Pause in a lecture—but not too long!

As a professor, I have learned to use longer pauses when I teach a large class than I do in a small seminar. Depending on the feel of the room, I sometimes can get away with a pause of ten seconds or so after an especially dramatic point. But in this era of instant gratification, I have to be careful. If I wait too long, my students will get up and leave.

Frank Partnoy, Wait: The Art and Science of Delay (New York: Public Affairs, 2012), Introduction