Rate of speaking?

[oggbashan]

Next week I am giving a talk to my pensioner's group. It is my first time speaking formally to them although they have heard me many times before speaking as a committee member making announcements and conducting their annual general meetings.

My talk should last 40 minutes. Normally I would speak from a few notes, or no notes at all, and I will use props (not pictures) to illustrate the talk.

I decided that I would write out in full what I want to say as an archive item for our family history. I have completed about three quarters of the text so far.

But I have a problem. My draft is over 10,000 words. The final version might be 12,500 or more.

At 140 words a minute, a slow rate, I could speak 5,600 words.

At 200 words a minute, probably far too fast for that audience, I might reach 8,000 words.

There is no way I can deliver 12,500 words in 40 minutes. If the audience react as I expect they might, I could have difficulty completing even 5,000 words.

What do you think is a reasonable rate of speaking to an elderly audience?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Next week I am giving a talk to my pensioner's group. It is my first time speaking formally to them although they have heard me many times before speaking as a committee member making announcements and conducting their annual general meetings.

My talk should last 40 minutes. Normally I would speak from a few notes, or no notes at all, and I will use props (not pictures) to illustrate the talk.

I decided that I would write out in full what I want to say as an archive item for our family history. I have completed about three quarters of the text so far.

But I have a problem. My draft is over 10,000 words. The final version might be 12,500 or more.

At 140 words a minute, a slow rate, I could speak 5,600 words.

At 200 words a minute, probably far too fast for that audience, I might reach 8,000 words.

There is no way I can deliver 12,500 words in 40 minutes. If the audience react as I expect they might, I could have difficulty completing even 5,000 words.

What do you think is a reasonable rate of speaking to an elderly audience?

OGG

Tv news and movies cit no slack for old people, so I expect youll do well at what rate youre comfortable with provided your speech is loud enough. I must remind my wife not to mumble when she speaks.

 

[Iamsubmissive]

I would advise that you use your normal speaking voice, although clearly and loudly enough to be heard. Trying to speed up or slow down your delivery is too much to concentrate on. Either way, it appears you need to edit out some unnecessary parts to shorten it as much as you can. Practice the speech out loud while timing it, allow for time to use your props, and consider if there needs to be pauses for comments or questions throughout. Maybe even record your practice and view it to see where things could be cut down or extra time is needed. I'm confident you'll have it all figured out by next week. Good luck!

 

[LukasGrey]

You will probably get through it much faster than you expect. From the work and effort you are putting in here it seems as if you are nervous about the presentation. MOST people will speed up their rate of delivery when they are nervous, even when they don't mean to.

That's why you see so many speeches come in short. It's one thing to speak to people, even in open debate, and completely another to give a stand alone presentation.

 

[oggbashan]

I have done stand alone presentations many times, usually restricted to a three minute slot but I never took three minutes. I was talking to our local councillors and restricted myself to only three points.

At work I had given presentations and training courses but time usually wasn't an issue. How long it took depended on audience reaction and participation and I had allowed time for that, and questions. Again I had a list of items I had to get across. As long as I covered all of them, started with what I was going to say, said it at length, and finished by reminding them what I had said, it was good.

Audience reaction is an unknown. I have watched that particular audience falling asleep during some talks, usually the ones illustrated by picture projection in a darkened hall. I have also watched them interacting with the speaker and enjoying themselves so much that the talk overran.

At this stage I am considering cutting what I could say into three parts and only delivering the first section. Even for that I'll be editing drastically.

Nerves? No. I enjoy speaking to an audience. I get asked by several organisations to speak on their behalf to our local council more frequently than is good for them or me because what I say is relevant and more importantly - short!

Loudness? I have a quarter-deck voice when required but I will probably use a radio microphone for the benefit of those with hearing aids. The problem with the microphone is that I am usually too loud.

Thank you for the replies so far. They have been helpful.

 

[SamScribble]

In another life, my writing partner and I used to write 'short talks' for radio. For a 15-minute talk (about 14 minutes after you allow for the top and tail), we usually budgeted about 2,000 words. On that basis, 5,600 words for 40 minutes is probably about right.

Have fun.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've given lots of presentations and usually work with notes rather than a prepared speech. One way to do this would be to have a prepared speech to pass out in writing but have your own outline that allows you to deviate from the speech if time restrictions demand it. But it's much better to err on the side of a shorter speech that you can deliver at an appropriately slow pace than a speech that is too long that you will rush. If you fall short in time you can prepare some additional material to deliver if the need arises.

 

[MrDillon]

Can you separate your text into three presentations and then return two more times to talk to them?

I would assume whoever is lining up speakers would like to have an additional two slots filled.

Besides, " always leave them wanting more!"

 

[lovecraft68]

I'd screw with them. Don't speak, just mouth the words and have them all thinking they can't hear you.

Things like that are why I'm going to hell.

 

[legerdemer]

Next week I am giving a talk to my pensioner's group. It is my first time speaking formally to them although they have heard me many times before speaking as a committee member making announcements and conducting their annual general meetings.

My talk should last 40 minutes. Normally I would speak from a few notes, or no notes at all, and I will use props (not pictures) to illustrate the talk.

I decided that I would write out in full what I want to say as an archive item for our family history. I have completed about three quarters of the text so far.

But I have a problem. My draft is over 10,000 words. The final version might be 12,500 or more.

At 140 words a minute, a slow rate, I could speak 5,600 words.

At 200 words a minute, probably far too fast for that audience, I might reach 8,000 words.

There is no way I can deliver 12,500 words in 40 minutes. If the audience react as I expect they might, I could have difficulty completing even 5,000 words.

What do you think is a reasonable rate of speaking to an elderly audience?

Ogg,

I honestly don't know but a few things come to mind, including that old lovely BBC show, Waiting for God. I'd assume you need to toe a fine line between being condescending and being unintelligible, a tough line given what will be a really varied audience.

My advice, since you asked, will side-step your question entirely. Use what you've written as a source of your outline and most important, choice set of anecdotes and events from your history, but don't read it. Reading it has a much higher chance of having it come off as stiff and boring, and you strike me as the polar opposite of that.

Keep the script as the beginning of your memoir. Or read only an excerpt or two, augmented by a breezy outline/ meander through the highlights.

I have listened to plenty of talks in my life and line of work. The most boring ones are read verbatim from a script.

If you enthrall your audience, they'll ask questions and you'll keep them riveted for hours, or be asked back for part 2.

Ask yourself what would Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Rowan Atkinson do in your place?

Good luck! I'm sure a lot of fun will be had by all.

 

[SimonDoom]

Things like that are why I'm going to hell.

With advice like that, you're headed there on the fast train!

 

[Handley_Page]

Next week I am giving a talk to my pensioner's group. It is my first time speaking formally to them although they have heard me many times before speaking as a committee member making announcements and conducting their annual general meetings.

My talk should last 40 minutes. Normally I would speak from a few notes, or no notes at all, and I will use props (not pictures) to illustrate the talk.

I decided that I would write out in full what I want to say as an archive item for our family history. I have completed about three quarters of the text so far.

But I have a problem. My draft is over 10,000 words. The final version might be 12,500 or more.

At 140 words a minute, a slow rate, I could speak 5,600 words.

At 200 words a minute, probably far too fast for that audience, I might reach 8,000 words.

There is no way I can deliver 12,500 words in 40 minutes. If the audience react as I expect they might, I could have difficulty completing even 5,000 words.

What do you think is a reasonable rate of speaking to an elderly audience?

I suggest you listen to some of the speeches of old-time politicians and see how fast they did it. You can work out the length from the duration, I reckon.
Good Luck

 

[oggbashan]

Thanks again for the advice above.

I WON'T be reading what I have written. That is for the family history archives, not for the talk.

What writing it out has proved is that the material I have to cover is far too long for one 40 minute talk. As suggested, I'm going to split it into three, a convenient division.

I'll probably have a single page of notes in large type so I can see them without wearing glasses.

The audience isn't that ancient. It is supposed to be an active retirement group but while they might have been active when they joined, some aren't now. They are all graduates and none have dementia but a few have the beginnings of short term memory loss.

They haven't forgiven me for organising a local history walk for them a couple of years ago. I planned it to be on fairly level ground with no stiles to negotiate. It was only between five and six miles long in total in a series of widening circles so that people could drop out if the distance was too much. Thirty started. Only four, including my wife and myself, finished. The rest had retreated to the pub at the centre of the circuits.

This thread has helped me to plan what I will actually do. Whether I ever give talks about parts two and three? That depends on their reaction to part one.

The main attraction for the committee is that I cost nothing. The costs for our usual range of speakers has been increasing year on year and is usually more than sixty pounds plus travel expenses.

 

[Handley_Page]

Ogg,
Have you listened to the talks of Ed Morrow ?

 

[norfolklad]

I used to teach presentation skills and one of the biggest problems was to get people to slow down, especially if they were nervous, not that I expect you to be. People take time to absorb what you're telling them and once you've lost them, you've lost them. But, just as important as pace is the question of pauses for emphasis and even dramatic effect.

If they are used to hearing you speak as a committee member, you may have to make an extra effort to use a different style of delivery.

Revise and cut, revise and cut, and revise and cut what you plan to say – to an even greater extent than you would do with a written story. There is a limit as to how much of the spoken word people take in. The old adage that you should start by telling people what you're going to tell them, tell them it, and then remind them what you've told them, still holds good and it gives your words and thoughts a fighting chance of sinking in.

Never overestimate how little you can reasonably fit into the middle part. Better to leave them with a few well-made and understood points than reeling from information overload. The trap that many people fall into is failing to understand that not everything they originally wanted to say is as fascinating to the audience as it is to them – and family history is a minefield in that respect – so be ruthless. Ask yourself what each of your intended sentences adds to your audience's real knowledge. They won't want you coming back for parts two and three if you've lost them on part one. You need to leave them gagging for the sequels.

I assume you'll take questions. That gives you an opportunity to add a few more titbits without overloading the main talk. You can even plant a couple of questions if there's something you really want to say that you've had to cut out.

Good luck.

 

[oggbashan]

Thank you again for all the comments in this thread.

They have helped crystallize what I want to say and how to say it. I have written out what would be three separate talks. That is for family history only. For my talk I will have a single page of notes.

What I will start and finish with is a disclaimer like those on my stories:

"Officially - I'm lying. This talk is fiction. These incidents don't appear in the records of the time. I won't mention many names - to protect the guilty."

 

[ishtat]

Why did I miss-read the thread title as "Rate of Spanking?" Bit of a worry.

 

[oggbashan]

Why did I miss-read the thread title as "Rate of Spanking?" Bit of a worry.

It's not a worry. It's your mind when reading posts on Literotica.

It happens to many of us.

As for rate of spanking? Slow enough so that the spankee can feel every individual stroke, and tempo varied enough so that the spankee doesn't expect each one.

 

[Iamsubmissive]

As for rate of spanking? Slow enough so that the spankee can feel every individual stroke, and tempo varied enough so that the spankee doesn't expect each one.

Good answer!

 

[Green_Knight]

It's not a worry. It's your mind when reading posts on Literotica.

It happens to many of us.

My eyesight's playing up a bit at the moment and, when your OP popped up just now, I read it that you're talking to your prisoner's group.

I think we need to be told what you've been up to.

 

[oggbashan]

My eyesight's playing up a bit at the moment and, when your OP popped up just now, I read it that you're talking to your prisoner's group.

I think we need to be told what you've been up to.

Politics. It's an election today...

 

[oggbashan]

I now have an A4 page and a third of double-spaced notes in 14 point.

Even so I'll probably have to skip parts of those notes.

 

[oggbashan]

Talk Part 01 of three successfully delivered this morning. I had 50 minutes. Even so I had to skip several parts of my notes.

Thanks again for the advice.

They've invited me back to deliver Part 02 and 03 later in the year.

 

[Bramblethorn]

As for rate of spanking? Slow enough so that the spankee can feel every individual stroke, and tempo varied enough so that the spankee doesn't expect each one.

Or fast enough that they lose count. Because we know what happens then.

 

[hylas_]

Record your speech. Then speed it up until you're down to 40 minutes. At the event, you play the chipmunk'd audio and serve a fierce lip-sync, with death-drops and splits.