Duties of a Speech Evaluator

Introduction

At Toastmasters, every speech is evaluated. After you have presented a few speeches, you will be asked to serve as an evaluator and will evaluate one of the prepared speakers for the meeting. In addition to your oral evaluation, you will also give the speaker a written evaluation from the manual. Your evaluation can make the difference between a worthwhile or a wasted meeting for your speaker.

The purpose of the evaluation is to help the speaker become less self-conscious. This requires that you become fully aware of the speaker's skill level, habits and mannerisms, as well as his or her progress to date. If there is a technique the speaker uses or some gesture made that receives a good response from the audience, tell the speaker so he or she will be encouraged to use it again.

Before the Meeting

Review carefully the Effective Speech Evaluation manual which you received in your new member kit from World Headquarters.
Talk with the speaker to find out the manual project he/she will be presenting. The interview should include the goals of the speech and what the speaker hopes to achieve. Find out exactly which skills or techniques the speaker hopes to strengthen through the exercise.
Evaluation requires exacting preparation if it is to be of value to the speaker. Study the objectives of the project as well as the evaluation guide in the manual. Remember, the purpose of the evaluation is to help people develop their speaking skills in various situations, including platform presentations, discussions and meetings. Achievement equals the sum of ability and motivation. By actively listening and gently offering useful advice, you motivate members to work hard and improve. When you show the way to improvement, you've opened the door to strengthening their ability.

Upon Arrival at the Meeting

Look for the speaker and get his/her manual.
Meet briefly with the general evaluator to confirm the evaluation session format.
Then confer with the speaker one last time to see if he/she has any specific things for you to watch for during the talk.

During the Meeting

When called upon by the Toastmaster to give the speaker's objectives, briefly explain the purpose of evaluating speeches, then read the objectives from the speaker's manual. Conclude with the speaking time range.
During the speech, record your impressions of the speech in the manual along with your answers to the evaluation questions. Be as objective as possible. Remember that good evaluations may give new life to encouraged members and poor evaluations may dishearten members who tried their best.
Present your verbal evaluation when called upon by the General Evaluator. Be sure to report several effective things the speaker did, and couch any criticism as helpful suggestions the speaker may try next time.
Remember to always leave the speaker with specific methods for improving his or her speaking and encouragement to speak again soon.

After the Meeting

Meet with the speaker to return his/her manual, in which you have provided the written evaluation.
Discuss your evaluation with the speaker and answer any questions the speaker may have.

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