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When you are preparing a speech for a contest beyond the club (eg Area, Division, District or International), it is always helpful to receive a range of evaluations to help you refine your speech. You'll want to iron out all the crinkles in your speech, find an opening which has the most impact, and finish with a message which has a lasting impression on your audience. Many Toastmasters visit other clubs during their preparation so they can try out their speech on a wide variety of audiences and receive constructive feedback.
Here's some comments from posts to the Toastmasters Newsgroup giving a number of different evaluation strategies a contest speaker can use:
Decide an evaluation format
2003 World Champion Jim Key said that you need determine which type of evaluation format best serves your needs for the current state of your contest speech, and specify EXACTLY what format you want, whether round robin verbal evaluations, written evaluations, a single verbal evaluator, etc. (or whatever mix of these that you'd like).
As he got closer to what he thought was a "ready-for-prime-time" speech, however, Jim used a custom evaluation form that he designed on which there were two questions (1) What got your attention? and (2) What inspired you?, plus a general "Comment:" area. This form was used for written evaluations only.
Use the Manuals
Rick Clements from District 7 said he copied the evaluation page from the basic communication manual and advanced manual speech projects, giving everyone a different page, along with specific instructions on how to complete them.
Round Robin evaluations
Jim Key said that "Round Robin" evaluations can be useful, but you need to be wary of "me too" evaluators, but that is rare. More often than not, the evaluators very much don't want to give a "ditto" to what previous people said. They want to make a unique contribution to your preparations so they give "advice". This can result in a large number of suggestions for things that could be tweaked in the speech. In some cases that can leave a speaker feeling a little beaten up. (If you get a big list of things you "need to fix", it can leave you wondering whether or not you did anything right!).
Know your speaking style
Joy Gaylord from Southern California suggests that one reason you (or any speaker) may receive many different suggestions is that Toastmasters tend to think along the lines of "If I were giving that speech, this is how I would change it." They are actually trying to make the speech fit their own particular speaking style. You need to be aware of this phenonemon and take from the comments what you think will help YOU improve the speech for YOUR speaking style.
Do a mock Evaluation contest
Regina Litman's idea is to conduct these evaluations like those in an evaluation contest - to send all of the evaluators out of the room at the beginning and bring them in one-by-one, so that those who are evaluating don't hear what has been said before them.
Use the Evaluation judging forms
James R. Watson from District 61 says that an approach that he's tried is to use the categories of the contest judging forms as the structure. For example, if you have three evaluators, have them address content, delivery, and language using the back of the judging form as their guide. This has the advantage that it provides feedback on the specific criteria that will be rated at the contest.
Jim Key also advises that you request that your introducer give the audience special instructions that you would like (such as "our speaker wants to receive a broad spectrum of thoughts on how the speech impacts us").
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Resources
Check the January 2005 issue of The Toastmaster Magazine for the article "Evaluating the Championship-Level Speaker" and "Want to Win an Evaluation Contest?" or some useful tips about how to evaluate a contest speaker and win an evaluation contest. |
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What are your strategies when preparing and practising contest speeches?
How do you prepare and organise your group and individual evaluations?
Email webmaster@toastmasters.org.nz with your comments and suggestions for posting on this page. |
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