# Any websites out there to help with planning a speech?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-websites-out-there-to-help-with-planning-a-speech/426062>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 12, 2007, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-websites-out-there-to-help-with-planning-a-speech/426062 "2007-11-12T00:20:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-websites-out-there-to-help-with-planning-a-speech/426062/1 "2007-11-12T00:20:05Z")

</div>

I have to do an oral presentation for my online degree program, and I’m petrified. I wouldn’t mind so much actually having to do this on campus to a roomful of actual people, but this is an online program, so I will be making it to a computer microphone in the living room. I won’t be able to guage audience reactions and adjust my presentation accordingly.

Worst of all, I haven’t done anything remotely like this in decades (well since I was last in school, actually), and I have no idea how much I need to plan out beforehand.

What I’m hoping to find is a website that will give me a ballpark estimate of how much I have to write out, in order to speak for a half-hour.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-websites-out-there-to-help-with-planning-a-speech/426062/2 "2007-11-12T01:03:14Z")

</div>

Ballparking it as a speech coach, 1 typewritten, double-spaced 14 font page equals 2 minutes at normal conversational speed. This is excluding complicated jargon or elaborate references. For my students, a 10 minute oratory runds just shy of 5 pages typed. So plan on 15 pages of material for starters.