Quick and Easy Effective Tips for Speaking Rate

Pacing words for maximum effectiveness

Why should you consider Quick and Easy Effective Tips for Speaking Rate?

Too fast or too slow

If you've ever been called a motor-mouth, you'll know it's because the words rocket out of your mouth.

That may be fun and exciting to listen to for a while but too much speed is dangerous. It can kill your speech. How? The people listening get tired. You may be asking them to work too hard. When your speech stops being stimulating and starts being uncomfortable, ears switch off.

And exactly the same thing happens at the other end of the spectrum. Slow word-by-very-slow-word turns ears off just as fast.

Now people are waiting-and-waiting for you to get on with it and your lack of speed causes them to lose interest.

The answer is variety

The solution to the too fast-too slow problem is not the middle ground. Rather it is to vary our speaking rate in direct response to our audience's and our content's need.

Picture in your mind the the layout of your speech.

You'll have an introduction, followed by a series of main ideas with supporting examples or illustrations. To finish there'll be a conclusion.

Now think of the thread (theme, main idea) linking it altogether.

It is similar to a road. You are taking your audience on a journey. Your speech is the vehicle carrying them along and your mouth is the driver.

As the driver you make choices. You can whirl them through so fast the scenery blurs. While you're busy negotiating a series of complicated hair pin bends at full throttle, they're gazing out out the back window trying to work out what they've missed and where they are.

Or by contrast you can proceed so cautiously your passengers want to get out and walk.

If you were a responsive driver you would be continually adjusting your speed to meet the road conditions and the needs of your passengers.

There would be places to slow and perhaps even stop for the audience to catch their breath.

There would also be places where a quick burst of acceleration would give an exciting thrill.

Practice with Quick Easy and Effective Tips for Speaking Rate will get your mix of fast-slow just right.

Quick Easy and Effective Tips for Speaking Rate

How is speech pace interpreted?

Generally a FASTER speaking speed signals urgency, excitement, passion or raw emotion.

It can lead the audience to expect something thrilling is going to occur. They hold their breaths and go for the ride with you.

In contrast a SLOWER speaking rate signals importance, seriousness, or significant ideas.

Slow says: 'LISTEN UP! YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS.'

A new concept or new and perhaps, complex sequential information may need to be delivered slowly so the audience has time to grasp all of the ideas and their consequences before moving on.

'Slow' is also useful for summarizing material.

The combination of slow, fast, slow, and medium speed adds interest to your speech making it easier to listen to.

1. Read or recite part of a text you know and love quickly. If you can record yourself, do so. If not, listen and note the effect it has on you. If you've recorded yourself, play it back. Ask yourself where was the speed effective? Where was it detrimental? Mark those places on your script.
   (Use a highlighter: red for fast, blue for go slower) Read again incorporating your changes.

   Stuck for ideas on what to choose to work with? Try passages from the Bible or from a famous speech you know well eg. Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech.

2. Read a children's story silently several times to familiarize yourself with the flow. Go through it again noting which passages would suit taking more quickly and which should be slower. Read aloud listen carefully.
3. Pick an information loaded report from a newspaper or magazine. Go through it to familiarize yourself with the flow of material and then read aloud. Make a note of which passages need careful or slow reading and which can be taken at a faster rate. Re-read aloud until you feel you have the mix of speeds right.

   As an extension exercise read the report as if you were reading for an audience who knew nothing about the subject. Note what changes you made and why.

4. Time yourself reading or saying your speech at your normal speaking rate. Note the time down. Now go through again having marked passages for slower or faster treatment. Note the new time.
5. Practice with a partner. Go through any of the exercises above. Explain what you doing and ask them to listen for effectiveness. Get them to note examples where you did well and where you needed to alter your rate and why.
6. Listen to speakers you admire. They could be radio presenters, preachers ... anybody accustomed to speaking in public. Note the different rates of speech they use over the course of their presentation and the effectiveness of them.
   (Try to listen to a variety so you have a broad range to draw inspiration from.)
   Take elements of their rate changes and experiment with them for yourself.

And lastly, give yourself a pat on the back. Changing speaking rate is challenging.

The habitual speed of words leaving our mouths is deeply ingrained. As children we are very effective sponges. We soak up everything around us, including the speech rates used by our significant adults. What was their normal speech speed becomes ours. It feels natural, comfortable and right!

Altering rate is not impossible but it does require awareness, effort and PRACTICE!

Related pages of interest:

Giving yourself a flexible speech rate is only PART of the skill set used by a successful speaker. You can put more in your tool box.

Find out why silence speaks so eloquently and learn how to use it.

Remember the image of your mouth as the driver?

When your tongue is high revving, it's accelerating away. When you're stuck in first gear, it's crawling forward one little word at a time.

Now you've got control over rate, it's time to turn your attention to the brakes. Skilled use of the brakes are the key to effective silence. Find out how to use the Power of the Pause

PS.
Did you know the average 'natural' (ordinary conversational speech) speaking rate ranges between approximately 130-200 words per minute?

Speaking rate has regional as well as national variations. Listen to what is regarded as 'normal' to make any adjustments needed before you speak in public.

To find out more click speech rate

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