How To Be More Articulate
Being an effective communicator includes knowing how to be articulate. When you are an articulate speaker, you are able to speak concisely and clearly. In other words, your words and ideas flow easily and can be understood by everyone listening.
Being an articulate speaker is important not only for your day-to-day responsibilities but also for your future career success.
Below are 3 strategies to help you become a more articulate communicator.
1. Space Fillers
For better or worse, filler words are part of our culture. These words include um, uh, like, hmm etc, and are space fillers. These words are used when you want to fill in the space, or when you’re avoiding that awkward dead air between thoughts. Oftentimes, these words are used when you are nervous. While space fillers aren’t necessarily bad, they don’t elevate your executive presence.
If you want to become a more articulate speaker you will need to avoid using space-filling words.
For example – see how the two sentences below are completely different when filler words aren’t used.
Option #1 – Hello, my name is Albert, and um, I’m here to ah talk to you today, um, about a really exciting, um, idea that I had!
Option #2 – Hello! My name is Albert and I am excited to speak to you today about an exciting idea!
Which one exudes more confidence? Which one made you feel excited? Which one made you feel nervous or hesitant?
Of course, option #1 is a bit of an exaggeration. However, even one space-filling word can evoke a sense of insecurity and lack of authority.
As you go about your day-to-day communications, pay close attention to the filler words you use.
Speaking slowly so your brain can catch up to your mouth can help tremendously.
The more you recognize these words, the less you will use them. Your speech will automatically become much more articulate!
2. Focus On Your Flow
Have you ever been to a talk and left not really knowing what the point of the message was? You can have the best ideas, but if you aren’t able to articulate them, the impact of it is gone.
There are a few ways you can focus on your flow.
- Tangents – When you are in casual conversations with your friends, going off on a tangent isn’t a big deal. Tangents are part of a casual conversation flow. However, if you are giving a speech or a presentation, tangents can derail your message and leave your audience very confused. For example, if you are speaking and start telling a story that doesn’t relate and or the point is unclear – that is a tangent you’ll want to avoid.
- Run-On Sentences – As you speak, is it clear where your thoughts begin and where they end? It is important to avoid run-on sentences. Run-on sentences leave your audience holding their breath wondering when the thought will end. These types of sentences also make it difficult for you to take a pause and let your idea sink in. Listen to yourself as you speak. Again, speaking more slowly does wonders to being more articulate.
- Coherent – Are your sentences and ideas coherent? In other words, do they make sense? Pay close attention if you are constantly being asked what you mean. For example, if you are explaining your idea to a colleague and they have a very difficult time understanding you, then you may want to evaluate your coherency. One way you can improve coherency is to break down your idea into small sentences. Be succinct and to the point as often as possible. Be sure to ask colleagues if what you are saying is easily understandable.
When you focus on your flow, you are focusing on making your message easy to understand. When you eliminate distracting tangents and run-on sentences, your audience will clearly understand your message!
3. Confidence
Being confident will help you be more articulate. Confidence comes when you know what you are saying – and there are several ways to boost your confidence and improve your articulation.
- Pronunciation – Knowing how to say something will help you be more articulate. Don’t be afraid to enunciate. For example, if you have to introduce the CEO at a conference, be sure you know how to say their name properly. If you aren’t confident, your pronunciation will suffer and you may end up mumbling or even worse, pronouncing their name incorrectly. So practice your pronunciation.
- Mumbling – When you mumble, your audience may sense you aren’t confident in what you are saying. Even if you know your presentation backward and forwards – mumbling can diminish your authority.
- Practice – If you find yourself struggling with speaking clearly, try to practice by recording yourself. This is a great way to catch filler words and run-on sentences as well. Watch yourself and listen as an audience member. Did you understand your own message? Were there any sentences that were difficult to understand?
- Keep It Simple – Sometimes the best way to boost your confidence while speaking is to keep things simple. This can mean shorter sentences. It can also mean leaving out any details that take away from your core message. Oftentimes it’s more important to engage than to information dump.
Being more articulate is key to becoming a more effective communicator. The more confident you are, the bigger the impact you will have on your career.
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