Rehearsal: the plan, the runs and the listener's notes
A rehearsal plan dated back from your talk, a log of each timed run, and a short list of questions for the person who listens.
Essential on a first pass: three timed runs and one run for a listener. The runs table keeps the times; the listener questions keep the answers. A reader who skips it has a draft that has been read silently and has never been timed. Rehearsing out loud explains how to run each one.
Timed runs
One row per run. Write the time to the minute and a tenth. Times far apart mean the content is not settled yet. The example rows are fictional.
Questions for a listener
Hand this to the person who listens, or ask the questions aloud and write what they say. Listeners hold back unless you ask directly.
How to use this sheet
- One row per run. Say it out loud, standing up, with the notes you will use on the day, and write the time to the minute and a tenth (1.9 is one minute and about 54 seconds).
- Where, listener, recorded, notes or script used. These say how the run differed from the last one. A recorded run is one you played back; a run with a listener names who listened.
- What to change is the one edit the run showed: a sentence to cut, a pause to add, a word to respell. Make it before the next run.
- Times far apart. One open textbook (Exploring Public Speaking, section 11.4) says times that vary widely mean the content is not yet settled. Settle the content, then run again.
- Questions for a listener. Ask them directly and write their answers in the second column. The question about your main point, in their words, shows whether the point arrived.
The runs come from Lena Park's case, a two-minute toast. Her three runs were 1:52, 2:05 and 1:58, entered as 1.9, 2.1 and 2.0 minutes. All three are inside her two-minute slot, and the gap between the longest and the shortest is about a quarter of a minute. She assumes nerves will speed her up on the night, so she aims for the middle of the slot. Whether two minutes holds in the room is an open fact that only the night settles. The starter row (2.1 in the kitchen, with cards) shows a change noted for the next run: cut the last sentence of the second story.
A timed run measures how long you took, not how good the talk was. One listener is one person's answers; a second listener may say something else. The times in the log are yours, in your rehearsal conditions: a room of listeners, nerves and a microphone can change them. The organizer's slot is the limit; your times only show where you stand against it.