I'm currently writing a paper to give at a conference - in a fifteen minute slot (plus questions) around how many words can I resasonably expect to deliver: 5,000 or so?

Any help...

Best way to tell is to try it and see! It always pays to prepare for a presentation by actually presenting it aloud, rather than reading it in your mind. Bear in mind that you might speak a little faster for the real thing because of nerves.

for a twenty minute presentation around 3500 should do it, best advice, practice, run through it aloud as many times as poss, on the day, deep breath and read slowly, pace yourself and you'll be fine

Thanks for your advice....I'm currently busy tapping away...I'll make prompt cards and try and avoid my usual flustered beetroot face!

no need to be flustered I'm sure you'll be great

Chris I have just had a paper excepted for a big conference later in the year & the organisation sent me a pack with guidelines for 1st timers, as it is with some big names.
It suggests allowing 2 minutes per slide & to follow a clear structure of main motivation, essentials of the method, results and conclusions with a summary slide at the end. The leaflet also said "please do not attempt to read the paper" or go through an argument in comprehensive detail, instead concentrate on a few key points.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll be great

That's really useful Pea!!

Tack, tack.

(Thanks)

Tack? Is someone scandinavian here?

I'm a wannabe Swede. I've been learning for 10 months and try and slip phrases into everyday messages, emails and texts. It drives people crazy - and I know my byf is indulgent with it too!

Sigh.

Off to Sweden for a short trip at the end of the month. After I present a paper and redraft my lit review. Arg!

Is this the first presentation you've ever done, or something? O_o

Maybe I've just been very lucky, but I've been doing presentations since high school. I still hate them >_>

I don't think I have any of my old presentations still around, so I can't tell you a decent amount of words to put in. But it's really not about the number of words - you might be able to do a very good presentation with few words, or it might need a lot.

Best thing to do is to write down your speech, and then talk throught it. DONT rush the talk at all - in fact try and speak more slowly than usual. Once you know how long your speech takes, you'll know whether to cut it down or fill it up some more.

I have a 3000 word paper to read in 20-22 minutes. So 5000 words in 15 minutes seems a bit unaccurate to me unless you can talk really quickly! 5000 words would be more like 30 minutes I think. Anyway the best thing is to read your paper aloud and calculate how much time it takes.