I believe that there are a number of components that make up a 'professional voice'. There is certainly a fairly broad range of 'professional' voices - those of news readers, radio talk show hosts, actors who specialise in voicing animations or those who read sales advertisements, singers and a number of other professions who would utilise a 'professional voice'. While the application of the 'professional voice' varies, I believe that there are a number of qualities that would be consistent across all of these categories.
I think that the voice itself needs to have a warm resonance to it, an enjoyable tone that is not too nasal or broad, and invites the listener to enjoy it. The voice needs to be authoritative and confident so that the audience believes that the speaker has conviction in whichever field it is being applied. The speech must be measured in pace and timing, not too fast or slow, but the pace should be varied where appropriate to ensure the listener does not get lulled into sleep; this applies also to the tone of the voice, which should change as appropriate for the content or emotion during the speech. Appropriate timing of breath and pauses should be applied, and knowledge of where to place emphases during the speech is important. The 'professional voice' should speak clearly, enunciating all consonants, and should refrain from using slang or contractions unless they are specifically written into the script. While these characteristics should be consistent through all 'professional' voices, I also believe that each voice should have a unique quality, and each speaker should strive to find their own 'voice' so to speak; if each 'professional voice' was identical then speeches would become incredibly boring and ineffective to their audiences.
The speeches referred to in this week's study guide had a number of factors that made them effective, and many of these were common across the speeches. Almost all speeches were politically motivated, though this in itself is not necessarily something that makes a speech effective. Political speeches, however, do tend to arouse passion in people, and I believe that passion is certainly key when writing a speech. Passion is not always displayed through the act of speech itself, but can come through in writing; for example President Barack Obama's speech on Trayvon Martin (The White House, 2013) was consistently calm and measured, and yet there is no denying that his words were a plea for people to set aside racial assumptions. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I have a dream' speech (Gokadze, 2013) was a partially improvised, impassioned appeal for civil rights.
Another common factor seems to be a 'call to action'; a request from the speaker to the audience to do something. This varied across speeches from asking generations of men to fight, asking people to drop their prejudices, asking the audience to follow a political party, or support a piece of legislation, or a new leader, or even to have sympathy or empathy for a victim. All of these speeches don't just talk at the audience, but they ask the audience to take a step further and become involved in their cause.
Though the speeches referred to in the readings represented different speakers, eras, political movements, motivations and audiences, they were all passionate speeches that engaged the audience in a call to action.
In Kate Stowell's reading of the SBS World Radio news (Kate Stowell Showreels, 2010), there are quite a number of emphases on words, a lot more than I thought there would be before I looked at it. I slowed the speed of playback down to 0.5 so I could hear every emphasis, and it is clear to me that she emphasises the key words in every sentence. I noticed that if you cut out the un-emphasised words in each sentence, you would still be able to get the gist of what is happening in the report. For example in using only emphasised words in the fourth paragraph of the news report you can still understand that 'Rob Oakeshott Tony Windsor support Prime Minister Gillard 76 seats enable form government'. I believe that Stawell enables the listener to understand what is happening even if they are not paying full attention; the emphases allow the brain to interpret the important information.
After listening back to my own recording, I noticed that while I emphasised many of the same words, I probably only put an emphasis on around half the words I had highlighted in Stowell's reading. I did not prepare for my recording and did not select words to emphasise, so I think I did well relatively speaking, but this is certainly a very interesting note to pick up. I think with planning and regular practice, selecting appropriate words for emphasis could easily become a natural habit.
References
Ilya Gokadze (poster) (2013), Martin Luther King, Jr. I have a dream speech, 28 Aug, viewed 18 Mar, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vDWWy4CMhE
Kate Stowell Showreels (2010), News reading sample, 22 Sep, viewed 20 Mar, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-qKDbNz2YI
The White House (2013), President Obama speaks on Trayvon Martin, 19 Jul, viewed 18 Mar, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHBdZWbncXI
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