Your goal is to deliver a speech that is eight minutes in length.
A speech time that falls between 7:30 and 8:45 will not incur any penalties.
If your speech time falls within in the range of 6:45 – 7:30 OR 8:45 – 9:30, your final speech grade will be no higher than 90, regardless of faculty and advisor grades.
A speech time that runs under 6:45 or beyond 9:30 will earn a maximum grade of 70 and must subsequently be revised and re-delivered before a faculty group to meet the senior speech graduation requirement.
In order to ensure that your speech meets these requirements:
Keep your final draft at four double-spaced pages (12 point Times New Roman font). One page of text, delivered at a good pace for most speakers, takes about 2 minutes to read. Anything significantly shorter or longer than four pages is almost guaranteed to result in a speech time that is outside the acceptable range. If your speech text is precisely 4.0 pages (double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman), you're "safe" even if you exceed the time parameters above.
Practice, practice, practice!