Advantages of receiving multiple speech evaluations in Advanced Toastmasters Clubs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Advanced Toastmasters club provides a speaker with more challenging speech evaluations than a regular club. As shown above, the Advanced evaluations often include a round-robin that provides multiple viewpoints. There also may be two or four evaluations, with each evaluator told ahead of time to focus his attention on a specific area or areas. An article by Bill Brown in Toastmaster Magazine on August 2018 titled Are You Ready for an Advanced Club? discusses some other formats for evaluations.

 

Treasure Valley Advanced Toastmasters Club was chartered in June 2012. From August in 2019 to March of 2022 I was a club member. It met once a month on the evening of the third Monday. I served as their last Sergeant at Arms for their meetings from July 2021 to March 2022, when they disbanded.

 

 

SPEECH EVALUATION AT A REGULAR CLUB

 

The standard oral evaluation for a speech at a Toastmasters club takes two to three minutes. It is based on a form from the Pathways educational program, similar to this one for the Ice Breaker. There are three general comments: You excelled at, You may want to work on, and To challenge yourself. There also usually are seven (or more) specific items to be evaluated in writing on a scale from 1 to 5:

 

Clarity: Spoken language is clear and easily understood

Vocal Variety: Uses tone, speed, and volume as tools

Eye Contact: Effectively uses eye contact to engage audience

Gestures: Uses physical gestures effectively

Audience Awareness: Demonstrates awareness of audience engagement and needs

Comfort Level: Appears comfortable with the audience

Interest: Engages audience with interesting, well-constructed content

 

Some of those seven items typically wind up in the oral evaluation. They are all the audience learns about.  Of course, the speaker could email the evaluator and tell him which other items he could concentrate on. And if he has a mentor, then he also could ask his mentor to evaluate the speech using a second copy of that Pathways form. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Members of the audience also have a Ballots and Brief Evaluations form (Item 163) with perforated slips for casting their votes for Best Speaker, etc. As shown above, that form also has a little 1-1/ 4’ by 4 1/ 4” slip for giving brief comments to a speaker. A speaker might get six to ten of them.

 

 

SPEECH EVALUATION AT AN ADVANCED CLUB

 

 

Advanced Toastmasters clubs provide a more detailed evaluation. As previously mentioned, there may be a normal evaluation followed by a round-robin evaluation. But there also may be two or four detailed and focused evaluations (followed by a round-robin).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The National Communication Association (NCA) has a 2007 document titled The Competent Speaker Speech Evaluation Form which can be used as the basis for conducting those detailed evaluations. As shown above, it includes eight competencies (topics). (There also is a holistic form, which I will describe later).  

 

 

 

 

 

Two Detailed Evaluations – like a Tag Team

 

One possible division is a pair of evaluations, like tag-team wrestling. A web page from The Northern Stars Advanced Club describes some possibilities:

 

Two evaluators per speech

Two evaluators per speech, one focusing on content and one on delivery

Two evaluators per speech, one focusing on visual and one on auditory

One evaluator and group verbal comments

One evaluator and group written comments

One evaluator, and an evaluator for that evaluator

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For dividing the evaluations into two, one focused on content and one on delivery, we could start with the NCA Holistic Evaluation Form, as is shown above.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four Detailed Evaluations – like a Relay Race Team

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another possibility is four evaluations. One is the Manual evaluation, like at a regular club. The other three can be called visual, auditory (audio or verbal), and content. An article at District 32 on November 4, 2020 titled Give Yourself the Gift of an Advanced or Specialty Club about the Professionally Speaking club described four divisions. Another article by Judy Young at District 32 on October 30, 2021 titled Ready for an Advanced Club? discussed those four divisions being used a decade ago at PhD Speakers (now Beyond Excellence).  

 

Treasure Valley Advanced Club did four evaluations followed by a round-robin. They had used the following detailed description for how to conduct those four evaluations:

 

Verbal Evaluation: Imagine you were listening to this person’s speech on the radio. Focus on the auditory presentation of the speech. This may include things such as: Use of voice as a tool: pitch and range, vocal variety, pacing, voice modulation, etc. Language: verbal crutches, descriptive language, rhetorical devices, grammatical correctness, pronunciation, etc.

 

Visual Evaluation: Imagine watching the speaker while the volume was on mute. Focus on the physical presentation of the speech. This may include such things as: Stage presence, use of available space, eye contact, use of props, descriptive body language and gestures, purposeful movement, etc. Since you actually will be able to hear the speech, note if the visual message complements (rather than contradicts) the verbal message.

 

Content Evaluation: Imagine you were reading the script on paper (if there is one), or the outline, mind map or other structure. Focus on the material used in the speech. This may include such things as organization of information, opening, body and close, segues between portions of speech, use of anecdotal and supporting material, humor, citing source, etc. Was the material adequately edited for the allotted speech time?

 

Manual Evaluation:  Comments should focus on the objectives set forth in the manual or project description. 

 

The tag team wrestling graphic was assembled from images of Theobaud Bauer and Edwin Bibby, and the relay race adapted from this image of a vase, all at Wikimedia Commons.