How long is a 100 word speech?

A 100 word speech takes about 40 seconds at an average speaking pace of 150 words per minute. Slow down to 130 and you get 46 seconds. Push to 170 and it is over in 35 seconds. Forty seconds is roughly the length of a good speaker introduction, and it is the airtime you have before a room decides whether to keep listening. At this length every sentence is load bearing, so the editing matters more than the writing.

What fits in 100 words

This length is the toast opener, the speaker introduction and the single interview answer.

One hundred words is a single move. You can introduce a speaker and hand over the microphone, open a toast before the longer story starts, or answer one interview question completely. Room for about six sentences. Pick the one detail that makes your point land, name it precisely, and stop. A 100 word draft that tries to cover two topics reads as a summary of both.

A structure that fits

1. 1Name and hook, 20 to 25 words. 'This is Dr. Amara Osei, who spent eleven years on the malaria vaccine trial that finished last spring.'
2. 2The credential that matters here, 30 to 35 words. One line about why this person, in this room, tonight. Leave the full biography in the program.
3. 3Handover or turn, 25 to 30 words. For an introduction, say the talk title and start the applause. For a toast, name the couple and lift the glass.
4. 4Close, 15 to 20 words. One sentence. The silence after it does more work than another sentence would.

Before you deliver it

Forty seconds is short enough to memorize, so memorize it. Reading 100 words off a card costs you the eye contact that makes a short piece work. Say it out loud eight or nine times until the wording stops changing, then run it once at the volume the room will need. Cut any sentence you stumble on twice.