The Successful Voice: Strategies, Drills and Exercises for Public Speaking, Acting and Everyday Conversation

"The Successful Voice emphasizes the value of effective vocal communication in both the professional and private spheres. It gives public speakers and actors, as well as the daily conversationalist, the tools necessary to develop successful speaking skills.

The text provides exercises, drills, and basic information on inflection, intonation, and articulation. It also addresses dialogue emphasis, gesture, oral interpretation, and emotional expression.

Beginning with vocal warm-up, breathing exercises and tongue twisters for proper pronunciations, the text moves on to help students with plosive sounds, fricatives, nasals, glides, and affricates. This helpful guide concludes with: front, mid- and back-vowels, diphthongs, and a section on vocal eloquence.

Readers will quickly learn to listen for weak and strong speech patterns in the conversation of others, monitor their own speech, and produce distinct sounds without difficulty.

Practical, academically sound, entertaining, and student-friendly The Successful Voice is written specifically as a stand-alone text in voice and diction, or to function as a supplement in introductory acting, public speaking, or oral interpretation courses.

John Ross, Jr., holds a graduate degree in dramatic arts from Harvard. In addition, Professor Ross earned a degree in theatre from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He currently teaches in the Department of Communication, Media, and Theatre at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. His courses include public speaking, voice and diction, and communication. Professor Ross is also the author of five volumes of poetry and a textbook entitled iSpeak! uSpeak! weSpeak!: An Introduction to Contemporary Public Speaking.