The original post: /r/lifeprotips by /u/9VoltGorilla on 2024-12-04 20:33:04.

I’m an amateur video editor for training videos for my company and this tip has helped dramatically when helping speakers who are not used to public speaking.

What do I mean by chaining uhs and ums?

Speakers have a tendency to use uhs and ums as an opportunity to think of the next thing they are going to say and will often connect their next thought with the uh or um.

Example of um chaining words:

“Today we have three things on the agenda: Onboarding, Initial setup and, umsigning in.”

While practicing your presentation/video/audio recording get into the habit of noticing when you’ve dropped an uh or um and practice leaving a breath before you say the next word.

Example of where to pause:

“Today we have three things on the agenda: Onboarding, Initial setup and, um… signing in. “

What this does for your editor is it gives them a clear start and stop point for your um and not an um that’s shoved into another word. Anyone who has edited knows how a uh or um waveform looks like and we are eternally grateful when there is clear air around it.

When you come back into the sentence after leaving the pause, just speak as if you had never uh’d or um’d and the editor will do the rest.

TLDR: practice leaving a breath after you uh or um when recording audio or video so that when your editor is cutting out all of the dead air, it’s infinitely easier for us to make you sound like a public speaking pro.