Fast speaking is the other extreme. This can be caused by nervousness, too much of a focus on remembering the script, or anxiety about time limits. It’s rare for the person doing the talking to notice because they’re only speaking slightly faster than usual. But the impact on listeners is significant: they can’t differentiate between what’s important and what’s not, or between one idea and the next.
All sentences and points seem equally important, with no vocal emphasis on any of them. It’s harder to follow the structure of the speech because they can’t fully take in one point before it’s already being followed up by another. And transitions between one point and the next are often unclear because of the increased tempo.
How to speak more slowly:
Record one section of your speech – around a paragraph is ideal – without worrying too much about speed. Listen to it, then record it again slowing down. This time, however, try not to speak each word more slowly than you already do. Instead, focus on making short pauses between complete thoughts. If done well, it shouldn’t sound much slower, but the meaning will be clearer. Compare the effectiveness of the two recordings and think about the effect on an audience.
- How easy was it to understand what you were talking about?
- Did you know when the topic was about to change?
- Did any of the supporting information seem more important than others?
- Did you catch any filler words or phrases that slipped in at high speed?
- How was the clarity of the speech?
You can also slow down by using longer pauses in the right places. You don’t necessarily want to make lots of long stops throughout the speech, but they’re effective in a couple of places:
- after the opening, to help people understand what you’ll be talking about
- just before an especially strong supporting point, to indicate its importance
- before the final sentence, to help people detach the final point from the supporting information that led up to it
If the talk is regularly running over in rehearsals, you can always try speaking more slowly, but it’s more likely to be more effective to cut out or shorten some less important sections. For a talk that takes four minutes instead of three, removing an example or shortening an explanation or two is better than speaking noticeably more quickly throughout the whole talk.
Listen back to a recording of a speech and see if the tone seems too hurried and tense anywhere. If it does, mark in a couple of places in the speech where you can pause a little in that section. It’s better to pick just two or three than try and change everything because it will sound more natural.