Not all filler words need to be cut out, especially if you’re aiming to sound conversational (although it would be odd in a news bulletin, or if you’re sticking to a timed and signed-off script, to insert umms and errs!). And anyway, removing them all from your authentic speech pattern may get in the way of you genuinely connecting with you audience.
Eliminate most of your filler words though and you will instantly sound more intelligent and professional and will be less distracting to your audience.
If you want to reduce or eliminate fillers, then:
· Become more aware of what you say and when - The first way to eliminate these disfluencies is to look or listen back to your recordings, or recordings of your lives (this is often called an ‘air-check’ or ‘ROT’: ‘recording of/off transmission’). Note the filler words, where they are and when you tend to use them. It may be in a particular situation or certain part of a sentence – or between them. Only you will know what was happening at the time, both in the studio and in your head, and whatever it was may be the cause of your distraction: possibly a technical hitch that distracted you, or a lost page of notes that you were looking for
· Commit to eliminating them - When you know the word, or words, that you fall back on too often, make a conscious effort to take them out. Better still ask family or friends to pick you up whenever you say it. A bit like Pavlov’s dog experiment, you could have your producer click the ‘talkback’ studio intercom every time you say the word on air. It may be annoying but it’s a good way to get you to notice yourself repeating the old habit that you want to break.
· Increase your prep and knowledge of your topic - Being better prepared is also an answer: know more about the topic you’re talking about; making better notes and using them; not being distracted in the studio and so on. I have given lots of tips about all of these issues so far.
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