The interesting situations are when I come up blank looking for the right vocabulary. I end up with an unnatural pause in my speech that I always wonder if the listener finds stranger sounding than saying “um ah.” Speaking of filler speech, the biggest well-known culprit has to be Alton Brown from the Food Network. Count how often he says “um” sometime — you’ll be amazed that he’s put on TV.
I don’t mind it much really as long as the lecturer/trainer doesn’t overdo it.
Thanks for sharing this neat tip.
This is great advice, and the addtitional advantage of losing those “ums”, “ahs” and other filler words is that one can develop a pause in place of them, which tends to punctuate what is said, lending greater significance to important points and separating ideas. It is truly amazing the change you’ll find and the feedback you’ll get about your speaking.
umm…the other thing that gets me even worse….is GUM CHEWERS….
I dont know why…but people who speak in public who chew gum …turn my stomache.
Have you ever given thought to teaching George W. Bush how to lose his “ums?” If you can help him, I’m totally sold.
Um’s and Ah’s are not the problem, the problem is a rightious audience not paying attention to actual content.
Some are convinced that Um’s and Ah’s are bad and will notice them because in semi-intellectual circles it is an accepted practice. If you have ever _really_ wanted to listen to what someone has to say, (ie. your boss talking about your job evaluation), you simply do not notice the um’s, because the emphasis is on the content and not theatre.
Studies have shown, in fact, that natural um’s and ah’s HELP listeners understand, whether is is an implicit indication of new information to come (Arnold et al, 2003), whether the speaker is about to engage in a difficult topic or one that needs emphasis (Bortfeld et al, 2001; Fox Tree et al, 1999), or it simply a way a speaker can identify with the audience and thus have the audience respond quicker to the speaker (Corley et al, 2003.)
However, excessive um’s and ah’s have also been shown to have detrimental effects on public speaking, but my point is that natual disfluency in speech is not as bad as some of you guys make it out to be. Ever try to understand someone talking about an entirely new topic without ever using um’s or ah’s to pause? Its harder than learning from someone you identify with and who also takes appropriate pauses.
Arnold, J. E., Fagnano, M., & Tanenhaus, M. K. (2003).
Disfluencies signal thee, um, new information. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 33, 25–36.
Bortfeld, H., Leon, S. D., Bloom, J. E., Schober, M. F.,
& Brennan, S. E. (2001). Disfluency rates in spontaneous speech: Effects of age, relationship, topic, role, and gender. Language and Speech, 44, 123-147. ; Fox Tree, J. E., & Schrock, J. C. (1999). Discourse markers in spontaneous speech: Oh what a difference an oh makes. Journal of Memory and Language, 40, 280-295.
Corley, M., Hartsuiker, R. Hesitation in speech can. . . um. . . help a listener understand. (2003). Proc. of 25th Meeting of Cognitive Science
Another way is to get one of your friends to respond with a deliberately loud and annoying UM every time you yourself say it. His cutting you off and will annoy you soon enough!
If you want free speaking lessons join your local group of Jehovah’s Witnesses they have a speaking school each week. It helped me with the problem of word whiskers such and um or uh. Also it helps with the development of extemporanious speaking. I used to have a problem with regressive stuttering. By retraining my reading skills to analyze what I said only at the end of a sentence and by training my eyes to read further ahead I was able to overcome this problem. The an uh’s or and um’s can be helped by using pausing effectively and good use of outline note rather than prepared manuscripts.
J-Man5
My pet peeve: “basically”: essentially (that is basically) it means nothing in everyday speech. How many pundits use it to deliver what is, basically, a summary of their ideas?
I like Kev’s comment (#39). Nice way of looking at this.
I any case, developing this 2nd mindstream is definitely helpful, but I guess it’s a bit backward. If you develop that, the uhhs and ahhs will go away automatically. And as long as the speaker is overwhelmed with the situation of delivering the speech, I tink the uhhs and ahhs are just a an indicator of something else.
It’s like constantly tending to sore toes while not noticing that your shoes are too small.
Markus
This sounds like a great strategy. While Kev (#39) proposes that the Ums and Ahs don’t get in the way if you;re not conditioned to think they’re bad, I beg to differ. Personally, I don’t mind it if it’s once every minute or two in a presentation. However, there are extreme cases where so many ums and ahs actually interfere with the content simply because there are so many of them. This is not a problem limited to inexpereinced speakers; several years ago I attended a half-hour speech given my my state’s Secretary of Education in which every third word (seriously!) was “uh”. It was truly difficult to understand his point though phrases like, “and the - uh- department of -uh- education is -uh- striving to -uh- improve the -uh- quality of -uh- schools.”. I have similar problems with presentations made by a coworker who loudly clears his throat as a nervous tic, up to 10 times per minute. Fortunately speakers of this caliber are rare, but minimizing the filler sounds gives everyone a more comfortable, natural-sounding speech.
Good tips, one & all! I’ve always looking to improve my delivery skills and I’m certain that some of this will be very handy.
I have a colleague whose “Ums” are exaggerated to the point of sounding like some kind of neanderthal grunt that literally sap the intellect right out of just about every conversation he’s involved in.
And if that weren’t bad enough, this poor fellow has an incredibly annoying habit of interjecting “evidently” into nearly every other sentence. Sadly, the context in which it is used makes even the most casual observer keenly aware that the guy hasn’t a clue about that word’s meaning.
The combination of these (and some very awkward body language) makes him seem about as witless and clueless as a post. Now here’s the kicker - he’s belligerent to boot! All told, I’d rather eat dirt than have to associate or be affiliated with the guy. Deep down, I believe him to be a well-intentioned and intelligent fellow, but every outward clue strongly suggests otherwise…
Definintely a good piece of information. However it is not just the “Um”s and “Ah”s that needs to be avoided but also the redundancy that needs to be eliminated. “What i mean to say is that…..” can be simply replaced with “I mean….”
When you have something to say and you’re passionate about it, UMs will not happen. You’ll be too busy getting your point accross.
So instead of hiding the symptom, deal with the cause - be passionate, engaged and don’t bore your audience.
“Actually” is my bugbear. Please stop saying actually. It actually is not actually necessary. Actually actually.
Aaarrrrrgh.
ecp,
I hear you: I am equally put off with ‘actually’ and ’sort of.’
Check out my piece “Sort Of…Actually.”
-Tim
Great post
A high school education is all I have. But an interesting subject was english. I made great grades and learn new things every day. Now I have an executive position and sometimes give presentations. I like to speak to a group of people. I can exercise my use of the language and am always aware of what (and how) I’m saying things. The “um’s and ah’s” are absent. What I say is spoken with conviction to every word. I can get my opinion or point across to anyone. My hint is to get rid of all the baloney in your conversation. Believe in what you say. If you start out with “I think”, you’ve lost. A recent example…. Our pool equipment room contains spare motors and various electrical items that are prone to corrosion due to the fact that chlorine is also stored there. Chlorine gas settles to the bottom of the room where parts are stored. The parts corrode and when I need to replace a part, it is already ruined. The solution is to install an exhaust fan close to the floor, ducted out through the roof. Even though the budget for the pool has been exceded, I was able to convince the members of the board with three sentences.
“Chlorine gas is ruining everything in the pool equipment room. There is no ventilation. We need to install a power duct fan to move the gas outside”. The response was “Ok. Get the fan” It’s that easy! My strategy is “present the problem” The board members know this, but had no solution. Second, “present the solution”. Spoken with conviction, persons with common sense will pick up on your confidence. It will be hard for anyone to oppose. This little strategy has gotten me far in this world. Now, I’m the Maintenance Director of a world class golf resort. A position in which I plan to retire from. I’m by no means an english major, teacher, instructor, etc. But for future reference, what you say, and how you say it, can get you far.
I admit that I too have a pet peeve in regards to professional speakers using ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’. I also get annoyed when we hear our youth saying “You know what I mean.” repeatedly when honestly I have no clue what they are saying. We also have our illustrious role models of athletes and Hollywood stars using the current slang and vernacular trying to sound cool when proper grammar would be far more impressive and an accessible tool for communication. . Furthermore I am annoyed when our own President uses such frequent pauses in his speeches as “ums” and “ahs”. I find the abuse of our mother tongue to be an annoyance and a sign of lack of education and professionalism.
We are not talking about a chronic stuttering that requires a speech therapist. We are referring to a simple retraining of one’s self in using our mother tongue and proper grammar as we were once taught in our early days of education. The suggestion of recording one’s self speaking in a normal setting and then replaying that same content may indeed help many of us to recognize our own speaking flaws and therefore correct them. I am by no means suggesting we all see a speech pathologist and eventually become public speakers but this simple tool suggested by the blogger, Tim, on this website may help us all not only become better speakers in public but also better communicators on the whole. Imagine how much easier life would be if we were actually able to say what we mean in a more concise fashion without the fillers of grunts and other inaudible. With such free and clear communication relationships could last longer, we would be better prepared in a battle of wits with words as our weapon and who knows, we may eventually be able to conquer the world or at least the world we live in. Wow, if we learn to throw in some good mannered words like “please”, “thank you” and an occasional smile while talking, world peace could be right around the corner.
I just listened to two highschool seniors this week speak at a freshmen orientation and one said ‘um’ 35 times and the other 20 times. (Both said that they were nervouse speaking to parents and new students.) I spoke with them after the program and suggested the ‘pause’ instead of ‘ums’. They were receptive to my suggestion and this article is right on time!
I’m not convinced by quite a few of the ideas here. I’m a professional
voice & presentation skills trainer and they’ve certainly not worked often enough on my training courses for me to feel confident about them.
I put a few thoughts together on my own blog to explain a bit about why….
S
Great post. I have this teacher who says ‘um’ about every two seconds, and it drives me insane, so much that I can’t pay attention to the lecture. This might come in handy to me.
Now if only we could get one of my colleagues to stop saying “at this point in time” when what he really wants to say is “now”
We in our toastmasters club have a person count number of uhs and ums and give a report at the end
Dan (above) has it right.
say the “bottom line” or “punch
line” first. that gets attention.
give background second and solution
last.
works with your wife, too.
mostly.
Ums cause me to think about the next time the reader will say um rather than what there talking about! I think i may have a small case of it but i’m more of the pausing type than filler tpye! good points, in this article.
The advice given is very good, but what about an individual who has a speech impediment, for example stuttering.
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