How many words to say? The perennial challenge in public speaking

Many speakers can?t work out how many words they can say in the time they?ve got. Whilst there is no substitute for practice, don?t bank on more than 140 words per minute.

An entrepreneur friend of mine was recently on a global trade tour. With a group of his fellow countrymen he was visiting a load of European countries to sell his great new idea. At each event each member of the group was supposed to stand up, give a two minute elevator pitch and sit down. Every single time, one guy would get up and speak for quarter of an hour, dominated the time available and no-one else got a look in. Needless to say he wasn?t the most popular delegate on the trip.

We?ve all been there. A speaker?waffles on for three times as long as anyone anticipates. Sometimes other people miss out on speaking, or they miss their train home. Always it tires the audience.?Over the last few years as an observer of public speaking I?ve seen a lot of speakers overrun. Occasionally a speaker keeps going on?because they like the sound of their own voice. Mostly, it?s borne out of lack of confidence in the speaker themselves.

The greatest fear of any novice public speaker is running out of material. Not having anything to say in front of audience. To be frozen, silent and exposed. As a consequence novice speakers try to pack more into their speeches than they can possibly hope to say in the time available. Experienced speakers do it too, when they?re in front of new audiences that make them nervous.

The answer of course is to plan to say less. But how much less? That?s the tricky part, because it will depend on a wide range of different things, including the density of the content (does the audience have a lot to take in?) and pauses you are inserting for dramatic effect, but here are some helpful tips I?ve picked up along the way.

Since we all?speak at different rates, so there?s no substitute for practice at home.

When performing in front of an audience, I find most speeches take 15% longer than they do with the mirror. That?s a combination of additional pauses for effect, laughter, and allowing the audience to take the content in.

If you don?t have time to practice, years of writing my own speeches and reading other people?s suggests most people can say around 140 words?a minute clearly, so that?s about 1,000 words in a seven minute speech. (Having said that, one of my favourite speaking blogs, six minutes, analysed a series of TED talks by leading figures and found the average speaking rate was 163 words per minute, with a range of 133-188. If you ask me, many of them would have been a lot better if they?d slowed down http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/speaking-rate/)

Finally, remember that when it comes to speaking, your audience are very unlikely to be more engaged with the subject than you are and the more enthusiastic the speaker the more they want to cram in. If you think it is about the right length, it is probably too long. If you think it is too long, it definitely is. No-one ever condemned a speaker with the words ?that presentation was too short?.

Happy speaking!

George

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