How long do you think it will take to deliver a speech with a thousand or more words? How much time do you need to read a book? To many, these questions may seem like a pointless undertaking but if you think about, it could be quite advantageous in certain situations. A words per minute calculator can be your best friend to assist you in converting between words and time.
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How to use the words per minute calculator?
This words per minute calculator is a very simple online tool. Use it to calculate wpm without having to perform the calculations by hand. Here are the steps to follow for this speech words per minute calculator:
- There are two parts to this calculator. First, there’s the Speaking part. Here, you choose the Speaking Speed from the drop-down menu.
- Enter the value of your Speaking Speed.
- Then enter the value of the Speaking Time and choose the unit of measurement from the drop-down menu.
- For the Reading part, choose the Reading Speed from the drop-down menu then enter the value of your Reading Speed.
- Then enter the value of the Reading Time and choose the unit of measurement from the drop-down menu.
- After entering all of these values, the words per minute calculator generates the value of the Number of Words.
How do you calculate words per minute?
A words per minute calculator is also known as a how long to read calculator. This tool is a measurement which defines the speed at which you can recognize and form words when you communicate with others.
The standard formula to find your wpm remains the same whether you’re trying to solve for your speed in typing, speaking or reading. Here are the steps to calculate this value:
- For the quickest results to calculate wpm speed, use a words per minute calculator.
- Alternatively, you may also open a word processor of your choice and use a timer. For this, you need a program on your computer for you to type in, a stopwatch or timer, and a text source.
- Set the timer for a specific length of time. Usually, the longer the time, the lesser mistakes you make. Make sure that your source of text is long enough so as not to exceed the time limit you have established.
- When you have made all the required preparations, you can start your timer and proceed to type, read or say the source text out loud. Keep going until the timer sounds off, in which case you stop immediately.
- Now, divide the number of words typed by the time. Solving for your WPM at this point should be very easy as it involves simple arithmetic:
WPM = words types/number of minutes you originally set the timer for
- If you have a modern word processor, this should have a “word count” feature. With this, you won’t have to count words manually.
How many wpm can I read?
You may prepare yourself to face an audience and you want to know how long the presentation will be. For this, you need to determine your own speaking speed or the total number of words you can say given a certain amount of time. The average speed for speaking in the English language is 130 wpm.
If anyone has informed you that you talk either too slow or too fast, then you have to make the necessary adjustments. You can easily determine your speech speed. Set your timer to sixty seconds then start reading out loud. As soon as the timer goes off, stop and count how many words you have read.
Reading speed involves this same principle. The average speed of reading for English is 170-240 words per minute but this depends upon several factors like the difficulty of the text or a person’s natural aptitude. Again, you can easily measure your reading speed then enter this directly into the how long to read calculator.
Set your timer at sixty seconds and start reading the book silently. When the timer sounds off, stop and count how many words you have read. Enter the number of words into the required field in the calculator.
How many words on average is a 5-minute speech?
Once you have determined your reading or speaking speed, the calculations to perform for your wpm will be as easy as pie. Remember that you have already entered your wpm speeds in the calculator. The next required data could be how many words you have in your speech.
Enter the required values into the speech words per minute calculator, which computes for you how long it will take to make your presentation. You can even use this online tool to determine the number of words for a given time frame.
Let’s assume that the time frame is 5 minutes. Let’s take a look at the calculations you need to make:
- Choose whether you’re speaking in front of an audience or reading an article silently. For this example, let’s choose speech.
- Choose your speaking speed and assume it’s 130 wpm.
- Try to determine your speech’s duration, let’s say 5-minutes.
- Multiply the speaking speed by the time to determine the number of words in a 5-minute time frame.
No of Words = wpm x time = 130 x 5 = 650 words.
This means that for a 5-minute speech, the maximum number of words you can have a is 650 words.
How fast should I speak?
Studies have shown that speech rates can alter and this depends on several factors like the speaker’s culture, subject matter, geographic location, gender, fluency, profession, emotional state or audience. Despite these factors, there are some guidelines on speech speed which are widely accepted. These are:
- Conversational speech generally falls from 120 wpm at the lower end of the spectrum, to 160 – 200 wpm in the faster range.
- People who read books for podcasts or radio are typically requested to speed up between 150 – 160 wpm.
- Commentators or auctioneers usually go through practice sessions in speeding up their wpm which could range from 250 – 400 wpm.
