Breaks

Exercising for three hours a day can be exhausting, except for people who are used to it, such as bodybuilders. Just as rest is essential in the process of physical training, pausing is crucial in a speech.

By pausing for a moment, we control our pace and improve our communication skills, while highlighting important points. This shows that rushing can hinder successful communication by preventing proper information processing.

Why are they important?

If we don't take the time to pause, we can fall into a cycle of burnout that negatively affects our mental performance and reasoning ability. When it comes to a speech, taking a break at appropriate times is critical to achieving several objectives:

• Highlight the importance of the topic at hand.
• To focus attention on it.
• Communicate the message clearly and concisely.

When to use them?

Speaking quickly and without pausing may indicate that you want to quickly end a tense situation. This makes it difficult for your listeners to understand and follow you. Therefore, it is important to determine when to use pauses:

• The presentation is the climax of the speech and those first few moments are key to capturing the audience's attention.

• Five seconds before speaking or expressing the objective of your speech is enough to create an atmosphere of expectation.

• This allows the audience to focus on you and have no choice but to pay attention to you.

Duration: What types of pauses does the reader use when encountering a semicolon, semicolon or comma during reading? These punctuation marks represent different ways to continue reading and improve comprehension of the text.

Although oral and written speech differ in their form of expression, it is crucial to maintain a similar rhythm in both.

The proper use of pauses in oral discourse can be a powerful and underestimated technique. As in writing, pauses must be applied at the right time to correctly interpret the message.

Duration of pauses in reading:

• Comma: When reading a comma, the pause lasts about 1 second. Its function is to separate elements within the same idea. For this reason, it is advisable to avoid excessively long paragraphs containing only commas. The speaker needs time to breathe and improve the projection of his voice.
• Semicolon: When reading a semicolon, the pause lasts approximately 1.5 seconds. It is used to separate related sentences. The length of the pause is intermediate, neither as short as the comma nor as long as the semicolon.
• Pausing after asking a question can be meaningful, it gives the audience time to reflect.
• When you need to emphasize key words or important messages. An example of how to emphasize the value of communication through the use of questions and pauses would be "Is it important to communicate with others? -pause- Yes it is, because by communicating -pause- we grow and evolve.

Reflection: Pausing before conveying something important during a presentation can enhance the mystery and improve interaction with the audience. It is recommended to wait about three seconds before continuing.

If your intention is to emphasize a word or phrase, imagine a comma before and after. In this way, people are kept in expectation of what you are going to say and then reflect.

The conscious use of these moments of silence has a significant impact on the message. Although they may seem very noticeable, in reality they are not so noticeable if you don't abuse them. The audience will perceive that waiting time as part of a good presentation.