Free tips · Voice · Tip 3 of 19
Land the last word
If your recommendations sound like questions, this is why.
Pitch rises when we're nervous, so statements sound like questions. That's uptalk. Bring the pitch down on the last word of the point you need people to accept, and it sounds certain. (Rising isn't always wrong: it's right mid-paragraph and for genuine questions. See Tip 16.)
Read three lines of an email aloud, landing each last word low.
- Falling inflection
- Pitch moving down at the end of a phrase. Listeners hear it as a finished, certain statement.
YouTube (chosen by Fred): Upspeak vs upward inflection. Why upspeak is a problem, and how it differs from a deliberate upward inflection.
Chris Agos, voice-over coach: Upward inflections (free voice-over lesson). How and why upward inflections are used, set against the downward inflection most voice work is built on.
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