Usually whatever corrections will make the tone clearer will also make it more agreeable.  The nasal pessimistic whine is not a pleasant recommendation of personality.  High, forced, strident tones produce not only irritation in the listener but throat trouble for the speaker.

Articulate—­that is, connected—­speech may be considered with reference to four elements, all of which are constantly present in any spoken discourse.

Speed.  First, there is the speed of delivery.  An angry woman can utter more words in a minute than any one wants to hear.  The general principle underlying all speech delivery is that as the audience increases in number the rapidity of utterance should be lessened.  Those who are accustomed to addressing large audiences, or to speaking in the open air, speak very slowly.  A second consideration is the material being delivered.  Easily grasped narrative, description, and explanation, simply phrased and directly constructed, may be delivered much more rapidly than involved explanation, unfamiliar phraseology, long and intricate sentence constructions, unusual material, abstract reasoning, and unwelcome sentiments.  The beginnings of speeches move much more slowly than later parts.  A speaker who intends to lead an audience a long distance, or to hold the attention for a long time, will be extremely careful not to speak at the beginning so rapidly that he leaves them far behind.

This does not mean that a speaker must drawl his words.  One of our national characteristics is that we shorten our words in pronouncing them—­ing generally loses the g, does not has become doesn’t and quite incorrectly don’t, yes is yeeh, etc.  In many cases nothing more is required than the restoration of the word to its correct form.  Some words can easily be lengthened because of the significance of their meanings.  Others must be extended in order to carry.  The best method of keeping down the rate of delivery is by a judicious use of pauses.  Pauses are to the listener what punctuation marks are to the reader.  He is not conscious of their presence, but he would be left floundering if they were absent.  Some of the most effective parts of speeches are the pauses.  They impart clearness to ideas, as well as aiding in emphasis and rhythm.

Pitch.  A second quality of speech is its pitch.  This simply means its place in the musical scale.  Speaking voices are high, medium, or low.  Unfortunate tendencies of Americans seem to be for women to pitch their voices too high, with resultant strain and unpleasantness, and for men to pitch their voices too low, with resultant growls and gruffness.  The voices of young children should be carefully guarded in this respect; so should the changing voices of growing boys.  To secure a good pitch for the speaking voice the normal natural pitch of usual conversation should be found.  Speech in that same pitch should be developed for larger audiences.  Frequently a better pitch can be secured by slightly lowering the voice.  If the natural pitch be too low for clearness or agreeableness it should be slightly raised—­never more than is absolutely necessary.