Time to Think

    An extract from a video study describing the writing behavior of some high school boys [below].  The length of the writers' pauses between words is marked in seconds.  In line 5, for example, he paused for 16.6 secs; he then changed the period to a colon, and paused again before continuing. 
    "Pause" refers only to the ceasing
of the writer's pen movement.  During these pauses, other kinds of body activity may be taking place: the eyes may scan the text or look away, and the hand may move away from the text (presumably reflecting major decision-making) or stay close to it (suggesting that the writer expects to resolve the problem quickly).     The evidence suggests that pauses reflect the occurrence of mental planning and provide clues to the difficulty of the writing task.  Variations in pause length may thus convey information about the process of writing, especially when considered along with other temporal aspects of writing.  (From Matsuhashi, 1982.)
1.  Truly (.6) successful (1.1) person (.5) -to (.8) -person (2.3) communi-
2. (1.8) cation (3.5) is (1.9) difficult (1.3) because (6.9) people (.6) in (.9) general (1.1) are (.9) poor
3. (1.0) listeners. (7.0) They (1.) would (.7) rather (1.4) listen (.5) to (.9) themselves (1.9) speaking
4. (2.1) than (.4) someone (.7) else (.5). (4.7) It (.9) is (.7) my (.7) feeling (1.9) that (9.7) this (.8) occurs
5. (1.6) because (1.1) of 1.2) a (.8) basic (2.7) self-centeredness. (16.6. 5.5) people (4.8) tend (1.2) to
6. (1.9) be (.6) more (.5) interested ((.7) in (.7) their (.9) own (.7) lives (1.5) to 1.2) bother (1.) exposing
7. (1.3) themselves (.7) to (.5) how (.7) others (.8) live.

(Source:  Crystal, David.  The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.  2nd ed.  New York:  Cambridge University Press, 1997.)