Evaluator

An Evaluator is one of the most important roles at any meeting. For you, it is an excellent way to hone your listening skills and speaking abilities with minimal preparation time. For the speaker you evaluate, your feedback is what the speaker needs to identify their weaknesses and to further develop their strengths.

Getting started

• Contact your speaker a few days in advance or agree to arrive about 15 minutes early for the meeting to discuss the project objectives and any personal goals for the speech. Download the PDF with the evaluation resource for the project your speaker is working on.
• Ask the speaker the speech premise or angle if there is one. Ask if you need to introduce the speaker in any particular way or set a scene for the audience, e.g. if they are at a wedding, a press conference or in a departmental seminar.
• Also ensure you know how to pronounce the full name of the speaker. If you are not sure just ask them.
• Finally, ask what equipment they need set up. You would get or remove the lectern or set up the projector when you introduce the speaker.
• Before the meeting begins, familiarise yourself with the specific project objectives. This is what you should evaluate! If your speaker is giving a speech for the project “Researching and Presenting”, then you should give an evaluation on the speech organisation, transitions between points and the quality of the research and sources, NOT gestures, vocal variety or anything else. You may still complete the ratings for gestures, vocal variety, … on page 2 of the evaluation form, but please focus on the project objectives and the speaker’s personal goals in your oral evaluation and the comments on page 1.
  Hint: just prepare a table like this:

  Objective	Commendations	Recommendations
  Organise the speech clearly to maximise audience understanding	Three main points in chronological order	A problem-solution structure may have worked better for this speech
  Craft clear and engaging transitions between main sections of your speech	Very effective pausing and signposting!	–
  Use and cite sources to support speech content, make source list available	The historical newspaper articles gave impressive evidence of  what happened and the impact of events	The quoted blog sounds like a website that propagates conspiracy beliefs – a scientific article from a reputable journal would be more credible.
  Personal goal: avoid hand clasping	The speaker quickly appeared very confident and used natural gestures!	Only during the first minute or so there was still a bit of hand clasping.

  This will help you to deliver a brilliantly focused evaluation that evaluates exactly what your speaker has prepared for!

The introduction

• Build up expectation and enthusiasm for the speaker. Be upbeat, positive and friendly.
• Explain the objectives of the speech.
• You don’t have to announce the speech timings as the timer already has these available.
• An effective technique to welcome up the speaker is to conclude with the pattern speaker’s name – speech title – speech title – speaker’s name (and you lead the clapping)
• Don’t say “without further ado” 🙂

During the speech

• It is important that you listen to and watch the speaker carefully throughout the entire speech but you also need make note of any points you want comment on in your evaluation. Multitasking!
• No speaker is perfect: always (!) include both commendations and recommendations. There may not have been any obvious mistakes, but there surely is something that could have been done even better!
• If you have time before you deliver your oral evaluation, fill out the 1st page (and perhaps also the ratings on the 2nd page) of the evaluation resource. The written evaluation is normally more comprehensive than the oral report: you don’t have to mention everything in your feedback speech.

The evaluation

• Follow the CRC structure. Pick the 3 most important commendations and recommendations each, as you won’t have time for more. A classical evaluation would have 2 C’s, 3 R’s, 1 C’s and a brief summary.
• Speak to the entire audience. Don’t use the 2nd person (you), but 1st and 3rd person (I liked how s/he…, we can all learn from him/her how to…). A useful technique is to imagine the person you are evaluating has left the room.
• Don’t paraphrase the speech. Say how effective it was and why / why not by commenting how well the speaker met the project objectives or their personal goals.
• To make your feedback constructive, clearly state what you didn’t like, give an example or quotation, and share your opinion on what would work better next time.
• Don’t use softeners like “Maybe she might think about…”, “Perhaps he would like to consider…”. Be assertive and confident, e.g. “I think his next speech will benefit if he…”, “Many of us have a habit of … but my view is that…”
• Be honest about your opinion on the speech. Nobody learns from whitewash.
• To conclude your speech, end on a positive, upbeat conclusion, present a take-home message or your personal highlight of the speech.

Give the evaluation resource to the speaker at the conclusion of the meeting and congratulate them on their efforts, or send them your completed PDF shortly after the meeting.

The role of Evaluator is challenging and very busy. The speaker you evaluated will remember your comments and learn from them. Be critical, but positive and encouraging!

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