Due to my swooning youthful looks and exuberant personality, I am always asked to be the emcee for important occasions. Last night, I received some feedback that my stress was all over the place, thus making me sound unnatural. But constructive criticism is good, for it compelled me to comb through my English textbooks to come up with this guide to help not only myself, but also my student emcees. 

Since Awards Day is a celebratory event, smile when reading so that you sound more cheerful.

Read with rhythm

People sound monotonous and robotic when they pronounce every word with the same stress. Their tone is staccato.

Word stress

To sound lively, you must draw special attention to a particular syllable of a word by saying it with more force and at a higher pitch.

Good morning and thank you for allowing me this opportunity to be your emcee for today.

(This multisyllabic word has the primary stress on ‘tu’ and the secondary stress on ‘op’).

Sentence stress

Similarly, you should place emphasis on a word in a sentence so that it is heard more prominently than the rest of the words.

We are happy to have you here today to join us. (Stress on pronouns that address the reader directly.)

NorthLight School is a place where all students discover their strengths.  (We usually stress quantifiers.)

They are given many opportunities to soar and succeed. (We usually stress quantifiers.)

All the members of the Dance CCA showcased their teamwork in their very first ever performance. (When an adverb and an adjective appear together, stress the adverb.)

For a long sentence, you must chunk it to introduce your own pauses. Break it up into meaningful chunks of words.

These awards are presented to staff of NorthLight School in recognition of their commitment and good service to the Ministry and the school.

In general, use a rising intonation for items in a list, and a falling intonation for the last item on the list.

Recipients of the Outstanding CCA Awards have shown excellent leadership qualities, outstanding contributions in the CCA, exemplary values and good character.

Also use a rising intonation for questions.

May we please request for you to switch all your communication devices to silent mode?

Take note of exclamation marks and stress the word accordingly.

Thank you once again and wishing everyone a blessed one week term break!