“Effective Public Speaking through Effective Feedback” is a good example of aliteration. Aliteration adds interest and impact to your speech making it more meaningful and memorable to your audience.
If you used a phrase like this in your speech your evaluator might commend you for using it. This praise will not only make you feel good but you will try to work similar phrases into your next speech.
If you were in the audience listening to both the speech and the evaluation, you would become aware of this useful tool and use it in your speeches.
There are 3 people in this scenario – the speaker, the evaluator and the audience member. Let’s look a bit more closely at at how each one benefits from effective evaluation.
The Speaker
Every time you deliver a speech or take on a role at Linlithgow Speakers you will be given feedback – written, oral or both. This is one of the important ways you can develop your effective public speaking skills. The evaluations are always supportive – they tell you what you did well and what could be improved.
Feedback can cover many aspects of the speech – speech structure, vocal variety, gestures, language, humour, general interest, development – the list can go on. You will find that you perform well in many areas but just need to work on tweaking some areas.
It is up to you whether or not to act on the feedback you receive – the evaluation is just an opinion. But since Linlithgow Speakers is a non-judgemental and safe environment, it is the ideal place to try things out and see if they worked.
The Evaluator
You will be given an opportunity to evaluate other members’ speeches and roles. This can be quite a duanting task, especially for a new-comer. Do not be put off, evaluation is a great way for you to develop as well!
When you are the evaluator, you get a chance to use your listening and analytical skills. You have to put what you observed into a positive mini-speech. When pointing out a positive aspect of the speech, such as aliteration, you need to go further than “that was good” – why was it good? When pointing out something that could have been better, think about why it let the speech down and give an example of how to do it better.
Your evaluations are evaluated to help you improve. You can always have a chat to an experienced member for more feedback.
The Audience
We learn so much from each other at Linlithgow Speakers. Every time you hear someone speaking you think about what they are doing well and what they could do better. In turn, this gives you pointers for your own speeches. The evaluator will point things out that you had not thought of and make you aware of the tools you can use in your speeches, such as aliteration.
Having regular Toastmaster meetings means that everything is reinforced over a long period of time. You might not pick up or act on something the first time you are aware of it but you will when you hear or see it repeated.
All of your speaking and evaluation skills can be used in the real world. It can be especially relevant for job appraisals and situations where you have to give feedback to work colleagues, your employer, customers or other stakeholders.
You should have a good idea of how now of the benefits of good evaluation. If you check out our page on what a club meeting looks like, you will see where evaluation fits in.
As well as speech evaluators, we evaluate language, ums and ers, timing and impromptu speaking. To top it off, we have someone to evaluate the evaluators.
Effective evaluation is your gateway to more than just effective public speaking. Why not join us at a meeting?