By Vibe Apps Pro Team · Published: 2026-07-17
How to Structure a Speech (Hook, Point, Example, Close)
Learn the four-part speech structure and the exact word budget for each section at any time limit. Free calculator included — plan your speech now.
Split your word budget four ways: Hook (≈8%), Core Point (≈65%), Example (≈18%), Close (≈9%). That ratio holds whether you're speaking for 90 seconds or 20 minutes — only the total word count changes. A 5-minute, 650-word speech breaks down to roughly 50 words of hook, 425 words of core argument, 115 words of example, and 60 words to close.
Most speech-length guides stop at "here's your word count for N minutes" and leave you to figure out where those words actually go. That's a calculator problem, not a writing problem — this is the writing problem.
The Four-Part Speech Structure
Every timed speech, from an elevator pitch to a keynote, breaks into the same four jobs. What changes with length is how much room each one gets, not whether it exists.
| Section | Job | Share of Word Budget | In a 650-Word (5-Min) Speech |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hook | Earn attention in the first few seconds | ~8% | ~50 words |
| Core Point | Make and support your one main argument | ~65% | ~425 words |
| Example | Ground the argument in something concrete | ~18% | ~115 words |
| Close | Tell the audience what to do or remember | ~9% | ~60 words |
The Core Point dominates the word count on purpose — it's the reason you're speaking. The hook and close stay deliberately short because of a well-documented pattern in memory research called the serial position effect: people recall the beginning and end of anything they hear far better than the middle.
| Position in Your Speech | Audience Retention | Word Budget |
|---|---|---|
| Opening (Hook) | High — sets first impression and attention | ~8% |
| Middle (Core Point + Example) | Lowest — the "forgettable middle" | ~83% |
| Ending (Close) | High — last words heard stick best | ~9% |
That's the practical trade-off: the middle carries 83% of your words but the least memory weight per word, while the hook and close carry only 17% combined but do the most work to shape what the audience takes away. Rehearse those two sections until they're automatic — the Core Point can survive an awkward pause; the hook and close can't.
Turn Your Time Limit Into a Word Budget First
Before you can split words across sections, you need a total. Multiply your speaking pace (words per minute) by your time limit — 130 WPM is the standard conversational planning figure.
Total Words = WPM × Minutes
Rather than doing that math by hand, drop your duration into our Words to Minutes Calculator — runs 100% in your browser, zero data sent to any server — and it hands you the total instantly at 110, 130, or 160 WPM, or a custom pace you time yourself:
Target word count
390
At 130 WPM
Quick speech lengths
Or paste your script for a live count
Paste a script above to see its word count and estimated speaking time.
Once you have a total, come back to the percentages above (or the table further down) to split it across the four sections.
See the Split in Action
Here's the 650-word, 5-minute example from the table above as an interactive breakdown — select a segment to see its word count, timing, and pace:
Notice the Hook and Close blocks are the shortest bars but carry the most rehearsal weight — a stumble in the first 20 seconds costs you the room; a flat close costs you the outcome you were speaking for in the first place.
The Full Speech Plan: 1 to 20 Minutes
The same 8/65/18/9 split scales linearly with your total word count at 130 WPM. Here's the complete section-by-section plan for every whole minute from 1 to 10, plus the 15- and 20-minute marks for longer keynotes — words and speaking time (m:ss for anything over a minute) for each part, so you can rehearse against a clock, not just a word count:
| Duration | Total Words | Hook | Core Point | Example | Close |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 minute | 130 | 10w · 5s | 85w · 39s | 23w · 11s | 12w · 5s |
| 2 minutes | 260 | 20w · 9s | 170w · 1:19 | 46w · 21s | 24w · 11s |
| 3 minutes | 390 | 30w · 14s | 255w · 1:58 | 69w · 32s | 36w · 16s |
| 4 minutes | 520 | 40w · 19s | 340w · 2:37 | 92w · 42s | 48w · 22s |
| 5 minutes | 650 | 50w · 23s | 425w · 3:16 | 115w · 53s | 60w · 28s |
| 6 minutes | 780 | 60w · 28s | 510w · 3:55 | 138w · 1:04 | 72w · 33s |
| 7 minutes | 910 | 70w · 32s | 595w · 4:35 | 161w · 1:14 | 84w · 39s |
| 8 minutes | 1,040 | 80w · 37s | 680w · 5:14 | 184w · 1:25 | 96w · 44s |
| 9 minutes | 1,170 | 90w · 42s | 765w · 5:53 | 207w · 1:35 | 108w · 50s |
| 10 minutes | 1,300 | 100w · 46s | 850w · 6:32 | 230w · 1:46 | 120w · 56s |
| 15 minutes | 1,950 | 150w · 1:09 | 1,275w · 9:49 | 345w · 2:39 | 180w · 1:23 |
| 20 minutes | 2,600 | 200w · 1:32 | 1,700w · 13:05 | 460w · 3:32 | 240w · 1:51 |
(Word counts within each row sum to the row's total; second counts do too — the same math the interactive breakdown above uses.)
Past 10 minutes the ratio still holds, but the Core Point block gets long enough that most speakers split it into two or three sub-points rather than one continuous argument — a 1,275-word Core Point at 15 minutes plays better as three ~425-word points than one unbroken block. For any duration not in this table, run it through the Words to Minutes Calculator above to get your exact total first, then apply the same 8/65/18/9 split by hand.
Two things break this table's math in practice, and it's worth planning for both. First, nerves push your real speaking pace faster than a rehearsal alone — budget a small buffer into the Core Point rather than the Hook, since that's the section with room to absorb it. Second, if you're speaking from a full script rather than notes, check its actual word count against the target — paste your draft into the Word Counter to confirm before you start cutting or padding.
When a Section Runs Over Budget
The Core Point is where scripts bloat, because it's where you're tempted to add a second supporting point "just in case." If your draft runs long, trim there first — the word-reduction techniques for cutting a script down to size apply directly to a bloated Core Point without touching your Hook or Close.
Before you rehearse a trimmed script out loud, it's also worth a quick pass through the Readability Score Checker — a Core Point full of dense, subordinate-clause-heavy sentences reads fine on paper but trips you up mid-delivery, which is a different failure mode than the readability formulas explained here usually get applied to.
Why This Beats Winging It
A four-part structure with a word budget per section does two things a blank outline doesn't. It stops the Core Point from silently eating your Close — the single most common reason speakers run over time is a Core Point that grew unchecked while the ending got no attention until the night before. And it gives you a rehearsal order: time each section separately against its target instead of only timing the whole run-through, so you know exactly which 60 seconds went missing when you're over.
Sketch your four sections against the word counts above before you write full sentences. The structure holds regardless of topic — it's the same shape whether you're giving a wedding toast, a conference talk, or a five-minute update to your team.