Speech Evaluation Tips
1. Be familiar with the speech criteria
2. Talk to the speaker beforehand, they may want you to look at a specific area of their speech
3. Use CRC – commend – recommend – commend. Keep it tight and punchy, time is limited – keep to it.
4. Always leave the best commendation until last, the evaluation then ends on a high note rather than just saying “well done”.
5. Limit yourself to 3 commends, 3 recommends and three commends. You may have a lot more but these can be shared with the speaker afterwards.
6. Every speaker deserves recommendations, if you can’t identify them then you need to listen harder, remember that a recommendation can be “hey you did really well with ….. Can I suggest that you try ……. as this could enhance the speech even further”. No speech can ever be absolutely perfect. “No recommendation” is no help whatsoever to the speaker.
7. Talk to the whole audience, we can and should all learn from your evaluation.
8. Note where your speaker is sitting BEFORE you start your evaluation, your credibility will be very severely reduced if you start off saying “this is an evaluation for Fred …. Where are you Fred?… erm … ah yes there you are! … erm well here we go then” you will have distracted the audience whilst they all look around for Fred.
9. Your evaluation is primarily about how the speech was delivered rather than what was said, we all heard the speech as well, what we and the speaker want to know is what they did well, your suggestions as to what they might have done better. Don’t give a précis of the speech – we have already heard it!
10. Try using the following format for your notes, it will simplify your presentation rather than shuffling loads of sheets of paper, this will fit on one sheet:-
Commendations Recommendations Commendations
Reduce the number to
three in each column
after the end of the
speech even though
you may have a lot
more than that
Use bullet points or
very brief notation to
remind you of what
you want to say
Write it big and clearly
- it saves you squinting
at the paper