By Michael Angelo O. Chua, ATM-S
1997 District 75 Speech To Evaluate Champion

1. Caress the speaker. More often than not, the first few moments of your evaluation will be very tense for the person being evaluated.

1.1 Smile and greet the speaker with enthusiasm.

1.2 If there is a way to lighten up the mood, do so. Beginning an evaluation with a relevant song or a joke, for example, would help both of you and the audience to relax and be more receptive to the rest of your evaluation.

1.3 Always find something positive done by the speaker to comment on, and make it clear to the speaker that he/she should continue to use those strengths in FUTURE speeches.

2. Add value to the speaker’s skills.

2.1 Pick out 2-3 of the most important areas that you feel could have been done better, and suggest concrete examples on how you, as part of the audience, would have wanted to see/hear it delivered.

2.2 Always remember that your suggestions and comments are entirely your own, and that you are not the GREATEST evaluator in town. Therefore, express your evaluations using "I think … I believe …, I felt it would have been better said …, etc."

2.3 Whenever appropriate, smile.

3. Reinforce the competence and build the confidence.

3.1 No matter how good your suggestions are, if the speaker feels even a little slighted, he/she is not going to come back to future meetings and speaking opportunities. Always have a general positive statement on the how the speech has helped / entertained / educated you, one way or the other.

3.2 Express how interested you are to hear more of his future speeches as he continues his quest for competence to build his confidence.

4.  Exhort the speaker to continue bringing out the magic.

4.1 Wind up the evaluation with a light congratulatory remark. You may want to, again, end with a line from a relevant song or a poem.

4.2 At the very least, you can congratulate him for having taken the opportunity and put in the efforts to prepare and deliver the speech --and that it is the first step to a magical transformation of himself!