We have now covered element one starting and ending sentences. In that element, we spoke about the need to clearly separate sentences for your audience. And we do this by applying the golden rules go down, pause, energize. You may have found that when you were reading the extract from Virginia Woolf, that there weren't enough commerce to make the sentence comfortable to read and listen to. This means that you have to put your own commas in. I call these mental commas because they're in your head, and not on the paper.

But remember, these are exactly the same as commas you already use, but for some strange reason, they're quite often omitted. This lack of punctuation applies to many scripts, books and letters. In fact, recently, someone wrote a book with no punctuation at all. Personally, I cannot see the point. In this element, we're going to learn when and why we use mental commerce. Here we go.

The leaves were still falling, comma, but in London now comma, not Oxbridge, semi colon. Not too bad this first bit. And I must ask you to imagine a room comma, like many thousands come up. Now here we go with a deep breath, with a window looking across people's had some bands, motorcars to other windows, comma, and on the table inside the room, a blank sheet of paper on which was written in large letters, women fiction, comma, but no more breathless stuff with no punctuation. Now you can't read it like that, and be clearly understood by your listener. So what we're going to do is put in our own pocket When you put in a mental comma, it breaks up a longer sentence into many sentences.

These mini sentences consist of one to several words, and are small blocks of information. They may not be grammatically correct, but they must make some semblance of sense. Once you get into this, you'll see what I mean. And it's really quite straightforward. When you first read and recorded the extract from a room of one's own, in all probability you put in your own mental commerce, you most likely got around 70% of the mental comments correctly identified by instinct alone. Perhaps you read that long sentence, something like the leaves were still falling, but in London now not Oxbridge, and I must ask you to imagine a room like many thousands, with a window looking across people's hats and vans and motorcars to other windows and on the table inside the room.

Blank sheet of paper, which was written in large letters, women and fiction, but no more. Notice that the first five lines of a room of one's own has been printed in red, and the existing punctuation has been marked. Now we have to find out if there are mental commas required. You will also notice there is a down arrow and an up arrow around the full stop, which is part of the golden rules go down, pause, energize. the down arrow obviously means you go down and then count to three. the up arrow means energizing the beginning of the next sentence.

I'll now go through these five lines with you to find where to put mental commerce. I want you to mark these mental commerce as we go through this sentence. There is a printed comma after the scene. So that's already a mini sentence. The next part of sentence, if I may ask you to follow me, is a little bit too long for me. So I'll break that up into too many sentences.

The only way I can see to do that is to ask the question, What am I asking you to do? To follow me. So that's why there's a mental comma after you. Remember, the mental comma is exactly the same as any comma you normally use. So it now sounds like if I may ask you to follow me. We are going to mark a mental comma between now and changed.

The reason for this is because change is the most important word in this sentence. So when I get to changed, I'm going to emphasize it very slightly. The mental comma will help to do this. So the first sentence will now read the scene, if I may ask you to follow me was now changed. Now we've marked the mental commas and emphasize the word change. The sentence takes 10% longer to read Normally, you would not emphasize the last word in the sentence.

Many untrained broadcasters do this regularly. And it sounds terrible. I'll give you an example of some reporters and writers who get it wrong. they emphasize the last word in every sentence, and it drives me mad because they do it all the time. This is quite common. The reason it happens is because broadcasters are not taught a technique, so they try to develop some kind of rhythm to help them read.

Obviously, you can't read the news to a boss and over beat, so they subconsciously work out a target, which in this case, is the last word in the sentence. Whilst we're on the subject, there are many other mistakes made. I've already mentioned Australia is going up at the end of a sentence. How can you communicate correctly if the listener doesn't know if you're asking a question or making a statement? Another common mistake is to ask emphasize unimportant words like and is an are. I'll give you an example.

Finless foods one of the world's biggest advertisers recently showed a commercial on television. One of the lines was Findus, the most tender piece. Now obviously the most important words in this message are Findus, and most tender the whole idea is to evoke a memory of home cooking with a pile of tender puppies topped with a knob of butter. The correct way to deliver the line is fineness. The most tender puppies, the voiceover said, fenders, the most tender puppies, many other producers insist on emphasizing the word you and yours because they think it personalizes the message. Sometimes this is correct, but you would not say to a friend, is that your watch?

But you would no emphasize your if there was a strong suspicion that it was somebody else's watch. It can sound like an accusation. Now back to the mental commerc. Carrying on into the next sentence, the leaves are still falling is the first bit. And that again is a little too long. So I'm going to break that into too many sentences.

The sentence is about the leaves and what they were doing. And that's why we've got a mental comma after the leaves. One after falling, and one after now because of the actual comments. They're one after Oxbridge because of the semi colon. The next part, and I must ask you to imagine a room is again too long. So I'll break that into too many sentences.

Again, I'll ask a question. What am I asking you to do? I'm asking you to imagine a room. So put a mental comma after you and one after room. So that now sounds like Like, and I must ask you to imagine a room, one after thousands. Now here comes the hora weather window looking across, we've had some bad weather goes to other windows.

Well, we clearly need to do something about this. So the first mini sentence isn't brilliant. But all we've got is the phrase with a window. So we put one there. Now ask the question, what is the window doing? It's looking across.

So there's one there. Again, ask the question, what is it looking across people's hats, one there, and vans one there and motorcars one there. Two other windows one there. Now for the final part of the sentence, and on the table inside the room, a blank sheet of paper, which was written in lossless women and fiction, but no more. Pretty breathless stuff. I think you'll agree.

So the first mini sentence we've got there and again, it isn't much to go on his end on the table. So there was the table inside the room one there. What's on the table? a blank sheet of paper one there, on which was written one there. How was it written in large letters, one there? What did it say?

Women and fiction, one there, but no more, one there. So now I've illustrated where the mental commas are needed in the first five lines of the extract. I want you to take a pencil and mark up the mental commas in the rest of this extract. And in a moment, we'll come back and check how many you got right. Once you get into the rhythm of picking up where the mental comments should go, it's fairly straightforward. Remember, you probably got 60 to 70% by instinct alone.

So this is not new to you. Please use a pencil so you can erase them later. If necessary. Now you've marked up the rest of the extract from a room of one zone. Let's go back and see how many you got right? You might like to mark the corrections in a different colored pencil or ink, you will hear a beep for every existing comma and where you need to mark a mental cover.

So let's start from where we left off. The inevitable sequel to lunching and dining at Oxbridge seemed, unfortunately, to be a visit to the British Museum. Remember that we marked the existing punctuation like a comma, semi colon full stop or a question mark. So starting from the inevitable sequel, which is our first block of information, put one after sequel to lunching one there and dining one there at Oxbridge one there seems Unfortunately, to be a visit to the British Museum 231 more strain off what was personal and accidental in all these impressions, and so reach the pure fluid, the essential oil of truth. Two, three, for that visit to Oxbridge and the luncheon and the dinner had started a swarm of questions to three. Why did men drink wine?

And women water to three? Why was one sex so prosperous? And the other so poor? Two, three. What effect has poverty on fiction to three, what conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art? to three?

If truth is not to be found on the shelves of the British Museum, where I asked myself, picking up a notebook, and a pencil is truth. I will now read the entire extract, putting in all the mental comments, but I will still count to three at the end of each sentence. The scene if I may ask you to follow me was now changed to three. The leaves were still falling, but in London now not Oxbridge. And I must ask you to imagine a room like many thousands with a window looking across people's hat, some vans and motorcars to other windows and on the table inside the room. a blank sheet of paper on which was written in large letters, women and fiction, but no more.

Two, three. The inevitable sequel to lunching and dining at Oxbridge seemed, unfortunately, to be a visit to the British Museum to three, one the strain off what was personal and accidental in all these impressions, and so reached a pure fluid, the essential oil of truth. Two, three, for that visit to Oxbridge and the luncheon and the dinner had started a swarm of questions to three. Why did mentoring wine and women water to three? Why was one sec so prosperous, and the other so pour? Two Three, what effect has poverty on fiction to three?

What conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art? To 3000 questions at once suggested themselves. But one needed answers, not questions. And an answer was only to be had, by consulting the learned and the unprejudiced, who have removed themselves above the strife of tongue and the confusion of body and issued the result of their reasoning and research in books, which are to be found in a British Museum. Two, three, if truth is not to be found on the shelves of the British Museum, where I asked myself, picking up a notebook and a pencil is truth. In the sentence, the essential oil of truth, most people are tempted to put a mental comma after oil.

Obviously, they are thinking of essential oils, but it's very misleading for the listener because he could get the impression that you're talking about alternative medicine. You will see in the sentence, why did men drink wine and women water we have put a mental comma After the first word, this is because Virginia Woolf was a 1920s feminist who was angry at the sexist attitude of men. Putting a mental comma after the first word dramatizes the sentence. In this case, it is, Why do men drink wine and women water? In the same way if I said, Why did you come by train today? That sounds quite friendly.

But if I said, Why did you come by train today? Put in a mental cover after the first word makes it sound as though there was some reason you should not have come by train. The part which reads above the strife of tongue and the confusion of body is a bit of a tongue twister, especially if you're a little nervous, and it could sound like a mess. So above is used as a platform. So instead of hearing above the stripe of tongue and the confusion of body, which is certainly confusing, it sounds better to read above the strife of tongue and the confusion of body Now that you know how to break up a sentence into one or more of many sentences using mental commas, I want you to read and record the entire passage from a room of one's own. Remember to also apply the golden rules go down, pause, energize, and count to three at the end of each sentence.

Don't forget, perfection is some way off. So you need to practice you have used your own patterns reading by instinct for many years, it will take time to replace any bad habits you might have developed. Practice for at least one hour a day and listen to your recordings critically. You must notice when you haven't applied the golden rules. Remember that it's practice that made Tiger Woods a great golfer. Practice can make you a great communicator.

When you're ready to record, press pause, press play as soon as you're ready to continue We've now learned how to use mental commas to break up long sentences into smaller blocks of information called mini sentences. In the following three elements, we are really going to get down to the business of changing the way you read. You see, your voice is like a musical instrument. And the key to playing a musical instrument well, is to be able to control the way it sounds. The next three elements will teach you to gain that conscious control over your voice that you'll need in order to become a professional voiceover or to improve the effectiveness of your presentation or public speaking.