English packs a disproportionate share of its meaning into which words in a sentence are stressed. One or two words carry the point; the rest are grammatical scaffolding. Put the stress in the wrong place and a listener has to do the work of reconstructing which word actually mattered — even if every individual sound was pronounced correctly.
This is worth taking seriously because it’s usually the highest-leverage single change available. Fix sentence stress and a great deal of remaining friction disappears even before individual sounds are addressed.
Try this now. Say the sentence “I didn’t say she took the money” four times, stressing a different word each time: “I,” then “say,” then “she,” then “took.” Notice each version implies a different meaning, despite using identical words. Now take a sentence from your own work and say it stressing what you actually mean — usually the newest or most important piece of information in it.
If you take only one lesson from this course seriously, make it this one. Everything from here is refinement; this is the lever that moves the most.
