Teleprompter training: what a first session covers

By Alastair Greener, presenter of Present Yourself in a Minute · Updated 5 November 2026

A first teleprompter session is about how you read, not what you read. It covers the habits that make a reader look like a reader: eyes that dart to the words, a rushed pace, and a voice that stops at the end of each line rather than the end of each thought. Fix those and the script starts to sound like you talking.

Present Yourself's on-camera training includes teleprompter work for the same reason. It aims to help people look natural while they read a script, and it covers the techniques that presenters use to do that.

What a first session covers

1. Writing for the ear. Short sentences, with a line break at each thought. A sentence that works on paper can be hard to say aloud, so read the script out loud before it goes on the prompter.
2. Pace. Start slower than feels natural. The scroll should match how you speak, not how fast you can read.
3. Eyeline. The text sits close to the lens, so you read by moving your eyes a little, not your head. Keep your attention on the lens and let the words come to you.
4. Pausing. Stop briefly at full stops and commas, and take a breath at each line break.
5. Recovering. If you stumble, keep going and pick up at the next line. Stopping to fix a word makes the cut longer and sounds worse than the slip.
6. Setting up. Check the text size and the distance from the lens before you start, so the first line is readable without leaning.

A first practice run

1. Read the script aloud once without the prompter, and time it.
2. Read it on the prompter at a slow pace, without stopping, even if you make errors.
3. Adjust the scroll to match your natural pace, then read one paragraph on camera and play it back.
4. Repeat the run, changing only one thing each time: the pace, the pauses or where you look.

A worked example

A 90-second product film has a script of twelve short lines. The first run is too fast, and the words run past before the presenter has finished the sentence. The second run slows the scroll and adds a breath at each line break, and the voice sounds steadier. On the third run the presenter notices the eyes dropping to the bottom line, so the text is moved up closer to the lens. The final run is the one used on the day.

Common mistakes

• Writing copy the way it looks on paper. Long sentences read badly aloud.
• Reading faster because the words are moving. Let the scroll set the pace.
• Looking at the text rather than through the lens, which is the most visible mistake.
• Stopping to correct a word. Keep going, because the edit can fix a slip.
• Testing once in a different room from the one you will use on the day.

Where to go next

How to read autocue so it does not look like reading covers the technique in more depth. A teleprompter suits some ways of appearing on video better than others, and three ways to appear on video sets out when a script is the right choice.

If you want to try a prompter on a real set, the Green Space has integrated autocue.

Related guides

• Three ways to appear on video: to camera, off-camera interview, presenter-led
• All guides and tools

The picture at the top of this page is an illustration, not a photograph of a client or a real job.