Theocratic Aid To Kingdom Publishers

Lesson 16

EFFECTIVE PUBLIC READING (Part 1)

Oral reading is an art. Like the related art of music, it can lull hearers to sleep or stir and move them deeply. Bedtime story readers keep their voice soft and low, void of rousing emphasis: the listener drops off to sleep. Success! But Theocratic ministers read to instruct and convince and awake to action. They must follow a different style.

When one reads before an audience, such as a manuscript at a convention, he should examine himself if he fails to hold the audience's attention. If one does not think upon and feel the import of what he is reading, and hence fails to give it thought emphasis, he is responsible for any indifference, restlessness or sleepiness on the part of his hearers, and not the material. He isn't putting the material on the page across to the listeners. The failure to read well is not always caused by a lack of the needed qualities of a good reader. One may have a clear, vital and warm voice or a resonant, vibrant and vigorous voice, and yet fail to make good use thereof. If God has gifted one with pleasing

qualities of voice he should use them to God's glory. He should not use a "flat tire" mode of reading.

If one lacks inherited good qualities of voice, if his reading is thin or toneless because his vitality is low, or if the voice is strong but not so pleasing, remember this: Every untrained voice is capable of improvement through voice culture. A fine musician can by his artistry make even an ordinary musical instrument sound wonderful. On the other hand, a superb instrument in the hands of the unskilled player will squeak and wail. That is one of the reasons for training, namely, to teach one how to produce good spiritual music on his own vocal instrument. It may be an ordinary instrument or one of fine quality; in either event it is invaluable to its owner in the work of 'discipling the nations'. It is what he has, and the best should be gotten out of it to Jehovah's honor.

The first essential of good reading is feeling, which means to live the material as one reads it. The Lord's spirit enables one to so absorb himself in the subject matter and put his heart into it. Without this, reading will be spiritless and lifeless, lacking buoyancy and animation, vitality and vigor. The listener can hardly catch something not reflected to him by the reader's voice. Without enthusiasm his speech might have an intellectual appeal, but not an emotional one.

A second essential for effective oral reading is sufficient loudness of tone. Reading otherwise excellent is ineffective if not easily heard, a waste of one's breath and his listeners' time. The farthest listener should hear without strain. Each hall has different acoustics, and this as well as size will determine the volume of voice needed.

The third requirement is clear articulation, which means distinct, intelligible utterance of speech. Without such enunciation even a trumpetlike voice is difficult to understand though easy to hear. It is written, "Inanimate instruments, such as the flute or the harp, may give a sound, but if no intervals occur in their music, how can one make

out the air that is being played either on flute or on harp? If the trumpet sounds indistinct, who will get ready for I he fray? Well, it is the same with yourselves. Unless your tongue utters language that is readily understood, how can people make out what you say? You will be pouring words into the empty air!" (1 Cor. 14: 7-9, Moffatt) Worse is the mistake if an indistinct reader fails to even so much as speak into the air but buries his face and words in the manuscript. Hold the face up when reading: it helps to propel the sound to the rear of the auditorium.

A fourth essential is to be oneself, one's natural, unaffected and conversational self. In the endeavor to be emphatic avoid becoming declamatory or using bombastic oratory in reading. One may naturally be very soft-spoken. This would not be good for public reading. His mellow tone in conversation may be quite pleasing, and in his public reading he should maintain that conversational tone but must enlarge the volume. Ideal public reading is with the conversational tone and inflection, but not with conversational volume or conversational pace. In conversation one may naturally speak very rapidly. That would not be good for public reading except where passages not weighty are read in a lighter vein, which makes effective contrast.

The fifth essential of good public reading is pausing. Reading without pausing is mechanical. Silence punctuates; silence emphasizes. It commands attention, and, besides, the pause refreshes the ear. One characteristic of poor reading is the lack of pauses, hurrying over periods and other logical places for pause. Pause before and after a really weighty statement. Give the hearers time so that the thought to be emphasized can sink in. Pause after a period, a colon, an exclamation point, and a question mark. Pauses of different length are the so-called "verbal punctuation" or, better, "oral punctuation." Oral punctuation does not always coincide with grammatical punctuation, particularly as to the commas. A good reader who does not read words, but thoughts, does not stop at each

comma, and often uses oral commas or slight stops where there is no grammatical comma. Thought content, and not grammatical rules, dictates the use of oral punctuation.

Part 2 of this subject will discuss further points and will offer some counsel as to microphone speaking.