Speech Evaluator

Speech Evaluator

Toastmasters Cluj

Speech Evaluator

As a Speech evaluator your main objective is to help the speaker grow. The speaker receives an evaluation after every prepared speech.After delivering a couple of prepared speeches of your own you can express your intention to evaluate one of the prepared speeches from a Toastmasters Cluj meeting.

Besides the verbal evaluation that you will deliver in front of the entire audience, you will also make a written evaluation, according to the requirements of the project according to which the speaker prepared his or her speech.

The purpose of the evaluation is to help the colleagues from Toastmasters develop their public speaking abilities in different situations, including presentations, conversations and meetings. Achieving this goal is closely linked to their skills and motivation.

• Listen actively and offer useful advice in order to motivate the members to work hard in improving their public speaking abilities.
• Keep in mind that good evaluations can lift up a member who is feeling down while bad evaluations can crush a member who did his/her best while preparing and delivering the speech.
• Praise the speaker and make suggestions of improvement in the same way you would like to receive them from your evaluator, after you deliver a speech.

Before the meeting

Find out what is the public speaking experience level of the speaker whose speech you will evaluate at the meeting by reading the evaluations he/she received at the previous projects, by talking to the mentor of the speaker or with the members that offered in the past prepared speech evaluations to the speaker.

Find out what is the project the speaker used in preparing his speech and carefully read its objectives.

Ask the speaker what abilities or techniques he wishes to improve through the speech. Study the objectives of the speech, what exactly the speaker wishes to accomplish and also the evaluation guide from the manual.

Upon arrival at the meeting

Speak to the General Evaluator to confirm the format of the meeting.

Ask the speaker to hand you the manual and speak with him/her again to check if he/she wishes you to analyze specific aspects during the speech, whether those are already listed in the manual or mentioned by the speaker.

During the meeting

Write down your feedback about the speech and the answers to the questions from the project evaluation form in the manual of the speaker.

Be as objective as you can. Always offer the speaker specific methods of improvement.

After you’re being introduced by the General Evaluator, offer your verbal evaluation in front of the audience.

Start and finish the evaluation on a positive note, with praise and/or encouragement.

The allocated time for the verbal evaluation is limited. In case you wrote long answers to the questions from the project evaluation form from the manual, do not read the questions nor your answers.

By mentioning strong points and suggestions of improvement try to offer information on how the speech has been organized and delivered, as well as on whether the objectives of the speech were or weren’t met.

Praise a very good speech and don’t forget to say what exactly made the speech successful. Mention if the speaker used a specific technique or a gesture that received a positive reaction from the audience so that the speaker could be encouraged to use again that technique or gesture.

Deliver your evaluation in a such way that the speaker becomes aware of his strong points such as: a smile, sense of humor or a special voice.

Deliver your evaluation in a such way that the speaker becomes aware of the aspects he needs to improve. In case those are too personal you don’t have to mention them during your verbal evaluation. You could discuss them with the speaker after the meeting.

Make sure 80% of the evaluation is focused on the objectives of the project.

After the meeting

Return the manual to the speaker.

In case the remarks from the manual are not clear to the speaker, discuss them with him/her.

Speech Evaluator Sheet

Speaker’s name and surname: ______

Project number and title: ______

Speech objectives

Special mentions on the speech or on the progress of the speaker during the Toastmasters journey (optional)

______

______

______

______

______

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