Excellent point about breathing, Margaret! I like to mark up my reading text (18pt!) andesite breath marks so that I have an idea of when to breathe and don’t run out of breath in the middle of a phrase.

One thing I’ve noticed is that I (and others) will take shallower breaths when nervous. This is, at least for me, a real killer. I have to remember, not simply to breathe, but to breathe deeply.

I heartily second the “18 point type printout” thing. I just participated in a poetry reading this past weekend, and thanks to a tip from a good friend, I had my poems printed out in 18 point bold. {phew}.

However, besides pronunciation, my biggest weakness when speaking is cadence (which I didn’t know the exact definition of until now). It’s difficult for me to estimate how much breath I have left, and when to take one, so sometimes I end up running out of it before I could reach a natural stopping point.

Neurotic Workaholic – A tip I learned when prepping for my thesis reading in grad school: if you’ll have a podium, print out your piece (single sided and in large font, like 18pt or higher). Don’t staple the pages but set them on the podium and rest your hands on the podium to keep them from shaking. When you get to the end of the page, slide the page you read across the podium and read the next one. (This avoids that flipping-of-pages drama that happens if you read from stapled pages.)

Beth – Yeah, when reading in public you can’t stop and make changes so it’s good practice. You make a great point though, about reading aloud to catch mistakes. I catch many more typos and errors when I read work aloud than when I read to myself. Reading aloud really helps with editing!