Shorthand systems have always struggled to reach those verbatim speeds of 160 or more, but there were thousands of court reporters that used to record by hand the utterings of even the fastest of orators. Gregg Shorthand has records of up to 280wpm although the average person would get around half that speed after some years of study.

It can be frustrating and difficult when one’s mind runs “a mile a minute” but you have to control the speech for others to digest it.

Think of it from the other side. It is hard for some of us to deal with. And, when trying to slow the speech the mind is so far ahead that the mouth actually looses it’s place and some thoughts are left unfinished.

It’s not a matter of how quickly one wants to expel a thought from one’s mouth, but often a matter of the speed of the mind that is cultivating the thought.

This was enlightening. I enjoyed the little speech (wpm) test.

Thanks for the post.

Controlling your speech rate is a definitely a good thing to keep track of.

Nonetheless, I want to turn this post on its head: I feel that presenters often try to rush through their material as quickly as possible and in doing so alienate their audience.

Silence is powerful in presentations!

Silence is a common occurrence in genuine dialogue. One of our strongest allies in being mentally present is to hold our silence longer than is comfortable.

Our natural discomfort with silence sometimes causes us to interrupt a silence in the conversation too soon. Frequently, before someone embraces a new perspective we are urging, they will go silent. They are doing the deep thinking required before they open to new perspectives. To interrupt this important exploration undercuts our ability to influence.

I always suggest:

1. Practice holding silence longer. Allow your “inner-observer” to
monitor your nervousness, “Shouldn’t I be saying something?”
2. Develop deeper silences within yourself so that you can hear
through the noise to find the signal of what others really mean.
3. See the silence of your conversation not as dead silence, not as paralyzed silence, but as silence teeming with possibility.

Thanks again

Every Saturday, we survey the best public speaking articles from throughout the public speaking blogosphere.
This week’s review is a bit different. Since I’m speaking at the District 21 Toastmasters conference this weekend, I’m not ar…

The public speaking blogosphere: a large and varied space with fuzzy edges spanning many disciplines. There are public speaking blogs which focus on speech delivery, visual presentation design, speechwriting, humor, personal development, and interperso…