Pace: the final frontier.

Have you ever had a Scotty moment?

There you are, giving your presentation and doing your best to keep it on the straight and narrow as, boldly, you go.  But an irresistible force is taking over the ship.  A black hole?  The Klingons?

As the engine whine reaches screaming point, and bits of your presentation start breaking off, the engine-room sweat runs into your eyes.  Then, a crackle on the intercom.  A clipped command from the Bridge. ''Steady as she goes, Scotty."

"I canna hold her, Captain", you mutter through clenched teeth. "I'm giving her everything I've got.  But I canna hold her!"

What's happening here is that you've lost control of your presentation. You're rushing it. Your rate of words per second has exceeded the pace at which the ship's computer that is your brain is able to process what's supposed to be coming out of your mouth.

To keep control of your presentation, what you need is time.

Time to think.  Time to choose your words.  Time to remember where you've got to and where you're going next.  Time to look at the audience and check they're still engaged.  Still awake.  Still there?

If you go too fast, you don't have time to do these things.  And then, indeed, you canna hold her.

But if you speak slowly and calmly, the pace of time itself seems to slow down.  You now have plenty of time for things that were impossible a moment ago.  Control is restored.  The engine quietens down to a comfortable hum.

So a slow pace gives you time to think.  Which makes you sound more intelligent.

It also actually improves your voice, in two ways.

Firstly, having time to breathe properly means your voice is well-supported.  This makes it deeper and more resonant.

Secondly, it makes your voice more engaging.  A monotonous voice is one in which there is no contrast, none of the ups-and-downs that make for an interesting landscape.  To add contrast, you need to add emphasis.

Emphasis isn't a shouty thing.  It's not about saying one word louder than other words.  It simply means pausing before and after the word to be emphasized.  Leaving white space around it.

Does all this seem logical, Captain?  If so, here's an earth-bound metaphor to help put theory into practice.

On a German motorway, you're driving a Ferrari in a straight line at 180 mph.  No problem - everything under control.  But now you're coming off the motorway and into a town.  What do you do?  You slow down. You have to slow down to create time to react.  And the slower you go, the more control you have.

So if you ever feel you're about to lose control of the presentation, try taking your foot off the accelerator.