Question 12: There are often so many comments that could be offered during an evaluation, how do you select the comments to share during the oral evaluation?
It is definitely a good problem to have when you have more material than you can share for the oral evaluation. The reason it is a good problem is that you get to pick and choose what to include. Picking and choosing will help you formulate a more cohesive evaluation.
As an example, assume the speaker could improve in the following ways:
- Slow down rate of speech
- Add more pauses
- Maintain eye contact longer
- Tell more personal stories
- Stop clasping hands
- Move around more
- Have their conclusion tie into their beginning
- Use the rule of three more
In general, I would recommend an evaluator focus on just 3 areas. These 3 areas could be all vocal variety, all physical related, all structure related. The choice is simpler if the speech objectives intersect with some areas for improvement. If they don’t, or you are performing an evaluation for a contest, then see if you can pick areas for improvement that tie in with the speech. For instance, if the speech is about social networking, you could talk about how to build a connection with your audience through longer eye contact, slower rate of speech, and less clasping of hands.
Build your repertoire of areas speakers can improve so that you have choices when it comes to delivering your evaluations.
Posted under Toastmasters
This post was written by john on March 2, 2009
