How to Evaluate Speech: 15 Steps (with Pictures)

2024 Author: Jason Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 10:50

Public speaking is very difficult. Whether you're taking a speech class, offering feedback to a friend asking for a toast, or any other type of speech, learning how to give constructive feedback can help the speaker feel calm and make the event run smoothly. Learn to listen actively and take note of the most important parts of speech, then focus on your critique with the highest concern for the speaker.

Step

Part 1 of 3: Active Listening

Step 1. Give the speaker your full attention

You can't give feedback on someone's speech unless you listen. Sit quietly and listen to a speech being delivered, whether evaluating a speech in class, or helping someone prepare for a public speaking event.

Turn off all electronic devices and remove any distractions. Look at the speaker when the speech is given. You shouldn't hold anything except maybe a notebook for taking notes.
Never evaluate a speech based solely on the text. In other words, don't read the speech and then give feedback. Ask the speaker to deliver his speech. If something is designed to be delivered, it must be heard so that it can be properly evaluated.

Step 2. Know the main idea of the speech

The first thing you want to take away from your speech is the main idea it is trying to convey. Especially if you're listening to a persuasive speech, it's best to start with the thesis or main idea that the speaker is trying to prove with his speech. It's the speaker's job to clarify the main idea so you should be able to figure out the main points relatively quickly.

If you can't find the main idea of the speech, try and guess what you think the speaker is trying to prove. Write it down. When you later evaluate the speech, the ambiguity will be useful feedback.
For some speeches, such as a toast, salute, or thank you, the idea may be clear, but pretend not to know. Can the speaker convey his ideas clearly? Or did the show itself make the idea clearer? Can the speaker do more to make the point of his speech clear?

Step 3. Try to follow the speaker's supporting arguments

The main point of speech is like the plane of the table: it is useless unless it is supported by the legs of the table. So, the main idea of the speech is supported by supporting points, arguments, logic and research. How does the speaker prove to the audience that his main point is correct?

If you're listening to a persuasive speech, try to think of responses, questions, and rebuttals that you might use for later feedback. What's confusing? Are there any supporting points that could be made clearer? Did you find any gaps in his argument?
If you're listening to an informal speech, such as a toast or congratulatory speech, focus on organizing the information you're getting. Does it make sense? Can it be followed? Does it seem to be jumping around?

Step 4. Be open to reassurance

Evaluating speech with a closed mind is a bad way. Even if you're going to hear someone give a speech in the Flat Earth Community, do your best to listen with an objective mind, willing to listen to the content and presentation of anyone's speech. If you don't agree, what you don't agree with is the content of the speech. In that situation you should not let your prejudices give you the critique.

Step 5. Take notes

Identify the key points and arguments the speaker is trying to convey and record them on a list. You don't need to create a formal outline, but it's important to write short notes that will provide material for later feedback. Take notes carefully and your evaluation will be easier.

Write down the most memorable words or moments from the speech to praise. Write down each time the speaker gets a favorable reaction or negative response from the audience

Part 2 of 3: Evaluating Specific Details

Step 1. Evaluate the content of the speech

The most important part of a speech is not the speaking style or charisma of the speaker, but the content being conveyed. Giving a speech is difficult because it has all the challenges of writing an essay, but with the added difficulty of making it easy to hear out loud. The most important focus in your evaluation is the content of the speech. If the speech is a persuasive speech, or an argument speech, the content tends to include a lot of research, real-world examples, and key points. In informal speech, the content tends to involve anecdotes, stories, and jokes. As you evaluate, keep the following questions in mind and answer them as a way to provide feedback:

What is the main argument of the speech?
Is the content clear and well articulated?
Is the argument supported by research? Good example?
Is the content clear to the audience?
Did the speaker prove his point?

Step 2. Evaluate the speech setting

In an effort to clarify the content and make it easy to digest, the speech must be well organized. Formal or informal, public speaking should be easy to listen to. If speech skips or jumps from point to point like a game of tennis, the speech may need to be rearranged. To help you evaluate your speech arrangement, keep the following questions in mind so you can generate feedback for the speaker:

Are the supporting arguments logically structured?
Is the speech easy to follow? Difficult? Why?
Do the speaker's points flow logically from one point to the next?
What could be included to make the speech clearer for you?

Step 3. Evaluate speech style

While the content of a speech refers to what is said, the style of speech refers to the way it is delivered. A good speech must match the style of its content: it's unlikely that a serious paper on dolphin populations will involve "know your audience" games or audience participation. Style is influenced by how much the speaker engages with the audience, whether the speaker chooses to use jokes or not, and other personal elements in his speech. The way a speech is written will affect the style, as well as the way it is delivered. Are jokes told like real jokes? Is the research presented accurately and clearly? Keep the following questions in mind:

How would you describe the style of speech and the speaker?
Does the style of speech support the content, or does it contradict? Why?
How convincing is the speaker?
How is the speech arranged? Is it easy to follow?

Step 4. Evaluate the tone of the speech

Speech tone refers to the overall impact of content and style. The tone of speech may be light, or serious, or relaxed, and there is no right or wrong tone for any content. Telling light stories and jokes in speech may be appropriate, or it may be disastrous. Telling a touching story about your boss at retirement may be appropriate, but it may not be appropriate if it's embarrassing. The tone should match the speech itself and the event.

Who is the audience for the speech? What are their expectations of the speech and the speaker?
How would you describe the tone of the speech?
Does the tone of the speech match the content? How?
If not, how can the tone be improved?
How well does the tone match the audience for the speech?

Part 3 of 3: Giving Constructive Feedback

Step 1. Write your feedback

Whatever the occasion and the reason you are giving feedback, for school or informally, we recommend that you write down criticisms, compliments, and comments so that the speaker will have a document of your feedback. If you give some suggestions, the speaker will forget them easily, especially if given immediately after the speech. It's a good idea to write a short note, no more than 250 or 300 words, to accompany the speech evaluation.

For some speech classes, you may have to fill out a rubric or rate the speech. Follow class-specific instructions on this and assign grades accordingly

Step 2. Summarize the speech according to your understanding

Starting the feedback with a summary of what you have learned from the speech is the most helpful way to let the speaker know whether what they are trying to convey has been communicated accurately or not. Don't worry about whether your summary is accurate or not. If you listen carefully and really try to follow through, failure on your part should be instructive to the speaker. The failure was something that should have been made more clear in the speech.

Try starting your response with something like, "What I heard you say is…" or "What I got out of this speech was…"
A good summary should consist of a few sentences in the evaluation, perhaps less than half of the feedback. Identify the main ideas and main supporting points of the speech. The summary should focus on the content only.

Step 3. Focus your feedback primarily on the content of the speech

Not everyone can or should sound like Martin Luther King Jr. Focusing the feedback primarily on the speaker's oratory skills usually won't help much, especially if we're talking about a class speech, a wedding speech, or some kind of business presentation.

If the speaker is generally boring, focus on how the content of the speech can better suit the style of delivery and how the tone can be changed to suit it. This can all be changed. Telling the speaker to be "more dynamic" or "funny" is not great feedback

Step 4. Find something to compliment

Even if you just watched your best friend struggle to give the worst groomsmen speech of all time, you still have to find something good to say. Begin your feedback with a few compliments and give your evaluation in good faith. Take all feedback as constructive criticism, not destructive. Starting out by saying that he looks really nervous when he's giving a speech, or how flat his speech is will only exacerbate the element.

If you find the speech boring, it's a good idea to learn to say something like, "That speech was quiet, which I think is perfect for the occasion."
If the speaker seems nervous, try reassuring him with a few compliments, "You looked confident up there. Your speech says it all for itself."

Step 5. Focus the feedback on the revision of the speech

Use any feedback as material for making specific changes that will improve the speech, not for identifying what went wrong with the speech, or what you didn't seem to be able to understand. This will give the speaker something constructive and he will try to fix it, rather than tear it up.

Don't say, "I don't like your jokes." Say, "Next time, I think you can forget the jokes and your speech will flow faster."

Step 6. Try to focus on no more than three main areas of improvement

Burdening someone with fifty different things to fix and work on can make the task seem hopeless. As an evaluator, it's important that you focus on the three main areas of improvement and not worry too much about the secondary.

Focus on correcting content, speech setting, and tone first before you focus on anything else. These are the most important repair categories, and are the best ways to quickly improve speech. Think of all of these as the highest order of attention.
Think about delivery specifics next time. The timing of the joke at the end of the speech should be the last thing the speaker is worried about. If the speech is already very good, please continue on this secondary issue.