How did you become more articulate and well spoken?

8 comments

1. Listening to well spoken and intelligent people on podcasts and in videos, and reading well written articles and books.

   Practicing public speaking or discussing nuanced topics with people you respect.

   I think being articulate and eloquent also comes from knowing yourself and being emotionally intelligent, so anything that helps you with that : books, journaling, meditation, therapy…

2. ‘Read a thousand books and your words will flow like a river.’ – Virginia Woolf

3. I read like a maniac

4. Reading books with knowledge helped me a lot with how I express myself verbally and building self-security.

5. I read fanfiction as a kid, but a lot of that fanfiction was written by clearly experienced writers. I wanted to sound graceful like they did, so I started trying to reach that goal pretty young.

   When I went to get evaluated by a psychologist at age 19, my evaluator said in my report that I’m articulate for my age, so I guess it worked.

   My mom and older sister are both very well-spoken, so I emulated them too. I also emulated adult characters on television too.

6. Reciting. Either from memory or just by reading out loud. I remember one teacher who had us recite with a pencil clenched in our teeth, the premise being that if you can enunciate well around the pencil you’ll do even better once you take it out.

7. Listened to heaps of podcasts presented by people who are educated / qualified in the topic. Ologies and You’re Wrong About are presented by wonderfully articulate and thoughtful people.

   Read widely – not just fiction, but long form articles (the website Longform is a great resource) poetry, non fiction, look up things you’re curious about on wikipedia even – just consume information.

   And honestly, just talk more. I’m very socially anxious so even though my brain is able to (mostly) form articulate thoughts, this doesn’t necessarily come across when I’m nervous. Practice small talk as much as in depth conversations and sharing your ideas clearly.

8. I think it’s mostly because I was sick of people not hearing me or misunderstanding me all of the time as a child. I started to way over annunciate. And I’ve always read a whole lot, so I developed a firm grasp of sentence structure and a broad vocabulary while young.