How many words would you say you average per minute? And how conscious are you of your pace and intonation?

I speak publicly in a couple of different contexts on a regular basis, but have to deliver an academic lecture on Wednesday at a conference of about half an hour in length.

As you can tell by my being on here I am procrastinating, but am also looking for affirmation from those in the know that I will be able to write less rather than more.

I reckon on just shy of 100 words a minute. So for half an hour I’d be aiming for something in the region of 2800+ words. I speak at a moderate pace and tend to have quite a few pauses to let my words sink in and to gather my thoughts. I usually have a full script in front of me, but occasionally speak from bullet points.

D’you know, I’ve never really counted.

I tend to have hour speaking slots with Q&A to follow, but that’s usually around 15 slides* and about five points per slide as a starting point.

*When I come to power, I will ban Powerpoint and kill anyone using it.

Practice and time the lecture. I do technical talks to large groups a few times a year (15 minutes to an hour depending on session type) and I tend to time by this although i can still overrun I rarely come up embarrassingly short

What public lecture are you giving? Topic wise and let’s hear the title.

I mean shouldn’t you be at home with your family etc … 😯

I prefer not to divulge the title, because that would lead to my secret identity!

No seriously, I just prefer to keep work and play separate. 🙂

I have known for some people to use an Mechanical Metronome

Practice and time the lecture.

Do this.

Most of us speak too quickly, try and cram too much info in. Almost all the speaking coaching I have had has said the same thing. 30 mins could be as few as 5 slides.

I speak fast, but also pause a lot – this works for scientific talks ( but really I don’t think there’s a right answer). Whether you’re demonstrating awesomeness through depth or width, this wouldn’t change for me, although the number of slides would.

I would never practice a talk for real, but would always run through it many times in my head. This gives me the right level of fluency, but again, everyone has their own style. As long as you are prepared on you own terms, you will be fine. Being unprepared is the stuff of nightmares.

If it’s complex material I would go slower and keep it simple, not because the audience will be thick, but even with a keen and willing audience there’s a limit to what a listener can take in.

I record myself on my iPhone. I can then hear how many erms I do and how fast I’m talking.

It depends on how well you know the subject and whether you intend to talk at the audience and kill them with boredom or invite some level of participation as you go. Also, if you are script-bound for the entire presentation you will destroy their will to live.

As above, practice and time yourself. Also when you think you’re speaking slowly enough, speak a bit slower. I find getting rid of the erms simply comes with practice – both of the specific talk, and of talking in general. I also hate talking about stuff I don’t know really well which i can do without a full script.

Oh, and if you are doing powerpoint or something similar then a similar principle applies – when you think your slides are uncluttered enough get rid of a bit more info from each one.

Blimey CFH, you must sell some sophisticated post-its…

*When I come to power, I will ban Powerpoint and kill anyone using it.

all the cool kids are using Prezi 😀

Lots of good advice here. 6Ps- proper preparation prevents piss-poor performance. Practice aloud against the clock, and recording yourself is good.

You need to take some account of the purpose of the lecture. If you are expecting the audience to take proper notes then you need to go a good bit slower than if you are just giving a general interest talk.

Will you be using Powerpoint or just talking? If the latter, then you need to be very careful to get your ideas across. I more or less use Powerpoint for pictures only and spend my time explaining the pictures.

Depends on what i am saying but you should be able to change the speed and context and detail on the hoof

Dont ever start talking faster because you are running out of time reduce what you want to say
I would ever write a speech for 30 mins

Some points I wanted to say then say them

Power point helps when you first start IMHO but is a pain once you are confident/competent

As dpfr says, it depends what the point is. I have no idea how many words i speak a minute, but it would vary between a research paper and an undergrad lecture. They key thing for me is knowing what material i have and then watching or asking the audience for how much they are taking in. Then i can adjust the pace, spend more time on things that they don’t get.

The best lectures are when you speak to the audience, rather than at them. I imagine there is only one in the room and have a conversation with them.

Also consider where the audience needs to get the information from. Will they get it from you? From reading text on the slide? From seeing pictures and diagrams? A combination? Our third years just presented their dissertation projects to us, and we had to remind them that they are the presentation, not the slides. They are the source of the information with the slides as the supporting cast.

Whatever you do, don’t use slides to show everyone your notes in bullet point form. Key words and phrases, sure. Important quotes, fine. But if you’re saying what is on the slide more often than not, you’re doing it wrong.

Absolutely spot on from CJ there – I particularly agree with the last point about slides (also covered by dpfr) – slides should convey something extra from what you’re saying. Particularly the case if it’s a conference where you’re presenting a paper which has already been published.

Al, it’s all about the staplers now! 😉

No idea, but I do practice and will deliver the same timings live as I do in practice.