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Show If You Could Hear Yourself ( ess mm h urns By RUTH MILLETT If, like the person who speaks Into a microphone, you were to be Judged by your voice alone, what would the Judgment be? Remember, no We, the Women smils to help your words, no lifted eyebrow to lend meaning to an ambiguous am-biguous remark, no gestures for smphasis. Would your words please or Irritate, Irri-tate, convey your meaning or give a wrong Impression, make people listen lis-ten with both ears or fall asleep? Shut your eyes and talk. Say any of the things you go about saying say-ing day In and day out. Listen to how those words sound. Be as critical criti-cal as you would be If the voice were coming from a radio and you were considering turning the dial. Does your voice stay up In ths air at the end of a . sentence,' as though you haven't quite decided to stop? Does It say in effect: "It's a weary world." Or Is there life and animation anima-tion in It? Easily Corrected Faults Are you startled by the loudness of your voice, by a rasping you never before realised was there, or oy sn impression of fusziness. caused by such softness that ths words blur Into each other and are indistinct? Voice faults are really simple to correct, if you can once get your ears trained to listen to your own voice. Most of the time we never hear ourselves. The next time you are engaged In a casual conversation, try to hear the sound of your own words. You may be surprised to find that you are repeating some pet word over and over. "Sure" "Unhuh" or the little deprecating phrases, "I mean" "That is" You know" or even worse that Iritating expansive "See?" tacked on to every statement state-ment Voles Your Charm If you have any doubt about your ability to pronounce correctly the words you use, or even If you haven't a doubt check up there. In judging your own voice, remember re-member that quality Is the most important im-portant thing of alL A pleasant-sounding pleasant-sounding voice is as necessary to a woman as a nice smils, warm eyes, or a "fins figure." If this sounds like so much trouble trou-ble that you are ready to let your voice go Its own harsh way. remember re-member this: "The woman with an Irritating voice hasn't an ounce of feminine charm." |