'45 Faces Voice Tests In Holden

"G-gawsh, do I s-sound f-f-f-f-funny!" This kind of blurb is just what Frederick C. Parkard, Jr., '20, associate professor of Public Speaking, is looking for in his voice tests for Freshmen now being made in Holden Chapel.

No one, Professor Packard explains, knows what his own voice sounds like, since it comes to him through the bones of his head. Many a Yardling will find to his chagrin that his voice is not the deep, masculine thing he thinks it is, but more like the chirp of some flutey little bird in one of the Yard elms.

Three recording machines have been installed to take care of the large Yardling class and will operate today from 9 until 5 o'clock. Those who stutter or have other serious speech defects will be requested to take a full year course to remedy them; a six-week course is open to those with less serious speaking faults.

Yardling Meets "Mike"

Every Freshman speaks for several minutes into one of the microphones which Professor Packard has had installed in Holden Chapel. Part of the talk is read from a prepared sheet, and the rest is delivered impromptu about summer experiences, political convictions, or etc., to test the student's facility in phrasing his thoughts.

A recording is made of each test and played back to the student so that he can hear, himself, what others have had to put up with for years and understand why he has perhaps failed to win friends and overwhelm employers.

Many of the recordings made so far reveal that the most over-worked word in the Yardling vocabulary is "uh" or "ah", and that the most common sentence construction is a long, awkward pause. Difficulties such as these will be attacked by Professor Packard and his staff after they have been exposed to the light by the voice recordings.