Reading “in our head,” to ourselves, is easy because we do this all the time. We’re good at it. Reading a written script aloud and modulating our voices to raise the pitch, adjust our tone, and gauge where to pause for emphasis, not to mention pronouncing every word perfectly, is harder to get right (on the first read).
Practicing reading aloud helps familiarize you with words and phrases in a script that are difficult to pronounce or convey with the proper tone. Practice until you feel comfortable with the way the words sound in your ears (not your head).
Activating your voice
Your voice is a presentation tool: Changing the pitch, tone and pace as you read aloud makes it easier for your audience to understand and remember key points.
Your audience will notice when your voice pitch changes.
Reading a script “straight through” without pitch change can sound monotonous and dull. Raising and lowering your voice as you read helps to highlight key points, and creates a dynamic, more interesting video recording. This keeps your audience more engaged and interested in the next point you’ll make.
Voice modulation helps activate your voice
We naturally use voice modulation techniques when we talk. It’s even more important when you’re recording.
- Pitch: Raising our voice higher or lower. Conveys emphasis, draws attention to words, or differentiates points. No pitch variation = monotone.
- Rate: Speed of speaking. Speak with a slower rate as you explain a complex idea, or slow down to emphasize a line, or idea. Increase your rate to move through things your audience intuitively or already knows.
- Pause: To add emphasis. Pauses before, or immediately after a key point give your audience a moment to “digest” an idea, or consider a question. A pause signals a break between main ideas, and sets up your audience to focus on the next idea.
- Tone: Is the emotional quality of a word or phrase: Use Inflection and Intonation to highlight key points.
- Inflection: Change your pitch on a word, or two, in a sentence. This draws attention to the word, or differentiates/emphasizes that word from the rest of the sentence. Intonation also breaks up a script that feels monotonous.
- Intonation: A change in voice pitch that continues through a phrase or sentence (longer than a few words). For instance, for an emotionally charged topic you might drop to a lower pitch to mark the gravity of the subject.
Using inflection and intonation gives speech a lilting, up-and-down rhythm, guiding the audience through a complex sentence. Use a higher pitch to emphasize key words.
What to avoid
Speaking too fast: It’s hard for the audience to process and keep up with new ideas and information when it’s coming too fast. Speaking “a beat” slower helps students stick to the lecture. And the audience can adjust playback speed to a faster rate if they choose.
Long, complex sentences with multiple commas and multiple ideas. It’s harder for the audience to process complex sentences with multiple ideas. Consider rewriting these lines so they are shorter, and include breaks.
Test record
A short, 30-second test recording verifies — or points out — something in the script you need to adjust. Make sure everything sounds like it should before you go to the trouble of recording the full script.
- Experiment: Read several lines, using different approaches:
- Start by reading with a flat intonation.
- Then transform to acting, open up and project, overemphasize activating your voice.
- Find the middle ground between the two versions that strikes the right balance for the recording.
- Listen to the recording.
- Do you sound the way you expected to? Could you activate your voice in a different way on your next take?
- Was the microphone positioned to capture the full resonance of your voice?
- Did the recording picked up background noise you weren’t aware of?
- Tip: If something doesn’t sound quite right, consider a line rewrite to make it smoother to read.
Feedback sessions
Schedule a 1:1 coaching session with Continuum College Instructor Development for support with script writing, delivery practice, Panopto technology set up, and feedback on test recordings. We can provide live feedback on your script read in a (Zoom) meeting, or email feedback using one of your test recordings.
Updated: 10/28/26