12 Pauses that Can Improve Your Presentations

When pauses are used properly in speeches and presentations, they can make you a better speaker and/or presenter. Your audiences are able to understand you better because pauses control the overall pace of your delivery and therefore can help convey emotions more effectively. They are healthy and can help engage your audience by making them want more. Pauses can help you catch up with your mind and help replace those filler words like “uhm”. But if pauses aren’t used properly, you’d just make your audience struggle to understand you. Below are 12 kinds of pauses that can either make or break your career in public speaking and presenting so use them well:

1. The Clause Pause (or the Comma Pause)
2. The Sentence Pause
3. The Paragraph Pause
4. The Emphasis Pause
5. Rhetorical Question Pause
6. New Visual Pause
7. “I’m in Thought” Pause
8. Dramatic Pause
9. Punchline Pause
10. Power Pause
11. Get-a-Drink Pause
12. Check-Your-Notes Pause

To find out how to do these pauses, please head to: Speech Pauses: 12 Techniques to Speak Volumes with Your Silence