SPEECH EVALUATOR TOP TIPS
- Deliver your evaluation at the third person.
- Contact the speaker you’ll be evaluating beforehand.
- Remember that an evaluation is a “speech on a speech”.
- Be ready to take notes
- Focus your efforts on a few key areas
WHAT WILL I LEARN?
Being a speech evaluator is a fabulous way of developing your critical thinking, listening and feedback giving skills. You will also become aware of things you are doing yourself by looking at others, pick-up ideas to try in future speeches and additionally become more aware of what makes a good speech.
Since you’ll be doing a “speech on a speech” the stage time will help you gain experience and confidence to be used in your own future speeches.
BEFORE THE MEETING
Familiarise yourself with the objectives of the speech you’ll be evaluating beforehand. Liaise with the speaker you’ll be evaluating by e-mail, WhatsApp or phone. They may have their own additional personal objectives.
All speech evaluation forms for all Pathways projects can be found on Basecamp here.
DURING THE SPEECH
Watch and listen carefully to the speaker as they deliver their speech. Your attention should be focused on the speech alone!
Well-chosen words and beautiful sentences are only one of the building blocks of a great and memorable speech. Key areas to observe include but are not limited to:
- Speech structure – Is the speech easy to follow? Is there a clear message? Is there enough signposting to highlight what the core message/content of the speech is?
- Speech material – A strong and memorable speech will stand out by it’s material. Is the subject of interest to the audience or more importantly, has the speaker crafted his/her speech in a way which makes it relevant to the audience?
- Use of language – While the Grammarian will also be looking for this. Specific and evocative language can add extra emphasis to a speech. If someone is delivering a speech on a technical subject, is the language simple enough for everyone in the audience to understand?
- Vocal variety – Vocal variety encompasses pitc, power, pace and pause. This can include emphasising specific words within a sentence, using various “voices” in a dialogue to distinguish characters, and using pauses to make the audience think.
- Body language – Is the speaker standing still or moving around the stage? What is the speaker posture? Straight or crooked? What about their use of hands? Body language covers a lot! The one key characteristic of a confident speaker is an open stance on stage. Watch out for the use of facial expressions too.
- Message of the speech – Does the speech have a clear message typically expressed at its conclusion? A memorable speech should have an actionable message that can be understood by everyone.
- Eye contact – Strong eye contact is a very important tool to build an emotional connection with an audience. Good eye contact is neither fleeting or starring and lasts the duration of a typical sentence. Good eye contact includes everyone in the room.
- Emotional connection – How did the speech make you feel? Did it inspire action or a change of opinion? Could you picture yourself in the speaker’s shoes or connect with them in some way?
It is important to remember that different speeches have different purposes and that as such not everything should be given equal weighting.
Don’t take too many notes when observing a speech as it can distract you from the bigger picture and overall message of the speech itself. Focus your observations on some key areas and don’t try to observe everything at once.
Delivering your evaluation
It must be remembered that an evaluation is a “speech on a speech” so structure and focus are key. Deliver your evaluation in the third person as everyone in the audience benefits from a speech evaluation, not just the speaker.
- Use Commend – Recommend – Commend – Begin your evaluation with a positive introduction about the speech reminding us of what its key purpose was. Move on with some of the strong points the speaker already has. Follow up with a few recommendations and finally tie everything together with commendations and a summary. This way the speaker can leverage both.
- Have six specific points maximum – Don’t spread yourself too thin by trying to squeeze everything you saw about the speech in your 3 min evaluation. Instead be very specific where you can, for example if commenting on vocal variety “I liked the emphasis on the voices of each character and on key words like gigantic within sentences” is much better than “there was great vocal variety”
- Use positive language throughout – During your evaluation avoid using expressions like “I think” or “you should have” or “you didn’t”. Instead frame your comments in a positive way such as “I noticed that Suzy had limited eye contact with the audience. I would suggest in her next speech that she moves her eye contact from person after each sentence”.
- Your evaluation is a speech too – Techniques on vocal variety, body language or speech structure apply just as much for evaluations as they do for normal speeches. Use your own delivery to bring attention to particular points of the speaker’s speech.
- Close it off with a summary – Conclude with a short summary of what you’ve just said highlighting the key commendation and key recommendation.
If you miss something in your verbal evaluation don’t worry. You can always include it in your written evaluation or talk to the speaker afterwards.
What if the speaker fails the speech’s objectives?
You might sometime evaluate a speech where the speaker is clearly unprepared, fails in his or her delivery, fail the speech objectives or even all at the same time. This can be a very tricky situation to be in as speech evaluator since you have to find commendations and recommendations. In these situations honesty is the best policy.
- Find and accentuate the positive – For example, someone could give a speech on a very technical subject using cluttered visual aids. One positive here could be the speaker’s knowledge and mastery of the subject, which you can highlight and they can harness if they redo this speech.
- Invite them to redo the speech – There’s nothing wrong with repeating a speech a second time. Indeed, some of the most experienced speakers in Toastmasters do this all the time. It can take very little to turn an average speech into a good speech.
- Be very specific in your recommendations – Your need to explain why you felt that the speech objectives were not met and what could have been done instead. Think of the leverage effect, you want the speaker to harness the positive to correct the negative.
It is advised that you discuss in more details why you feel the speech did not meet the objectives with the speaker afterwards. Be positive and encouraging but don’t hesitate to explain your reasoning in more detail.
Written Feedback
Fill the speaker’s evaluation form with as much details as you possibly can give. It is important that these pages are thoroughly filled-in as speakers can always refer back to it later. Don’t hesitate to give your notes to the speaker as well for extra written feedback.
Remind the speaker to collect his/her feedback slips from audience members too since these represent other points of view in addition to yours!