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Writing & Research · pattern C, Text in

How long your script takes to say out loud.

Paste your presentation script to see its delivery time at several speaking rates, so you can cut it to the slot before you rehearse rather than after you overrun.

Inputs

The formula used

time = words ÷ speaking rate

130 words per minute is a common presentation pace. Nerves push most people faster on the day, and dense or numerical material needs to be delivered slower.

Speaking time

22 sec

48 words at 130 words per minute.

Words
48
At 100 wpm (slow, deliberate)
29 sec
At 130 wpm (presentation pace)
22 sec
At 160 wpm (conversational)
18 sec
Silent reading (238 wpm)
12 sec
Sentences
3

Overrunning is a marked fault, not a style choice.

Most presentation rubrics penalise going over the slot, and many chairs simply stop you, which loses the conclusion — usually the part carrying the argument. Writing to 80% of the slot leaves room for a question, a technical problem and the pause you will need after the third slide. A twelve-minute script in a ten-minute slot is not ambitious, it is an unfinished presentation.

Questions about speaking time

How many words is a ten-minute presentation?
About 1,300 at 130 words a minute, and fewer if you are showing data or expecting interruptions. Aim at 1,000 to 1,100 and let the extra time absorb pauses.
Should I script it word for word?
Script it to check the timing, then present from notes. A read-aloud script sounds read-aloud, and most rubrics reward engagement with the audience over fluency of recitation.
What about slide transitions and questions?
Budget them explicitly: five to ten seconds per transition and a third of the slot for questions if they are inside your time. The calculator times words only.

A calculator handles the arithmetic. It cannot teach you the method.

If the number is not the part you are stuck on, that is what the service is for — a specialist who explains the working, not just the answer.

Counts, readability scores and citation formats are guides. Your institution's word-count rule and its preferred style-guide edition override anything shown here.