Public speaking is hard. Whether you're taking speaking lessons, making a toast to a friend, or delivering another type of speech, learning how to offer constructive feedback can help put the speaker's mind at ease and ease the situation. Learn to listen actively and take note of the most important parts of the speech, then focus on, in your opinion, critical points that affect the general structure on which the speaker's speech is articulated.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Listen actively
Step 1. Give the speaker your attention
You can't offer someone feedback on a speech if you haven't heard it. Whether you are considering a talk to give in class or helping someone else prepare for a public lecture, sit quietly and listen to the reasoning as it presents itself. Dedicate yourself to listening carefully to the speaker.
- Turn off all electronic devices and put away any distractions. Watch the speaker as he is given the floor. You shouldn't have anything on your hands but a notepad for taking notes.
- You should never evaluate a speech based on the text alone. In other words, it's not enough to just read the speech and offer feedback. Let the speaker present the speech. If it was meant to be spoken, it must be heard to be properly evaluated.
Step 2. Identify the main idea of the speech
The first thing that should be extrapolated from any speech is the main idea you are trying to communicate. If you listen to a persuasive speech, especially, the best place to start is to highlight the main thesis or idea that the speaker is trying to demonstrate through the speech. It is the speaker's job to make the main idea clear, so you should recognize the main theme relatively quickly.
- If you can't find the main idea of the speech, try to guess what you think the speaker is trying to demonstrate. Write it down. When you evaluate the speech later, it will be useful feedback.
- In some speeches, such as a toast, a tribute, or a thank you, the main idea may be obvious, but pretend you don't understand. Is the speaker communicating the idea clearly? Or is it the opportunity to influence? Could the rapporteur do more to clarify the core of the speech?
Step 3. Try to follow the speaker's argument
The main point of the speech is comparable to the table top: just as the table top would have no use if it were not supported by the legs, so the main point of a speech would be useless if it were not supported by examples, points of support, theses, logical criteria and any research to support the main idea. How does the speaker demonstrate the credibility of the main point to the audience?
- If you listen to persuasive speech, try to find matches, questions, and objections that you could use for feedback later. What was confusing? Are there any points of support that could be clarified better? Did you find holes in the discussion?
- If you're listening to an informal speech, like a toast or congratulatory speech, focus on organizing the information you're receiving. Does this make sense? Does it follow a logical thread? Does he jump from one thing to another?
Step 4. Be willing to be persuaded
Going to a conference with a closed mind is not a useful way to evaluate it. Even if you intend to hear someone give a talk at the Flat Earth Society, do what you can to go with an objective spirit, willing to listen to the content and presentation of anyone's speech. If and when you disagree, you can express your thoughts, but don't let preconceptions be the basis of your criticisms.
Step 5. Take notes
Identify the key points and theses that the speaker is trying to present and keep a record of them in a list. You don't have to get out of the conversation following a formal outline, but keeping a short list of notes is important for useful topics for your feedback. Take brief notes and your evaluation will be much easier.
Write down quotes or particularly memorable moments from speech to compliments. Take note of any time the speaker receives a good response from the audience, or a negative one
Part 2 of 3: Evaluating Specific Details
Step 1. Evaluate the content of the speech
The most important part of the speech is not the oratory style or the charisma of the speaker, but its content. Giving a speech is difficult because it has all the challenges of a written essay, with the added difficulty of having to make it easier to listen to. The most important thing to focus on your evaluation is the content. If it's persuasive or critical, the content will likely include a lot of research, real-world examples, and main points. In an informal speech, the content will likely be about anecdotes, stories, and jokes. When evaluating, keep the following questions in mind and answer as if you were giving feedback:
- What was the main topic of the speech?
- Was the content clear and well articulated?
- Was the thesis supported by research? Good examples?
- Was the content clearly exposed to the public?
- Did the speaker demonstrate the main point of the speech?
Step 2. Evaluate the organization of the speech
In order for the content of a speech to be clear and easy to assimilate, it must be organized well. Whether it is formal or informal, a speech given in public must be easy to hear. If you jump from topic to topic, it means it needs to be rearranged. To help you evaluate the organization of the speech, consider the following questions in order to produce feedback for the speaker:
- Have the arguments been structured logically?
- Was the speech easy to follow? Hard? Because?
- Did the rapporteur move rationally from one point to another?
- In your opinion, what could be added to make the discussion clearer?
Step 3. Evaluate the style of speech
If the content of the speech refers to what is being expounded, the style refers to how it is expounded. Good speech should match style with content: a serious document on dolphin populations is unlikely to involve games or audience involvement to "get to know each other." Whether the speaker chooses to make jokes or not, his commitment to the audience, also through the use of personal elements that enrich the speech, is all played out in style. The way a speech is written influences the style, but also the way it is delivered. Are the jokes made like the jokes are made? Is the research presented precisely and clearly? Keep in mind the following questions:
- How would you describe the style of the speech and the speaker?
- Was the style of the speech suited to the content, or not? Because?
- How convincing was the speaker?
- How was the timing of the speech? Was it easy to follow?
Step 4. Evaluate the tone of the speech
The tone of the speech refers to the overall effect of the content and style. A tone can be light, serious or playful, and there is no right or wrong tone for any content. It might be appropriate to tell light stories and jokes during a eulogy, or maybe it could be disastrous. It may be appropriate to tell a moving story about your boss upon retirement, but perhaps it is better not to have a drunken roast at the table. The tone must be suitable for the speech and the occasion.
- Who is the audience of the speech? What are their expectations of the speech and the speaker?
- How would you describe the tone of the speech?
- Does it match the content? Like?
- If not, how could it improve the tone?
- To what extent does the tone match the audience in this speech?
Part 3 of 3: Giving Constructive Feedback
Step 1. Write down your feedback
Whatever the occasion and the reason you are giving feedback, for school or for an informal event, it is best to write down critiques, praise and comments, so that the speaker has some written testimony of your feedback. If you have any suggestions, it will be too easy for the speaker to forget them, especially right after the talk. It is best to write a short note, no more than 250 or 300 words, to accompany your assessment of the speech.
Some speaking courses may require you to fill in a rubric or score a speech. Follow the specific instructions on this and assign a suitable score
Step 2. Summarize the speech as you understand it
Beginning the feedback by summarizing what you grasped from the speech is the most useful way to let the speaker know if what they were trying to say was communicated accurately. Don't worry if your summary isn't perfectly accurate. If you were listening intently, doing your best to follow him, any shortcomings on your part should be helpful to the speaker. It's something he needs to be clearer when he speaks.
- Try starting your speech with expressions similar to the following: "What I heard is …" or "What I received from this speech was …".
- A good summary should contain several sentences from the evaluation, making up perhaps slightly less than half of the feedback. Identify the main idea and the main points of support of the discourse. The summary must focus only on the content.
Step 3. Focus your feedback primarily on the content of the speech
Not everyone can or should be Martin Luther King Jr. Focusing your comments primarily on the speaker's speaking skills isn't usually that helpful, especially if it's a classroom talk, wedding, or business presentation.
If the speaker is mostly a serious person, focus on how the content might best match the style and how to change the tone to match it too. These are variable elements. Telling the speaker that he needs to be "more dynamic" or "fun" is not good feedback
Step 4. Always find something to praise
Even if you've just watched your best friend stumble into the worst best man's speech of all time, it's important to find something good to say. Start your feedback with some praise and then rate it with goodwill. Make any feedback a constructive, non-destructive criticism. Beginning by telling the interlocutor how nervous he seemed during the speech or how flat what he said was only makes the situation worse.
- If you think the speech was boring, instead study something to say like: "It was subdued, which, in my opinion, is fine for the occasion.".
- If the speaker seemed nervous, try to reassure him by paying him some compliments: "You seemed sure of yourself up there. The topic really speaks for itself."
Step 5. Focus your comments on the speech review
Target all feedback on specific changes that would improve the speech, not pinpointing what's wrong or what doesn't seem right for you. This will offer the speaker something constructive so that he can commit to improving the speech, rather than demolishing it.
Don't say "I don't like the jokes you used", rather use constructive criticisms such as "In my opinion, if you remove the jokes next time, the speech will be more fluent"
Step 6. Try to focus on three key points to improve
Overloading someone with fifty different things to solve risks making the job nearly impossible. In evaluating a speech it is important to focus on three main points for improvement and to worry less about secondary things.
- Focus first on content adjustments, speech organization, and tone. These points constitute the most important categories to be improved and the most appropriate criterion for rapidly refining the speech. Think of them as the most important elements in the overall structure of speech.
- Worry about the details of the oratory later. Whether or not the timing of the lines at the end of the speech works, this is one of the last things a speaker should worry about. If the speech is already very good, feel free to put these factors in second order.
Advice
- Always start and end your evaluation with an honors.
- Refer to the notes only if you are giving a formal or written assessment.
