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Best Practice :: Advanced

Change the tone of your voice to reflect changes in the tone of the newscast. When researchers say that the tone of your voice matters, they mean that listeners can get a kind of instant fix on the situation you're describing by the sound of your voice.

It's similar to the way you could tell whether you were in trouble or not by the way your parents called your name as a kid.

When you are really connected to the content of your story or newscast, the sound of your voice will change as the emotional focus of your material changes.

Try this: Listen to yourself without watching the screen, writing down the adjective that best describes your attitude as the newscast begins. Any time the attitude apparently changes, label the new attitude with an appropriate, different adjective.

When you've reached the end of your performance, study the list, noting how often you communicated a change in the emotional quality of the content.

If you have trouble understanding how to get more variety in your voice, tape news professionals who use their voice well and mimic their inflections. Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, Matt Lauer, and the NPR anchor team are all professionals whose styles you might do well to emulate ... if only for practice.

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