Voicing Parenthetical Interruptions

Lower and quicken your voice for parenthetical material so the main sentence stays clear.

Writers often interrupt a sentence with extra information set off by commas, dashes, or parentheses. Read aloud, these interruptions can derail the listener unless your voice signals that you have stepped aside. The usual technique is to drop your pitch slightly, speed up a little, and then return to your original pitch exactly where the main sentence resumes. Take: 'The experiment, which most of the lab considered a long shot, produced the clearest result of the year.

' Read 'The experiment' at normal pitch, dip into 'which most of the lab considered a long shot', then come back up for 'produced the clearest result of the year. ' The return is the key: if you stay low, listeners lose the thread of the subject. Dashes often mark a more dramatic aside than commas, and parentheses a quieter one, so adjust intensity accordingly. A useful practice is to read the sentence once without the interruption, then add it back in while keeping the outer sentence's tune.

• 1Interruptions are spoken lower and slightly faster.
• 2Return to the original pitch where the main sentence resumes.
• 3Dashes suggest a sharper aside; parentheses a quieter one.