Soundbite timer

Why length matters on air

Broadcast news uses short clips. Research on US network news found that the average sound bite shrank from 43 seconds in 1968 to about nine seconds by 1988, and later studies found it has stayed around there. Coverage of the 2001 UK general election averaged about 12.5 seconds. A standard broadcast journalism text puts British radio reading pace at about 180 words a minute, a little slower on television.

So a clip is roughly 25 to 40 words. That does not mean every answer should be that short. It means every answer should contain at least one sentence that makes your point on its own, early, in case that is the only part that airs. The sources are listed in our media interview guide.

What the tool checks

• Time to say it, at the pace you choose. Most people speak faster when nervous, so use the stopwatch to check your real pace.
• Sentence length. Anything over 25 words is hard to follow by ear and hard for an editor to cut.
• Reading ease, using the Flesch formula. It is a rough guide written for text, but a low score usually means long words and long sentences, which are harder still to listen to.
• Jargon and filler. Words that mean something inside your organisation and nothing to a listener, and the phrases people use to buy thinking time.
• Numbers. More than two or three figures in one answer is hard to take in by ear. Pick the one that matters.