Diction exercises

Diction exercises

• 1.
  - to makesure they get your message
• 2.
  Why should youdo diction exercises?  Because your speech content may be great, you may look fantastic but unless your audience can UNDERSTAND what you're saying, your message is lost.
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   Diction exerciseswill help you learn how to speak clearly. An athlete does warm-ups and stretches before an event: a singer does likewise.  These exercises are the speaker's warm-up equivalent. They prepare and train you to speak with ease.
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  The specific benefitsof diction/articulation exercises are:  strengthening and stretching the muscles involved in speech  bringing to your attention habitual speech patterns which may be less than perfect. Good diction is NOT about changing your accent or making you 'talk posh'. It is about clarity - making sure what you say is heard.
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   The mostcommonly known and used diction exercises are Tongue Twisters.  There are literally squillions of them, each focusing on either a single letter, or a letter combination. Often they're complete nonsense - phrases and word combinations chosen purely for the way they make you work to say them clearly.  Tongue twisters have long been an integral part of a public speaker's tool kit. As well as being fun, they are extremely effective.
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  Diction Exercises: Tips &Tongue Twisters Beginners' tips  Start slowly and carefully.  Make sure the start and end of each word is crisp.  Repeat the phrase, getting faster and faster while maintaining clarity.  If you trip over words, stop and start again.
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  Diction Exercises for'B' words:  Betty bought a bit of butter, but she found the butter bitter, so Betty bought a bit of better butter to make the bitter butter better.  Bill had a billboard. Bill also had a board bill. The board bill bored Bill, So Bill sold his billboard And paid his board bill. Then the board bill No longer bored Bill, But though he had no board bill, Neither did he have his billboard!
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  For 'H' wordstry:  How was Harry hastened so hurriedly from the hunt?  In Hertford,Hereford and Hampshire hurricanes hardly ever happen
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  Diction Exercises for'P' words:  Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked?  Pearls, please, pretty Penelope, Pretty Penelope, pretty Penelope, Pearls, please, pretty Penelope, Pretty Penelope Pring.
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  Exercises for 'S'words:  Six thick thistle sticks  Theophilus Thistler, the thistle sifter, in sifting a sieve of unsifted thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb.  The shrewd shrew sold Sarah seven sliver fish slices.  Sister Susie sat on the sea shore sewing shirts for sailors  Moses supposes his toeses are roses, But Moses supposes erroneously, For nobody's toeses are posies of roses As Moses supposes his toeses to be. (Pronounce the word 'toeses' to rhyme with 'Moses'.)
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  And then, onemore for good measure! 'The Pirates of Penzance'. 'I am the very pattern of a modern Major-General; I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral; I know the Kings of England, and I quote the fights historical, From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical; I'm very well acquainted too with matters mathematical, I understand equations, both simple and quadratical, About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news, With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse. I'm very good at integral and differential calculus, I know the scientific names of beings animalculous, In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, I am the very model of a modern Major-General.'