Adapted from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Breckenridge Carnegie (1915)

Our English has changed with the years, so many words now connote more than they initially did. This is true of the word “monotonous.” From having but one tone, it has come to mean, more broadly, a lack of variation.

The monotonous speaker not only drones along in the same volume and pitch of tone but always uses the same emphasis, the same speed, the same thoughts—or dispenses with thought altogether.
Monotony, the cardinal and most common sin of the public speaker, is not a transgression—it is rather a sin of omission.

Emerson says, “The virtue of art lies in detachment in sequestering one object from the embarrassing variety.” That is exactly what the monotonous speaker fails to do—he does not detach one thought or phrase from another; they are all expressed in the same manner.

Telling you that your speech is monotonous may mean very little to you, so let us look at the nature—and the curse—of monotony in other spheres of life. Then, we will appreciate more fully how it will blight an otherwise good speech.

If the gramophone in the adjoining apartment grinds out only three selections over and over again, it is pretty safe to assume that your neighbor has no other records. If a speaker uses just a few of his powers, it points very plainly to the fact that the rest of his powers are not developed. Monotony reveals our limitations.

In its effect on its victim, monotony is actually deadly—it will drive the bloom from the cheek and the luster from the eye as quickly as sin and often leads to viciousness. The worst punishment that human ingenuity has ever been able to invent is extreme monotony—solitary confinement. Lay a marble on the table and do nothing eighteen hours of the day but change that marble from one point to another and back again, and you will go insane if you continue long enough.

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