The Main Secret of Tom Sawyer’s Presentation
«Your honor, may I speak?»
«For God’s sake, yes — go on!» says the judge, so astonished and mixed up he didn’t know what he was about hardly.
Then Tom he stood there and waited a second or two — that was for to work up an «effect,» as he calls it — then he started in just as cam?s as ever, and says…
Tom Sawyer Detective, by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
If you read books about Tom Sawyer attentively you remember that Tom loved to make pauses in his speeches to keep attention of an audience.
Pause. Really — a good way to attract attention of the distracted listeners. Make a pause. Look at your audience. Wait while everyone will not look at you. Wait a little more while your listeners begin ask themselves: «What happens? Why he stop speaking?» And speak! Only one moment. It’s very important: carefully think about you’ll say in this moment. You must use this effect to concentrate attention of audience on key moments of your speech.
And of course don’t use it more than 2-3 times in one speech for the maximal effect.
Author: Oleg Samusenko
Picture from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/74/74-h/74-h.htm