The Gift of the Gab: How Eloquence Works by David Crystal

Author:David Crystal [Crystal, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw, pdf
ISBN: 9780300214260
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2016-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

INTERLUDE 15

Sounding, erm, eloquent

Radio stations can be very aware of the way umming and erring turns off listeners. When I was doing my English Now series for BBC Radio 4, back in the 1980s, I learned a new technique from the studio managers. They would take a tape –

[For those who have never known this pre-smartphone technology: tapes were long reels of thin plastic on which sound was magnetically recorded. They were played back on a tape recorder. You would edit the tape by placing the tape in a special holding device and use a razor blade to cut out the bits of speech you didn’t want to keep. You’d then splice the pieces together with some sticky tape. It took ages.]

– and cut out any really intrusive hesitation noises. It made the speaker sound quite fluent!

I learned a new word, as a consequence. De-umming.

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