At one end of the spectrum we've got a reading to an assembly of students, or an audience of customers to the Today programme on Radio Four. Even if you're reading environment is more like the former - but certainly if it's more like the latter - you really, really don't want to read badly.

It's all about the delivery, and that means it's all about letting go and controlling.

Now, if talking double dutch like that doesn't put you off, nothing will. You have to be interested in getting the best out of your voice and the best out of reading your material. It's a complicated subject, and it's obviously best done 'hands on'.

The trick is letting go of your inhibitions, but controlling your emotions!

Breath in the right way.

This is the simple, fundamental, unavoidable basics of all Reading.

You make sounds by adding vibrations to air as it leaves your lungs, and there are two ways of getting air in and out of your lungs. Both involve expanding your lungs (which reduces the air pressure inside your lungs and which in turn 'sucks' air into them down your throat from your nose or mouth). These two ways are related to the muscles that you use to pull out your lungs.

The right way is to use your Diaphragm and the wrong way is to use your Intercostal Muscles. These latter are the multitude of relatively tiny muscles that you use when you pant - they pull your rib-cage up and out, making your chest heave and probably moving your shoulders too.

The problem with using them is that they're not big enough to give you any sophisticated control over how much air you let out at a time, and besides, they can only force out a relatively small amount in the first place.

Far, far better to use your other option - your Diaphragm.

This is the big sheet of muscles that separates your torso into the 'breathing bits' (above) and your 'digestive bits' (below). It's the bit that moves your belt when you breath deeply and calmly.

If you breathe this way you'll be able to 'support' what you've got to say much better. The upshot is that your voice will be:

More assured and confident - because we associate panting with fear etc and breathing with your intercostal muscles gives rise to panting

More robust - by which I mean it will have more 'gravitas' and emotional integrity

Able to carry further - it won't necessarily be much louder, but it won't fade out as it carries towards the back of the hall, or where-ever you happen to be

Better able to run through whole sentences, or even paragraphs without stopping for air.

The last point is important, firstly because when you breathe, your audience hears a comma or full stop on the page - and this might change the whole meaning of what you're trying to say.

The second reason it's important is because it simply sounds better and more assured, holding the audience's interest and getting into their heads that one paragraph is exactly that - it contains one though, the whole thought and nothing but the thought.

Keep an open throat

As the air moves up out of your lungs, you 'add the sound' to it in your throat.

Keep your throat open, relaxed and not twisted or turned. Face your audience (even if your audience is nothing more than a microphone!) and make sure you drop your shoulders and stay relaxed.

Tension in your throat is what makes you sound nervous: you can be scared to death and wishing the ground would swallow you up, but if you don't tighten your throat and neck, the audience need never know.

Use your mouth

To state the obvious, work hard at your diction.

Remember one crucial difference between you and your audience; you know what you're saying, but they don't! Not only are you actually saying the words, but the chances are that you wrote 'em and you've perhaps even got them written down in front of you.

Your brain will fill in the gaps and filter out the "eerrrrs" but your audience doesn't know what you've said until you've said it. They can often work out the odd missing word from context, but why should they have to - and besides, while their busy doing this, they're not paying full attention to the gems you're offering them next.

Before you start to read, stretch your mouth out with a good yawn. That will stimulate the muscles around your mouth and get them working harder.

Prepare your text

It is your text you're reading, so you know it pretty well, but nerves, stage-fright, accidents and so on can all play havoc with your presentation.

Some people mark theirs up to give an idea of, for example, how long a sentence runs over the page, so that they are not taken by surprise when to turn over. Similarly, type out an overlap of a couple of words, so that you have time to move the pages around without rushing.

Do what works best for you but be prepared.

Judge your audience and your space

Rather like the working out the area of a square, this one's obvious when someone says it, but quite often it needs to be said. Pacing and pitching it right is an art in itself.

If you don't 'interpret' what you're saying they you run the risk of sounding boring. Conversely, if you over-work it, you risk sounding like a bombast, or even worse. You'll come over as nagging your audience and patronising them.

Pitching it right is something that comes with experience, but, in lieu of that; tell it slow and underplay it. Quite apart from anything else, the consequences of getting it wrong are less serious.

Besides, you'll never be underplaying it as much as you think. If you're passionate about what you're saying (and if you're not, why are you saying it?) you'll never be able to play it 'dead-pan' and you should never underestimate the effects of adrenaline on a speak.