Pause at the right times

Reading is more than just saying individual words one at a time. Doing this could even make you sound a little robotic! If you divide the words in a sentence into logical chunks and phrases, you will sound more natural and interesting. Reading this way can even help listeners better understand the meaning of the text. We call this phrasing or chunking.

Here is a quick test: when you read, does it sound different than when you talk? When we talk, we naturally place emphasis on the words we want people to pay attention to. We also do not pause between each word.

One way to practice chunking words together is to draw slashes, or diagonal lines, between the words you want to say together. Use the slashes to divide the sentence into groups of words that have meaning. For example, in the sentence “She’s running to the store.” you could divide the sentence into two chunks: “She’s running/ to the store”. Most slash marks are between groups of two to five words.

When you are drawing slashes, pay attention to the punctuation of the sentence. At punctuation marks like commas and periods, you should take an extra long pause. If you are reading something with people talking or quotes, you should also pause before and after quotes.

Here are the rules:

• Put a / between meaningful word groups
• Put a / between dialogue and narration
• Put a // at periods and commas. The double slash // signals an extra long pause.

Clauses can also tell you where to take a pause. A clause is basically a group of words with one subject and one verb. For example, I work at home. More complex sentences have more clauses. For example: She likes / the girl who won the prize. I'm sure / you can do it. They don't know / where she found the necklace. In these examples, there is a slash after the first subject-verb clause that divides it from the second one. This slash is a good place to take a short pause.

Let's try chunking out a longer sentence.

“The Mayan empire was a vast one with many different languages and cultures and spanned various regions including those of six modern countries,” Professor Wu told us.

Here is an example of how to chunk out the sentence.

“The Mayan empire was a vast one / with many different languages and cultures /and spanned various regions / including those of six modern countries,” / Professor Wu told us. //

There is not only one right way to chunk a sentence. The longer the sentence gets, the more possibilities there are. Some people will use chunks more often than others. Here’s another way to chunk the same sentence:

“The Mayan empire / was a vast one / with many different languages / and cultures /and spanned various regions / including those / of six modern countries,” / Professor Wu told us. //

There are lot of ways to practice phrasing.

• Ask a tutor to read something aloud while you draw slashes in the places where they pause. Then read it aloud with the same phrasing they used.
• Pick a reading and draw in slashes. Then ask a tutor to read it aloud. As you listen, decide if it sounds natural, or if you need to move some of the slashes.

As you practice intentional phrasing, your flow will get less choppy. With time, you will internalize the rules of when to pause, and do it automatically without drawing in any slashes. So pick out a reading of your choice and start chunking!