Why does Taylor Swift's commencement speech feel more like a conversation than a formal address?

She opens with a joke at her own expense and returns to first-person, hedged language ('I'm 90% sure') throughout, which keeps the register close to a toast among friends rather than a lecture from an authority, even though she was speaking to a full Yankee Stadium.

What is Taylor Swift's speaking pace like?

Conversational and variable. She slows for punchlines and self-deprecating asides and picks up again through list-like sections such as her run of formal thank-yous. Estimates from the NYU address put her in the 130 to 150 words-per-minute range, closer to natural conversation than formal oratory.

Does Taylor Swift use filler words when speaking publicly?

Some, mostly hedges like 'I think' and 'kind of' rather than pure disfluencies like 'um.' The hedging is consistent with her broader style of undercutting her own authority even while giving advice, which reads as approachable rather than uncertain in context.

Taylor Swift, scored by the Wellspoken Index

The breakdown

These scores are expert estimates produced from the Wellspoken Index rubric, not the production pipeline. The methodology link below explains how the dimensions are weighted. Read the methodology.

Structure175 / 250 (70%)
Conciseness120 / 200 (60%)
Confidence118 / 150 (79%)
Pronunciation140 / 150 (93%)
Filler Rate122 / 150 (81%)
Pace66 / 100 (66%)

In the recording

NYU commencement address, May 18, 2022, opening
Hi, I'm Taylor. Last time I was in a stadium this size, I was dancing in heels and wearing a glittery leotard. This outfit is much more comfortable. I would like to say a huge thank you to NYU's chairman of the board of trustees, Bill Berkeley, and all the trustees and members of the board, NYU's President Andrew Hamilton, Provost, Katherine Fleming, and the faculty and alumni here today who have made this day possible. I feel so proud to share this day with my fellow honorees, Susan Hawkfield and Felix Matos Rodriguez, who humble me with the ways they improve our world with their work. As for me, I'm 90% sure the main reason I'm here is because I have a song called 22.
Watch source
- Structure / Signposting. Opens with a self-deprecating callback (the leotard joke) before the formal thank-yous, signaling early that this won't be a stiff, formal address despite the size of the room.
- Conciseness / Word Economy. The formal acknowledgments section names five separate people and titles in a row, a long, list-heavy stretch that trades economy for protocol.
- Confidence / Assertiveness. Undercuts her own authority in the same breath she claims it, '90% sure the main reason I'm here,' a hedge that reads as warmth rather than uncertainty in context.

What you can learn from Taylor Swift

1Open by lowering the stakes
She opens her commencement address with a joke about her own outfit before turning to substantive advice, a self-deprecating move that sets a conversational tone despite speaking to a full stadium.
2Stack parallel losses before the reframe
She lists several kinds of rejection in matching phrasing, wasn't included, wasn't chosen, didn't win, before delivering her point about what those losses taught her.
3Concede your own fallibility before advising
Lines like 'you will screw it up sometimes, so will I' deliberately lower her own authority, so the advice that follows reads as one peer talking to another.

FAQs

Why does Taylor Swift's commencement speech feel more like a conversation than a formal address?
She opens with a joke at her own expense and returns to first-person, hedged language ('I'm 90% sure') throughout, which keeps the register close to a toast among friends rather than a lecture from an authority, even though she was speaking to a full Yankee Stadium.
What is Taylor Swift's speaking pace like?
Conversational and variable. She slows for punchlines and self-deprecating asides and picks up again through list-like sections such as her run of formal thank-yous. Estimates from the NYU address put her in the 130 to 150 words-per-minute range, closer to natural conversation than formal oratory.
Does Taylor Swift use filler words when speaking publicly?
Some, mostly hedges like 'I think' and 'kind of' rather than pure disfluencies like 'um.' The hedging is consistent with her broader style of undercutting her own authority even while giving advice, which reads as approachable rather than uncertain in context.